General Wedding Basics: Paperwork

To come down a little from the high of planning for dresses, let's talk about paperwork.

The necessary paperwork will depend on where you're living, but for us at the bare minimum we will require a marriage license, an officiant, a notary public, and witnesses to become legally married. The marriage license in my state is about $80, though we can earn a ($60) discount by participating in marriage counselling beforehand. Some marriage counselling sessions do cost money, but there are plenty (at least in my area) that are free of charge. The trick, I think, is finding one that fits not only your budget, but also your religious/non-religious viewpoints, whatever the case may be. Officiants usually charge a fee as well, though I have seen some offer their services free on Valentine's Day.

There is also the matter of timing. You usually have a certain amount of days after obtaining a license to actually have the ceremony performed, after which you are given a certain amount of days to turn it back in to the city. Go over the time limit and you'll probably have to do everything all over again (including spend all that money on a new license). You will need to also buy a certified copy of the marriage certificate to keep for your records, though these usually don't cost very much. This is very important, especially if you plan on changing your name.

That's another thing. If you plan on changing your surname, as I do, there are quite a few agencies with which you'll have to deal. These can include:

- the U.S. Social Security Administration
- the U.S. Internal Revenue Service
- your state's Department of Public Safety (or wherever you go for your driver's license)
- your local Tax Assessor-Collector
- your local Voter Registrar
- the U.S. State Department (passport/passcard)
- the U.S. Post Office

It's actually quite a bit of paperwork, for which you will need the certified copy of your filed marriage license. For my part, I've pretty much decided that I will start the name changing process after we get back from whatever honeymoon on which we end up going.