Monday I was beginning to think no one wanted to be married. Then about 10:30 it got busy. From then until 12:30 I did 6 or 7 ceremonies, and there were two foreign language ceremonies. Not a huge number, but a lot was done in 2 hours. The pink wedding took forever to sort out.
My first two couples were witnessing for each other. You would have thought they were close friends the way they interacted. One couple was in their 20's and the other in their 50's. The older couple were African American and dressed in a light shade of orange and in white. The other groom also had on an orange shirt. The older bride had on a white "brocade" dress. Except it was a heavy cotton with a linen orange stole. Beautiful outfit.
I asked the older couple if they had their own vows: he said no and she said yes. Big worry lines on his face, "Do I have to create something right now?" I told him he could do the traditional vows and she could say what she wanted to say. Well they both said their own thing, and made me tear up. He began with, " I can't imagine my life without you . . ."
Then we had the pink satin wedding. The groom and all the little boys wore black slacks, black vests, and Pepto Bismol pink satin shirts. The bride wore the same pink colored satin blouse with a white lace skirt. The little girls wore pink and black dresses. The bride and groom were each 21 and two of the children were theirs, the oldest was 5 or 6. Babies having babies. The ceremony was lovely, everyone was happy. I took the license in to be recorded and it all hit the fan.
The bride was changing her name to his, except it was his middle name (Smith), not his last name. The law won't let you do that. ( I had never been told about this particular law.) His ID showed his name as John Smith Doe, as did the marriage license. Their children had the name, Smith. He told us the ID had been wrong for years. Why didn't he correct it years ago? He said his birth certificate had John Doe Smith on it. The Marriage desk clerk told him to take the birth certificate to DMV and they would tell him what he needed to do. I am not sure what name the bride ended up with. I had another couple to marry.
More weddings later this week.
Showing posts with label name change law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label name change law. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Friday, January 9, 2009
NEW LAW
Every year we have stupid laws our state legislature thinks we need. Not all of the laws are stupid. The No Texting while driving is a good law. But we do have our annual dumb one.
On January 1, 2009, the law went into effect that a bride MUST decide if she will take the groom's name, keep her name, or hyphenate her name when the license is bought. Once this is filled out her name is written in stone. The only way to change her mind is:
1. before the wedding
2. a court case after the wedding
If she changes her mind before the wedding, a new license must be bought ($85 more) and the old license then voided.
After the wedding if she changes her mind, it is a huge deal. She must go to court and apply for a name change. This will cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
This law is explained carefully by the clerks. The couple is given the information to read. Remember that, it is explained, they read the information.
A lot of our couples don't even know they are getting married that day. No thought has gone into marrying, let alone picking the bride's name. This does apply to grooms also. But how many men do you know who would change their names?
Wednesday we had the first couple who changed their minds on her name. Lucky me, it was my couple. I called their name and they immediately said they didn't want her to change her name. I counted to ten, and then said I would find out how to correct it. Cindy was not happy, said to go talk to a lead clerk. The clerk who did their license was busy and wasn't making eye contact. I went to talk to Shinnel and Lourdes about what to do. They said (as above) a new license. The couple gave me a little grief, it had only been 5 minutes, they want us to just redo it. I explained the law, gave them options: new license or a court case later. After a little more lip from them I told them they had read the law, it had been explained to them, and they had signed the license as correct. What did they want to do? They decided even though she didn't want to change her name, to do so. The $85 for a new license was the deal breaker. This little discussion added about 15 minutes to my time with them. Which made other couples wait longer.
We will have more of these. No one really reads what we hand them. Many times when handed the certified copy of the license , they say that's spelled wrong, that isn't my address, that isn't when I was divorced, etc. They supposedly read it, and then signed it. But they don't read it.
This law is a problem, it was easy to change your name when you married before. You just told the DMV and Social Security. It wasn't a legal issue. Now it is a mess.
On January 1, 2009, the law went into effect that a bride MUST decide if she will take the groom's name, keep her name, or hyphenate her name when the license is bought. Once this is filled out her name is written in stone. The only way to change her mind is:
1. before the wedding
2. a court case after the wedding
If she changes her mind before the wedding, a new license must be bought ($85 more) and the old license then voided.
After the wedding if she changes her mind, it is a huge deal. She must go to court and apply for a name change. This will cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
This law is explained carefully by the clerks. The couple is given the information to read. Remember that, it is explained, they read the information.
A lot of our couples don't even know they are getting married that day. No thought has gone into marrying, let alone picking the bride's name. This does apply to grooms also. But how many men do you know who would change their names?
Wednesday we had the first couple who changed their minds on her name. Lucky me, it was my couple. I called their name and they immediately said they didn't want her to change her name. I counted to ten, and then said I would find out how to correct it. Cindy was not happy, said to go talk to a lead clerk. The clerk who did their license was busy and wasn't making eye contact. I went to talk to Shinnel and Lourdes about what to do. They said (as above) a new license. The couple gave me a little grief, it had only been 5 minutes, they want us to just redo it. I explained the law, gave them options: new license or a court case later. After a little more lip from them I told them they had read the law, it had been explained to them, and they had signed the license as correct. What did they want to do? They decided even though she didn't want to change her name, to do so. The $85 for a new license was the deal breaker. This little discussion added about 15 minutes to my time with them. Which made other couples wait longer.
We will have more of these. No one really reads what we hand them. Many times when handed the certified copy of the license , they say that's spelled wrong, that isn't my address, that isn't when I was divorced, etc. They supposedly read it, and then signed it. But they don't read it.
This law is a problem, it was easy to change your name when you married before. You just told the DMV and Social Security. It wasn't a legal issue. Now it is a mess.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)