So guess what?
We’re married!!
I know, I know, this happened in September. But bear with me because, in spite of some thorough strangeness with our paper work & odd conversations with people at Stats Canada and Vital Stats, someone has finally been able to verify that our marriage was registered.
When I sent off my name change paperwork in late October, along with all of my earthly forms of identification, I assumed that it would take a month to have them processed and returned to me. I called in November, December, and January and each time I was told that it hadn’t been received and that it had probably been lost in the mail.
My SIN card. My birth certificate. Lost in the fog outside of the Statistics Canada, somewhere in the wailing, lonely fjords of Newfoundland. Huh.
Without my birth certificate & SIN card I haven’t been able to change my name on almost any of my documents. While the change on my drivers license was being processed my temporary license expired, and then my passport is expired, leaving my credit cards as the only form of identification I have. Beyond being land locked inside Canada, I’ve been really concerned about what could have happened to those documents and attempting to plan when a good time to really freak out would be.
I was planning to be really excited for the inauguration, to receive my new weekly planner in the mail so I could pencil my melt down in, and then to completely lose my shit around Thursday, as my mother’s birthday is Wednesday.
Then last week, after all the phone calls and talk of our marriage maybe not even being valid because of The Paperwork, all of my documents were randomly returned to me in a neat little bunch with a note that I needed to apply for a different version of my marriage certificate & then I would be off to the races.
I would be angry, but I’m too excited that my SIN card & birth certificate isn’t being used by someone out East to apply for credit towards starting a whale watching business.
The Moral of the Story: When I receive that different version of the marriage certificate, I’m going down to service Canada with my iPhone to wait the three hours to see someone who can change my name on the spot.
Either that or I’m going to beg Ben to let me just mail my documents to him so he can have the Newf hand them in in person. This is Canada after all, if The Newf grew up in the same province as this building I’m betting there’s a 70/30 chance that he knows someone who works there.
Had I known this would be such a hassel I think I might have considered not changing my name for a little longer than I did!
Ben
Hahaha I’d say the odds are higher. He always complained to me about people assuming all Newfoundlanders know each other until he came to a school function and actually knew about six of my Newfoundland classmates. End of discussion.
Also, congrats on the much-deserved Best Design win!!
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tara
Well congratulations on really being married!
You’ve finally found something that makes me think the US might be better at than Canada. We have to go stand in line to get name changes done. I would be terrified to mail off all my important stuff!
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Dana
Woah — you have to mail away your SIN card and birth certificate to register your marriage? I had no idea it was so complicated 0.o
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Andy
Haha! I’m glad you’re now officially married! And since, I wasn’t a reader back to when your first announcement happened, CONGRATS!
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notsojenny
congratulations! that’s so exciting even though it is a pain in the ass!
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alexa
congrats!! : )
also, i love the flower in your hair. i want to do the same thing if the day ever comes that i get married.
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Alexis
Yay! Glad it’s officially good news.
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Travis
Congratulations!
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mandy
Congratulations on being official! I have heard from friends what a big hassle it is to change their name on everything.
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Rachie
I’m glad you are finally getting somewhere with the name changing bit. I didn’t have any trouble, thankfully, but if I did I’m pretty sure I would have just thrown in the towel- That’s it! I’m not changing my name. But that would have hurt Neil’s feelings, blah blah blah.
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Elle Bee
Thank goodness you finally got your SIN card and birth certificate back. Those things are insanely annoying to replace.
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Erin
Yay for being married! I remember being so annoyed with registering our marriage and all the name change paperwork. What a pain!
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Jessica
Congrats on actually being married! I love those pictures, and I don’t know if I had ever seen them before.
Also, congrats on your award!
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Sara Jane
Congrats on being married. I’m new to your blog, so I didn’t know. :)
I love the pictures. So beautiful.
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Rachel
oh my good gracious, that sounds beyond stressful. Thank goodness you got them all back and safe, I’d be way more of a panicked headcase then you were if that were me. I’m thinking a hand off to the Newf is certainly in order. :) LOVED getting to see some of your gorgeous wedding pictures again!!
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susan
What a relief! Your pictures are beautiful.
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Andrea
Have I mentioned lately how much you crack me up *smile* Congrats lady – maybe you could get a longest wedding ever award? ;-)
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hillary
I’m glad it all worked out! I remember having an anxiety attack after I mailed all my important docs away to get a British Visa – and there wasn’t even any delay. You are made of tougher stuff, lady :)
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and her heart it is in ireland
YAY! for really being married, I’m sure it was a sigh of relief. And I would be so scared to mail off all my important documents, glad everything is safe.
Great pictures, looks like a gorgeous wedding :)
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Alyssa
Um that seems entirely TOO stressful. I am glad you got it all worked out :) Your flowers are so pretty!
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Lauren
OH my goodness, I can’t believe all of those documents were lost in the mail! You poor thing.
Regardless, i’m glad they’re all back now. And that you’re married…again. Haha. :)
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Tristan | the almost right word
Congrats, Mrs! And also, congratulations on your 20sb award! Much deserved.
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sarah marie p
Congrats on actually being married! So glad your SIN card & birth certificate weren’t lost in the mail! Ahh scary! Oh, and I loved seeing your beautiful pictures again!
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sarah marie p
p.s. Oh, and congrats on your 20sb award! Yay!!!!
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Marie
Yay for getting everything back! I still can’t believe they made you wait this long and making you think you may have lost all of those documents.
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raeleigh/big sky girl
oh my gosh ky. what a pain in the butt! congrats on the marriage! :)
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Rebekah
Oh, pain! Not as painful as finding the right groom though… congrats!
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Josephine
I didn’t change my name, so I didn’t have to go through any of that. But I was really surprised at just how easy it is to get married. It’s a lot easier to get married than it is to register a car! I did have a moment of panic, though. We got married in Ohio, but we live in Maryland. If you’re getting married in a different state from where you live, the marriage license has to come from the county you’re getting married in. Since we took such a long honeymoon, we were saving all our vacation time to use after the wedding, so we couldn’t go to Ohio weeks ahead of time to get our marriage license: we just got it the day before the wedding. I was really worried something would go wrong and we wouldn’t have it. When we walked into the courthouse, the guard at the door took one look at us and said, “Sorry, we just issued our last marriage license for the day.” I just stopped in my tracks and got this horrified look on my face, and then she burst out laughing. Not a very funny trick to pull on a bride!
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bFlat
Congrats! I’m glad to hear your identity is safe.
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Noelle
Well, congratulations on being legit! And thanks for your nice comment today!
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Lindsay
Yay! Glad it all worked out. AND congrats on the Best Design award! You deserve it!
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Nora
It’s so fun to see your pictures again.
And Phew! So glad your documents are safe and your identity wasn’t stolen.
Good luck the next time around :)
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floreta
simply beautiful! sorry the process seemed so complicated.
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SoMi's Nilsa
Oh, what a pain! So, you’re saying I should continue to procrastinate in my quest to have my name changed? =)
PS – Congrats on the blog award!
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Heidi Renée
I don’t know how it works in Canada, but I’ve found that if you take an extremely elderly person with you to the social security office (probably the US equivalent of Service Canada), they will get to you a whole lot faster. Almost as if they fear the old person will drop dead right there. It worked for my mom when she got remarried and had to change her name, anyway.
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deutlich
I seriously can’t stand when paperwork takes so long!!
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Steph
Gosh that’s crazy how hard a time they gave you with getting your marriage certified. Getting my name change was slightly annoying, as was getting my name changes on all my other accounts, the bank, credit cards, dmv, etc. I thought I covered everything and every once and a while my maiden name will pop up somewhere
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Racquel Valencia
Bright Side: Now you can stretch out the marital afterglow/milk the “I just got married!” a little longer.
=)
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TC
Even though it’s several months later… those are beautiful photos! Congratulations on your marriage and on getting all the paperwork taken care of! :)
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brookem
woo! glad it’s finally “official!”
congratulations, by the way, on the bloggy award!
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nicoleantoinette
Phew, this could have turned out so differently. Lucky girl!
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melanie
Question: how did you go about changing your name on everything? I’m thinking of changing mine (I use both right now but am thinking of legally changing it to his last name) but don’t know where to begin.
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Jessica
The photos are so beautiful. And I’m LOVING those flowers. The colors are amazing.
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Mel
Ugh, that’s one of my worst nightmares! Glad you’re getting it worked out!
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Alice
yay! belated congratulations ;-)
those pictures are GORGEOUS.
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Miss Dallas
Oh what a pain! Glad you’re getting it all sorted out, but that’s totally bonkers that they let it go for so long! I’d have someone, as my dad would say, by the stack and swivel!
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Kate
It’s reasons such as these that I never changed my name. Just the thought of having to change it on the deed to the house, and having to stand in line at the SS office for hours at a time, and having to call all the banks and credit card companies, and calling Cook County to figure out how to change it on all my notary paperwork … well, it made me slightly batty. I’d like to say I didn’t change it because I think it’s outdated, that I am not my husband’s property, but the truth is I’m just lazy.
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