This paper discusses the dynamic of adat, church, and state in a legal pluralism framework. The paper will discuss these dynamics inside the marriage process of the Dayak Punans in Malinau, and how they conform to differing rules of marriage that they need to follow in order to have their marriage recognized. The paper takes data mainly from two villages, Long Nyau representing the Tubu river and Long Jalan representing the Malinau River of Punans. The dynamics will be explained through the combination of, descriptive socio-historical changes, ethnographic recounts of marriages in the Punan villages,as well as an in-depth interview. The paper shows that the dynamics of the three institutions are stuck in a tug of war with each other trying to exert their influence over another amongst the Punans and have created problems down the line. Thus I argued for an ease of civil registry for marriage to dampen the impact of plurality in marriage.