Name Change Advice

Looking for name change advice or some tips for newlywed life? The MissNowMrs experts have created state-specific name change articles and checklists for you. We’ve chronicled our recommendations for how to travel while changing your name AND how to handle voting during the transition.

We’ve also compiled our best guidance for how to handle difficult sister in laws, holidays as newlyweds, the ever-annoying baby questions, and much more. Why? Because, while we are name change experts, we’re also newlywed wives, moms, and sisters.

We hope our name change advice articles help smooth your transition to your new name, and a whole new phase of life. Congratulations and best wishes from the entire MissNowMrs team!

Fido Right After “I Do”?

What are the pros and cons of fido right after I do? As you settle into married life and become truly comfortable with your mate, you may start wondering if you should add to your family. Many newlywed couples run right out after the wedding and get a puppy together. For some it’s the best (well second best) decision they ever made, but for others pet ownership brings more responsibility than they bargained for. Eager to hear the pitter patter of little paws? Read on before making a decision that will affect the next 10-15 years of your life.

How Much Do You Travel?

If you and your partner travel for business constantly or end up spending many weekends away from home, you might want to postpone your trip to the breeder or Humane Society. A puppy of any kind requires scheduled walks, house training and hours off exercise to burn off all of their excess energy. It would be unfair to add a dog to your family if you’re not home enough to give him/her the proper attention. If you can’t wait until your schedules settle down to get a pet, consider a kitten. They’re much lower maintenance and still provide a great deal of love and cuddling.

Consider Your Lifestyle

Are you part of the married jet set? Constantly attending out of town parties and going on last minute vacations? Unless you want to hire a dog sitter and dog walker every time you aren’t going to be home or come home to a unhappy puppy and totally wrecked house, you might need to put purchasing a pooch on hold. If you’re dying to get a dog, try to enjoy other people’s pets in the absence of your own. You could even volunteer at a local shelter, but beware of bringing multiple pets home!

Think About Your Housing

Do you live in an apartment or rental house? Your landlord might not appreciate an unannounced addition to your home. Should you need to find a new place to live, having a dog severely limits your rental housing options. If you live in a small condo, you need to decide if your puppy will have enough room. Even home owners have many questions to answer before bringing home a dog. Will it stay indoors, should the yard be fenced or should a doggie door be invested in?

Select the Right Pet For You

So you read the last three sections and know that you are ready for a dog. Congratulations! Take some time to discuss what you and your partner want in this pet. Do you want a cuddle buddy and he wants a guard for your home? Your perfect dog is out there, so try taking this quiz that matches people with pets based on criteria such as yard size, shedding, exercise habits, etc. Once you know the best type(s) of dog for you two, you can begin the fantastic journey of finding a puppy and making it part of your family.

Pets are such a wonderful part of life, but they are a big responsibility. Did you get a fido right after “I do?” Did you fight over the name or breed of dog? Did he “surprise you” with a puppy for Christmas? We’d love to hear the good, bad and ugly….so leave us a comment!

4 Secrets to Wedding Attire Transformations

Are you in desperate need of wedding attire transformations? After attending so many wedding this past year, I sure have stocked up on my fair share of dresses, and with each new invitation that comes in the mail it’s just one more good excuse to go shopping for another one, right? Not necessarily!

When I’m out dress shopping, I always find myself going after the same color schemes (mostly black of course), and I am now bored with it! So now that I’ve discovered my lack of versatility I have recently found new, less expensive ways to spend my money, and a new love for accessories!

Instead of trying to cram another dress in my closet, I am stocking on up on accessories to create a new look out of my ‘old’ dresses. So if you’re like me and have a few upcoming weddings where you may be running into the same groups of friends, here are some ideas for transforming you wedding attire into a completely new look.

So let’s start from the bottom, up! First things first, and that is shoe accenting! If you’re looking to re-create the look of your little black dress, instead of your black pumps, go bold and look for a pattern! Once you have found something to give you a few additional accent color options, choose a color from the shoes and find a belt to match!

If you’re going for a sleeker, more elegant look you will want to go for the skinny belts. If the wedding is more casual or even outdoors you may want to try a wide belt.

Next you will want to find a clutch . If your belt is accented with jewels, studs, or has a bow or flower closure, try finding a purse with the same accent—this belt, clutch combo will also will be a perfect closure and help spice up a pair of jeans and a cami for a dinner date night!

Onto the jewels! If you wore silver last time you rocked that dress, switch to gold, and maybe even add some color! Choose a color from your shoes, or even match the color of you belt, and look for a bracelet and some earrings to bring everything together.

Next… hair up or hair down? This is also going to depend on the date and time of the wedding. If you generally wear your hair down, choose a partial or full up-do this time, if you have some wave to your hair, straighten it. You will be surprised how your entire look can change depending on how you choose to wear your hair. If you went with a smaller pair of earrings, add some accent to your hair with a flower hair pin or headband.

I hope this has given you some inspiration and ideas to see how creative you can be when choosing what to wear to the next wedding you attend. For some amazingly priced accessories, consider checking out: gojane.com.

We’d love to hear about your wedding attire transformations with our ideas or your own. So please leave us a comment!

Announcing Our August Newlywed Giveaway!

It’s time for our August newlywed giveaway! What to give the girl who got everything for her wedding…how about over $350 worth of custom photo thank you notes?! Etiquette encourages one to send out thank you’s within a month of the wedding, and we thought we’d help some lucky newlywed reader by providing the notes. We’re happy to announce that our August Giveaway includes 100 of the fabulous notes shown in this post’s photo, customized with the winner’s wedding photo.

Our friend and fellow wedding vendor Beth, of Forever Friends Fine Stationery and Favors has teamed up with us to provide this month’s Thank You Note giveaway! She’s your best source for fine quality personalized printed products, offering stationery for every budget and occasion (wedding, baby, greeting cards and graduation—to name a few). She even offers brand names such as Chloe B, Disney and Red Leaf Papers! “Our representation of the nation’s leading printing companies allows us to provide you with the best product at the best prices, says Beth.” If you have a product to print, they will print it!

Anxious to win our awesome August giveaway? Leave a comment on this, or any of our thank you note posts on Mondays this month and you’ll be automatically entered to win. Tell us how many notes you need to write or why you’ve been procrastinating on the project. The randomly selected contest winner will be announced on August 31^st!! If we don’t hear back from the winner within 2 weeks, we will randomly select a new winner to make sure someone ends up with this great goodie!

Why Saving Doesn’t Mean Stop Living Your Life

Hoping to understand why saving doesn’t mean an end to having fun? Saving money to buy a house after marriage can be equally as exciting as getting married, but costs astronomically more than your wedding. An overwhelming thought, I know! Once you and your partner decide to start saving your money you may feel like you can’t afford to do anything. We’re here to tell you it’s not true.

While it is important that you think about exactly how to allocate your money and keep track of your monthly expenses, you shouldn’t forego all extra-curricular activities such as going on out on dates or making small purchases once in awhile. When couples decide to save all their money it leaves little room for having fun through experiences…or just plain living life!

Don’t get me wrong, you can live your life at home and enjoy yourself, but after a while you’ll be sick and tired of the same-old-same-old all the time. Think about it, how often can dinner and a movie on your couch be the most fun you’ve ever had?!

Here are some helpful tips on what you and your partner can do (socially) while still saving up for the biggest purchase of your life!

Plan a monthly happy hour or dinner with friends. It doesn’t have to be at the hottest spot in town to be a great time! You could host a pot-luck dinner at your house and ask each guest to bring one thing, keeping the cost down for everyone. The perks are that you don’t have to pay high prices for your dinner, cocktails or leave a tip at home! A great site for party planning themes, tips and recipes is hostesswiththemostess.

You and your spouse can go out for a lunch date, rather than a dinner date (since lunch prices tend to be lower than dinner entrees). This allows the two of you to enjoy quality couple time out without paying higher prices– often times way over-priced, without sacrificing your dates all-together. Depending on where you go, tips may not be necessary (i.e. any place that you don’t have a waiter/waitress serving you)! While these places may not offer a romantic ambiance, what they do offer is a place for the two of you to catch up and simply enjoy one another’s company.

If you’re the active type; you may be interested in participating in a charity event (spending money, but on a good cause—BONUS: tax write-off!) A great site to search for events is active.com allowing you to select the type of event you’re looking for and a specific date range, displaying all the events for your region or in the country!

If you are dead set on saving every penny, then the two of you could do some research using the internet or read your local paper to find out about free local events. Many communities have free festivals, concerts, church socials, etc. especially during the summer months!

What are you and your partner doing to keep things interesting while saving for your dream house? Share your stories or tips and help out other newlyweds in the process!

Newlywed In Bed

Newlywed in bed? Now that you’re sharing a house, life and possibly a last name…you’re also sharing a bed…every night. While there are some definite benefits to sharing a bed with your mate there can also be a few adjustments too. Here are a few common newlywed bed complaints and fixes.

1.Snoring
No matter who in the couple is the culprit, snoring can wreck a good night’s sleep and cause some serious resentment in the morning. Try to figure out what causes the snoring: allergies, dry air or laying on his/her back and then fix the situation. Simply popping a decongestant or buying a humidifier could be your solution or one of you may need to get some ear plugs. If, after trying some of our suggestions, the snoring situation is still leading to sleep deprivation make a doctor’s appointment. There are medical conditions that can cause snoring and you want to make sure your best beloved is diagnosed and treated.

2. Cover Stealing
Anyone who has ever woken up at 3:00am freezing cold and looked over to see their partner cocooned in all of the blankets knows how annoying cover stealing can be. Fortunately, there are a few alternatives to an all night game of cover tug of war. One thing to try is tucking in your side of the sheets and blankets to anchor them in place. You could also consider buying the next size up in linens (ex: buy King size sheets for your Queen size bed) to have more “coverage” available.

3. Miscellaneous Pets
It’s enough to share a bed with your husband, but what about the combination of your pets? One of you may be dead set on letting Fluffy sleep with you, but there are a few things to consider. Does the animal disrupt either partner’s sleep? Is there a possibility that Fido has fleas or ticks that could end up in your bed or on you? Does a pet in the bed decrease your likelihood of getting it on? Here’s an article that covers the pros and cons of sleeping with your pets. At the end of the day, you need to make a decision that results in you being a well-rested and happy couple. If you’re feeling really guilty about giving a pet the boot out of the bedroom, you can always buy them their own fabulous bed!

4. Snooze Addicts
As a single person, it is completely acceptable to hit the snooze button on your alarm several (okay more than several) times each morning. As a newlywed it is insanely rude! Unless your spouse gets up before you or is an absolute saint, you need to find a way to decrease the number of snoozes. Going to bed 15-30 minutes earlier in the evening may make waking up the first time the alarm goes off easier. You could also try positioning your alarm clock across the room so you have to get out of bed to turn it off…thus decreasing the likelihood that you’ll roll over and go back to sleep.

Do you have a newlywed in bed pet peeve or story? We’d love for you to share it with us and our readers!