Manila, Philippines: Day 9 Part 2

The seminar was only a half hour or so and we had time to do it that afternoon so we went and got lunch and decided to wait and get it done. We were approached by what is know as a 'fixer' that is someone who can alter documents and speed up the process so you can marry right away and not have the 10 day waiting period. Sounded good until they said they wanted php$18,000 to do that! No way! the seminar was a movie and some discussion I didn't understand as it was voiced it Tagalog. Afterwards we questioned a pastor about preforming the ceremony for us and he said for php$10,000 he could do it right away and we could avoid the 10 day waiting period.

Ivy's Mom followed her Chinese traditions and got us a wedding date of February 18Th as the best day for us to marry. So to honor her wishes we set that as our date. The time factor was because I arrived on a 21 day visa. My flight was scheduled to leave on the 11Th and my 21 days were up on the 16. The 18Th was past both of those so we were thinking if we could get a closer date and speed things up I could still not overstay my visa and have to reschedule my flight. But after some discussion we decided that if we did things other than the right way it would look like an arranged marriage and may affect her getting a visa so we said "NO" to the fixers and did it the way it was supposed to be done. WHEW!!!!! What a busy day!