Name Change - After Legal Ceremony or Sequel Wedding?

You can use any names you want socially. But it must be done in 30 or 60 days ( maybe extra covid time) for your licence, car reg in your name, and Social security, and your employer's tax and withholding forms. Start with Social. Your state licencing will check with them by computer. When done with an id, go reregister to vote. I paid fines for doing motor vehicles after 30 days . Married Oct. Excise taxes for car go out Jan 2. Computer found me under 2 legal names, Town sends sheriff to verify have you moved and why 2 names. $150 bill, sheriff fee. $50 to town, for messing up their nice paperwork, they get part of excise taxes. $50 for late changing 2 registratipns. I had done social. Then in spring town elections it took 1.5 extra hours to vote, as I was removed from rolls after excise tax thing, but once verified, had not gone to voter reg to give my new signature. It depends on the enforcement of your local area. Should you lose a job or qualify for food stamps or unemployment, they will make you do it before accepting 1 piece of paper. Do it now. You want all house paperwork in your legal name before your credit check pre mortgage is done.

Change it whenever you would like. I plan on not changing my name at all.

I waited 3 years before I changed my name and had zero issues doing so

Do it as part of the legal wedding process now.

Hi Michelle! Like Judith said, you can use whatever name you want socially! But it does take awhile to change your name, so I think it's good to just kick off the process!!

The bulk of the work that Judith listed happens pretty quickly in 1-2 months, but you'll be finding random accounts and addresses for years that still have your maiden name! 😆

If you're literally in the middle of the process of buying a house, you can probably still get the name change process started since it will take at least 30 days for Social Security (the first step). Just remember that once you do change your name you'll have to go back and update your name on all your house and mortgage documents!

I was in your shoes in May last year. My husband and I got married with just our families in a tiny home ceremony and postponed our wedding to October. Name changes take a while- a long while. I started the process after we got married in May and just getting the Social Security Card taken care of was an almost 2 month process from start to finish. Normally it shouldn't take this long, but the SS office is closed to the public due to the pandemic (at least in my state) so it all had to be done by mail (also slow, especially during the pandemic). I've only just now gotten my driver's license changed, but that has a lot to do with me being in medical school (aka having very little time). I would go ahead and start the process now if you feel comfortable! Doing things "out of order" isn't easy, but ultimately our wedding day was beautiful, emotional, and just as special as it would have been if we weren't already married. If anything, we could relax a little more knowing that we were already happy and marriage was amazing!