An official marriage might not be as sacred as a ceremony in the mosque, it might not be as magnificent as a wedding celebration, but it is actually the most important thing in the whole process. Without this, the marriage is not valid. Without this, there is no ceremony in the mosque. Without this, a wedding celebration doesn't make sense.

So we want not only a civil ceremony, but a beautiful one. In a beautiful place. With our closest relatives.

For this, we have to find a beautiful registry office, which is big enough and offer a wedding ceremony on Saturday so all of our relatives can attend. On top of that, it must be close enough to Kaiserslautern.

Several candidates were on our list, and finally we decided to get marry in Pirmasens.

There is no marriage without some documents. First thing to do, registration. The civil ceremony may take place in any Standesamt in Germany, but the registration has to be done in the city we are officially registered. In Kaiserslautern, we get the information of all documents we need. Surprise surprise, it's not as complicated as we expected. Some friends told us that we would need Familienbuch, Stammbuch, etc. Familienbuch might be OK, but as the Indonesian do not have family name, there is no such a thing like Stammbuch there (please correct us if we're wrong). It turned out that Mrs. Barge, the contact person in Kaiserslautern, knows about it right away. She's a very helpful and nice lady, and from her we have the official information.

If you happen to be also an indonesian-german couple and will get marry in Germany, this information might be useful for you.

Matthias needed:

• Familienbuch from his parents
• Personal ID
• Anmeldebescheinigung

and Dwi needed:

• Certificate of marital/civil status (Ledigkeitsbescheinigung, surat keterangan belum menikah) from Indonesia or from consulate
• Birth certificate, translated by sworn translator
• Personal ID
• Anmeldebescheinigung

For other binational couples, this site might be also of your interest.

Some people said it's easier to get surat keterangan belum menikah from kelurahan in Indonesia. But Dwi preferred to get it from consulate in Frankfurt. Why easy if it could be complicated? Well, the real reason is she just likes to do it herself. And for her, it's easier to do it in Germany, i.e., from consulate. To get this, of course there are some documents needed. The information is available here, but Dwi got other info as she called the consulate. So here is the list of documents she needed:

• A statement from her that she's not married (an example is available in the link above), signed by her and two witnesses
• Copy of personal ID (Passport), hers, Matthias', and the two witnesses'
• Statement under oath that she's not married, signed by a notary and legalized by the court (Landgericht)
• Photograph, hers and Matthias'
• Form for consular certificates, can be downloaded here
• Consular fee 15 €, transferred via bank, information about this is available here

The consulate issued the certificate of civil status in german, so no need to translate it. The birth certificate, however, has to be translated. A list of several sworn translator can be found here, but you can also ask Landgericht or Standesamt about this information. We did the later since all translators from the list are far away from Kaiserslautern and we get the address of Ibu Lili in Mehlingen. She's very nice, helpful, and fast! Thank you, Ibu Lili.

From all of the documents we need, Anmeldebscheinigung is the easiest one. We just went to citizen office in town hall, wait a few minutes, pay 5 €, and that's it. It is only valid for seven days though, so it makes sense to get it shortly before the registration.

It might be not as complicated as expected, but it still took some times to get all things done. The registry office needs also some times to check our documents. It has to be sent to Oberlandgericht, and then sent back to Kaiserslautern. Since we want to marry in Pirmasens, it then has to be sent to Pirmasens. Bottom line: the sooner the better.