You’re married, now what

By Marjorie

The big day has passed and the honeymoon is over. Now you’re thinking you get to kick back, throw your feet up and enjoy the married life. Well, not so fast.

Even though the stress of planning a wedding is much greater than the stress you will experience after the wedding, there are still a lot of things that need to be accomplished.

Below are just a few of the tasks you will need to conquer after the bliss wears off.

Name change: If you decide to take your husband’s name, you will need to legally change your name on your Social Security card, passport, driver’s license, credit cards, voter registration card, health insurance cards, 401(k) plans, etc. For a full list of things to legally change, visit www.americanbridal.com/namchanchec1.

Photographs: After the wedding, you will need to sort through the photographer’s proofs and select the pictures you want, your family wants and what your friends may want. Usually it takes a while to get the proofs back from the photographer, and depending on how many pictures the photographer took, it could take a while to sort through them all and find the ones you want to order.

Your dress: It was glamorous the day of your wedding, but now what are you supposed to do with it? Well, there are a few options you can choose from: You can donate it, hang it in your closet, store it in a preservation box, sell it, cut it up and make a new garment, or you simply get rid of it.

Thank-yous: Put these on the top of your list! Although a large guest list sounds likes a good idea at the start of your planning, writing thank-yous to that same guest list can become a grueling task. Let’s just say I have yet to write our thank-yous and our wedding was more than four months ago. Oops.

So it’s clear that once the ceremony is over, that doesn’t mean the work is over too, and my advice is to get these things taken care of as soon as possible. Once the post-wedding to-do list is taken care of, then you can sit back, kick your feet up and enjoy the married life.