The Legality of Marriage

Big day today on the path to being married. You plan all the "big" stuff, the church, the reception site, the flowers, the dress, etc. but you can't forget the legal stuff, you know the thing that makes it real. Today we applied for our marriage license. If you haven't applied for a marriage license in Minnesota, let me tell ya, it is eeeeeeasy, I did it on my lunch break (the service center is also right next to the cafeteria in the government center, it's awesome). You just walk in, show your ID's, have nearly completed application, sign said application in front of person, walk out with marriage license that you can use any time in the next six months, boom, done, legal to wed.

Going along with the legal stuff, I decided to change my last name when I got married. I'm not happy about, I never will be, I'm Italian and German, I'm not whatever this new last name is, but I thought it was the right thing to do, and I didn't want to live the rest of my life explaining the last name thing. Plus, I love my soon to be husband, and I want us to be one single, family unit with one name. So, last name changed, the old middle name I was born with "Ann"? Gone. My maiden name will now be my middle name. And today, there it was, officially my new name staring back at me from my newly printed marriage. Sure, I had told me people how many times the same thing I just told all of you about how I was changing my name, but there it was, legally in front of me.

So, per usual, I got all misty eyed and started tearing up at Window #7 of the Hennepin County Court House Service Center. Not that I'm not excited to be married, and Ben puffs up like a proud rooster every time it comes up that my last name will now be his, but it just felt like this new phase of life was starting, kind of how you feel after college graduation, and seeing the new name made me realize that.

Despite my weepiness, I managed to pull it together, just in time for the counter clerk to hand me a whole fun packet on things to do to legally change your name (Read: Expect a post b*tching about name change process roughly 2.5 months from now).

Then, I did the girl thing, and had the clerk take our picture, I had to document this monumental day, even if it was just the first legal step in becoming a married woman.
So there we are, the soon to be happy couple, completely the oh so romantic legalities that make one's marriage official.