For those who are getting married in the US before your DW...

How far ahead are going to do it? Our Aruba wedding is in March 13, but we're thinking of doing our US civil ceremony in January and getting a head start on all the name change stuff and everything. Is there any reason to wait until closer to the date of the DW, or does it really matter? Is the date of the legal civil service relevant for anything?

Also, if I change my social security card to my new name but not my license or my passport, there won't be any issues with travel, right?

Thanks!

I've oftened wondered why people legally get married before/after their DW? Not sure if Aruba is legally recognized all over the world or not, but i know it is in Jamaica and people still do it before. What are the reasons people get married before they go? and doesn't it kinda spoil the purpose of the trip?

but anyway i'm pretty sure that as long as your license and passport have the same name you're ok, but make sure you have your legal wedding paper with you incase they cause you problems...but confirm that with your TA or whatever government group in the US that would look after that.

ps. our wedding day is just 4 days before yours, but in Jamaica yay!!

I believe my resorts required you to show proof of your marriage if you aren't having a legal ceremony.

I'm doing it in the US because getting married in Mexico is a pain in the butt. We planned on doing it the day before we leave for the wedding. Kind of a "kick off" to our awesome vacation. I think it will be exciting to go get married, have a nice brunch with our family and then go home and finish packing for our destination wedding!

We got married 3 weeks before we left for Mexico. IT was important for my family that we get married in a religious place and at the end of the day it was much easier than getting married in Mexico.

ALso, like Erica my husband's grandmother was not going to Mexico and we wanted her to see it.

We got married 3 weeks before, but I am just changing my name now. The "official" name change begins with your social security card. I would not change that and NOT change your license/ passport. If you cahnge it before change everythin, just in case. Just my opinion.

I am getting Married on the same day as you in Punta Cana D.R. We will be getting married in the state on Dec 18th. We will just be going to the court house and having it done there. We don't want everyone to know. We didn't want to have to change all the docs over to spanish. We pick Dec. because we are hoping it helps us out with our TAXES too. As along as you are Married by Dec 31 you can fill jointly. We will both have to pay this year, so we hope that this will help.

My soon to be FI were thinking about having our legal ceremony in April and then having a wedding a year later in Mexico. The reason for the delay is strictly financial. But I dont want to be married for a year because I dont think it'll have the same excitement.

I just text my FI and told him instead of having our legal ceremony in April 2010, Id rather wait till the actual wedding in 2011. I let you know his reply.