Don't change your nameFollow

Well, I got married last weekend, and my husband and I finally got around to getting new drivers' licenses today. We're changing both our names to his mother's side of the family (his dad doesn't deserve his name being passed down to Krylanna Jr.) but we figured we could just hand them the marriage license and tell them what new name to put on there.

Ohhhhh no.

Since we weren't hyphenating or taking one of each other's names, we got to take a trip to the county courthouse. Fun! First stop was the District Clerk who told us where we had to go and in what order.

After getting our petition and court order forms from the law office and writing our names on them twenty times each, we headed downstairs to the notary ($6) to get the petitions signed.

Then it was off to another building to get fingerprinted ($20) and wait around for another 10 minutes or so.

Then we headed back to the clerk's office one last time to file the petition ($176). Court was no longer in session by this point, so we get to go back on Monday to go before the judge, who will decide if our reasoning is "good enough" to actually legally change our names. THEN we can pay for new identification.

What's really awesome about all this is that we have several hundred dollars in wedding gift checks written out to various combinations of my name and his name, Mr. and Mrs. his name, Mr. and Mrs. our new name, etc. and we can't cash most of them until this change is legal.

So, uh, if you're getting married soon and want to be "creative", take care of all this stuff beforehand, and make sure all your guests know who the hell you're going to be afterwards. Much less headache. At least we got out of work for four hours instead of the expected one and a half. :)

Sorry to disappoint ^^

We didn't have that opportunity in Texas, or we would have taken it. They ask for your names at the clerk's office and whip it up for you on a laser printer and slap on a gold seal, telling you not to use it for 72 hours or it won't be valid. Most other states at least do a background check, or a blood test or something.

I imagine that the background check is what they're doing during those 72 hours, but if you're getting it exactly 3 days before the wedding it must suck to have already had the ceremony and then get a call on the following business day telling you your new spouse turned out to be married in another state.

I would be willing to bet that they are simply requiring time to get the marriage licence filed into record with the county/state. Getting documents recorded takes a few days.

Does anyone do blood tests any more?