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Changing Your Name

It is a blissful event, setting up house with the man of your dreams. Putting a home together and working together to pay the bills, do the shopping, and making decisions is exciting. Sharing horizons that are new to us, as the Carpenters once beautifully put it.

In this most blissful of times, it's quite easy to overlook some of the tasks you'll need to complete this transition in your life. One thing that is often overlooked is changing your name after getting married.

Though it isn't at all compulsory in the UK, many people choose to use their husband's surname. Here are a few things that should be changed officially to make life easier for you and those that will be dealing with you.

The first people you'll need to inform of the change is the tax office and National Insurance. When filing taxes it will be the difference between your return going through and being rejected. If you file under your husband's name without a legal change, life could get quite difficult.

You will also want to change your driver's license and passport. It's worth noting that if you aren't a British citizen, this can be quite a complex and drawn-out process, so you'll want to begin as quickly as possible. You may find it comes in hady to get several copies of your marriage certificate if you fall into this category, as various people will want to see an original rather than a copy.

Bank accounts and credit cards come next, insurance policies, council tax, bills, doctor, dentist and than other subscriptions and contracts. You will need to have your marriage license for most of these to be changed over. It is usually a painless process, and only some will require a fee to do this. You will find it will save many headaches later down the road.

Below we've put a simple checklist which we hope will be helpful. Good luck! Obviously, everybody's circumstances will be different but this should give you a good start.