Is one of the things that worry you as a Bride-to-Be, “how will I change my name after marriage?”

Many brides worry about this and there are some who don’t worry at all as they are unaware of the work involved. Some years ago I noticed how stressful this could be for brides, (and some grooms too!), so I decided to give my brides a voucher for a website called: After The Wedding

Recently Ellie wrote to me to thank me for the voucher and I thought that future brides might find her email interesting.

“Hi Delwyn, After I got married people started asking me if I was going to change my name, and when I said yes, they followed up with some horror story of how they/their wife had such a terrible experience. I heard about people being in limbo between names for years, people getting stuck in different countries because of different surnames, all sorts of things! So my expectations were pretty low, but I was also nervous about getting it done right.

After about a month of being married, when we were still squaring things away from the wedding, I got out the name change voucher that you had given me. When I saw it was for a website I imagined just logging on, entering my new name and then going to sip wine. But that utopia of government services is a little while off yet.

I went in and downloaded the name change guide, and from there, it was so easy. It’s a big PDF that outlines what you should get changed first, and attaches all the forms you will need.

The ATO and passport were the easiest because they were all online forms. The other majors such as banking, drivers licence and medicare all have to be done in person. So I just made a day of it. I had a day off work, and went around with all my pre-filled forms to hand in. Within a day I had all my major government and personal IDs changed.

The guide then goes into other places you wouldn’t even think of. Water Corp and my ISP were ones I never thought of. And letting HR at my work know. But there were only a handful and they could all be changed online or by email.

My strategy for other accounts like online shopping, Netflix or other random logins is just to change them when I log into them next. Those kind of places aren’t essential and it doesn’t really matter if your name is wrong.

Overall it was a day of visiting a few places, and an afternoon if logging into some accounts. Within the next few weeks I received new cards and I was officially Mrs Friesen!

I can see how people might be overwhelmed and get caught out with IDs with the wrong name. But with the guide you can’t really go wrong. Weddings are extremely huge! But I think it’s best to just get in there and get it done as soon as you have some free headspace.

It was a huge help to have the guide, and I would have never thought of looking for something like that. So thank you!”

Photo Credit: Trish Woodford