Changing your Name
Changing your name after marriage is a common practice, and here are some important steps and considerations to guide you through the process:
1. Decide on Your New Name
Determine whether you will take your spouse’s last name, keep your own, hyphenate, or create a new last name altogether. Discuss this decision openly with your partner.
2. Get Your Marriage Certificate
After your wedding, obtain an official copy of your marriage certificate. This document is typically required for name change processes. Your Celebrant may include the marriage certificate in your package.
An FYI, marriage in both Australia and the USA (in most states) immediately revokes any prior will. When updating or creating a will ensure that it is legally binding, especially if you are in a same-sex marriage and made a will before same-sex marriage was legalised.
3. Inform Family and Friends
Spread the word about your name change to family and friends, and consider sending out a formal announcement if you wish.
4. Be Patient
The name change process can take time, especially if you have multiple accounts and documents to update. Be patient and keep track of where you’ve made changes.
By following these steps, you can navigate the name change process smoothly and ensure that all your important documents reflect your new name after marriage.
The importance of changing your name after marriage varies from couple to couple and is deeply personal. Here are some considerations that might influence your decision:
Cultural and Traditional Significance
In many cultures, changing one’s name after marriage is a traditional practice that symbolizes unity and a new family identity.
Personal Identity
Some individuals feel a strong connection to their family name and may want to keep it as part of their identity. Others may view adopting their spouse’s name as a way to embrace their new life together.
Professional Considerations
If you have an established professional identity associated with your name, you may choose to keep it to maintain consistency in your career.
Family Dynamics
If you plan to have children, some couples prefer to have the same last name for familial consistency, which can influence the decision to change names.
Emotional Connection
For some, changing a name can represent a fresh start and a commitment to their partner, while for others, it may feel less significant.
Ultimately, the decision to change your name after marriage should reflect your personal values, beliefs, and circumstances. Open communication with your partner is key to making a choice that feels right for both of you.
Candle Lighting
Two small candles are separated by one big candle. A family representative from each side can light a small candle, then you guys as the couple take both small candles and light the big one to symbolise two families coming together.
Most common to get the mother of each partner to light the little candles
Sand Ceremony
Similar to the candle lighting ceremony. Each partner collects a handful of sand and both place into a bowl together. The idea being that once combined, the sand can never be divided again, just as the sanctity of marriage can never be divided and broken.
Popular for beach weddings, and the cool kids get coloured sand.
Tree Planting
Grab a small tree from Bunnings with a pot of soil from each partner’s home. At the ceremony, soil is added from each home to the baby tree by the couple and/or their parents, and the tree is taken home and planted in the new home to grow with your relationship.
Hot tip: if you kill the tree, don’t tell your superstitious family and friends… #awkward
Wine Ceremony
Chose a favourite wine that preserves well, and we enclose it in a box during the ceremony with a secret note of love or encouragement from each of you. Pledge to leave the box sealed, only to open it to drink at a special anniversary, or if (and when) you’re going through a tough time and need some support.
Bonus points if you get a wine from the year that you got engaged!
Oathing Stone
The partners hold a stone as they say their vows, symbolically ‘casting’ them into the stone. Popular with the Scott’s, this Celtic tradition was thought to be the best way to express your solemn promise in physical form. In modern versions, couples often engrave the stone with their initials.
If you’re having a beach wedding, we could use a shell for this one which you could display in your home
Dove Ceremony
You’ve seen this one in a thousand movies and TV shows. The white represents the couple’s purity, and once released, doves fly higher together as they seek their way home. While still separate, they work as a team until they can find their bearings; just as a newly married couple does.
They do say never work with animals or children… but the idea is cute…
Broom Jumping
Enslaved African Americans of the 19th Century weren’t allowed to formally marry, so instead they’d lay a broom on the ground and jump over it together. Today, the act represents a “brushing away” of the past in order to start clean.
This is not a time to tell your mother-in-law that she parked too close to the ceremony…
Water Blending
Same principal once again; this time using two vials of coloured water that combines in a new glass to make a new colour. Alternatively, wow your guests by putting bleach in the combination glass so that the colours disappear and you ‘start a new, clean life together’.
Plays well into colour theory; yellow water for partner 1 could represent happiness and joy, while blue water for partner 2 could represent friendship and health. Mixed together, the colour green represents growth, stability, and harmony.
Tie the Knot
Also known as Handfasting, this is where we use a fisherman’s knot to tie your hands together. This knot grows stronger the more stress that is applied to it. Kinky; but also cute, as the relationship will continue to be strong, despite the inevitable stresses that life brings.
This one dates back to the ancient Mayans about 4500 years ago and was big in Scotland for ages. The Middle Ages to be precise…
Pass the Rings
During the ceremony, your wedding rings are passed between your guests so that they can warm and bless them before they are placed on your fingers by one another. Good way to involve all your guests and make them part of the ceremony.
I don’t advise passing them to kids under 2 or judgemental aunties you only see at Christmas and Easter
Lasso Ceremony
After exchanging vows, rope is placed over each partner’s shoulders, forming a figure 8 (or infinity symbol) and remains there for the rest of the ceremony. It is sometimes made of rosary beads, white ribbon, orange flowers, fabric, silver, crystal or elaborately painted wood.
This one is big with Hispanic and Filipino families but dates back to the Aztecs in the 14th Century
Rose Ceremony
Slightly different from The Bachelor; this is when the couple exchange roses as their first official gift to each other as a married couple. The roses can then be dried and preserved. Or you get one of those fancy new ‘forever’ roses?
We could call this one the ‘gift’ ceremony as it doesn’t need to be a rose specifically.
Butterfly Ceremony
See the previous ‘Dove Ceremony’ but think ‘much more controllable! Butterflies have grown from something completely different to become how they are seen today, and this release symbolises them heading off on their new lives together, just as you will be doing.
Just to reinforce; butterflies are significantly easier to deal with than Doves…
Cleanse with Water
The act of washing your spouse’s feet symbolises the release of any past emotional blocks, so both parties can enter the marriage with open hearts. Alternatively hands could be washed over a bowl, or you could choose to drink a glass of water together for the same effect.
This is a great way to ensure you have company on your pre-wedding pedicure
