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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!

Wedding Pro Wednesday: Laura C. Cannon

Laura C. Cannon | Wedding Pro Wednesday

Today I am excited to introduce you to Laura C. Cannon. She is the founder of Ceremony Officiants™ is ranked the #1 wedding officiant company in the United States with more than a decade of experience creating beautiful, personalized ceremonies for couples of all backgrounds. Her diverse and friendly team of experienced professional officiants has performed over 3,000 weddings and maintains a perfect 5.0 average for reviews on WeddingWire and the Knot. In 2013 Laura launched a sister company, DC Elopements, which specializes in stress-free, simple elopements and mini-weddings in the Washington, D.C. area.

So, if you’re trying to decide on a wedding officiant or are curious what a career in “marriage” might be like… don’t miss Laura’s answers below!

Have you always been a wedding professional? If not, what was your previous career?
I was not always a wedding professional, but almost! The first company I started while still in college was an event planning company and weddings were certainly part of the mix. I sold that business and went on a spiritual journey that lead me to becoming ordained as a non-denominational minister. I always had the heart of an entrepreneur and was fortunate to grow up with two entrepreneurial parents. But having gone to college with the thought of having a typical 9-5 career, I decided that I had to travel down that path to have that experience. I worked in higher education in a salaried position and stayed there while I continued to officiate weddings and preside over funerals on the side. Eventually I decided to make the leap into working full-time in the wedding industry. I grew from solo-preneur to a team of wedding officiants that now covers several states, has spawned several other companies, including the formation of the International Association of Professional Wedding Officiants.

What inspired you to create your company? 
I was inspired to create my company when a student of mine who knew I was ordained asked if I would perform her wedding ceremony. While doing her wedding I had what Oprah calls an “Aha” moment where everything became clear. I knew I was meant to do another wedding and that it was the perfect use of a variety of skills I had been honing for years. That first year I did a handful of weddings just from referrals. The business continued to grow and then I decided to bring on my first associate officiant. It’s now been almost 15 years and we’ve performed thousands of weddings!

What was your biggest obstacle and failure in going from idea to business?
While I am thankful for the fact that I did not experience and “failures” in my business, there were certainly challenges. I think as an entrepreneur starting out in a new industry the biggest hurdle to cross is dealing with the fact that you don’t know what you don’t know. Everything is new. I had the challenges of learning a business and the industry it was inextricably a part of all at the same time.

What do you love most about your job? 
I LOVE LOVE. Seriously. Having the opportunity to bear witness to two people in love make a sacred commitment to each other is the greatest joy of my life. People ask me all the time, “Now that you are an author and a speaker and run all these businesses are you going to stop officiating weddings?” No way! There is a Sanskrit word, mudita, which means the joy derived from the joy of others. It is my favorite kind of joy and I get to experience mudita every time I officiate. It doesn’t get better than that.

What is your best advice for brides related to your area of expertise? 
My #1 piece of advice for brides is to plan for your married life, not just a wedding. The wedding is one day. Yes, it is an amazing extra-special day, but ultimately it is really just the first day of your married life. We spend so much time planning for this event and we forget to put just as much emphasis on planning for a great partnership with our spouse. Spend some of your time considering what your married life will be like: What do you each need to do to contribute meaningfully to your relationship? How will you best support each other as life inevitably changes?

Laura C. Cannon’s best advice for newlyweds

 COMMUNICATE. We often have different styles of communication and the way one person expresses love may not be the way the other person receives love.  We have to learn how to  explicitly communicate with our partner. Your partner is NOT a mind reader and yet sometimes when we are in relationship with someone for a long time we start to assume they should “just know” when something is wrong. No, they shouldn’t. It is up to each of you to be responsible for communicating your own desires and needs explicitly. Couples who communicate explicitly and frequently have deeper intimacy than those who don’t. And that deep intimacy with another human being is the true gift of marriage.

Wedding Officiant Tips

Photo Credits: Headshot – Denis Largeron, Wedding Couple Photo – Justine Ungaro

Did you love the story and advice of Laura C. Cannon? If so, don’t miss Valerie Hammer’s Wedding Pro Wednesday feature!

Newlywed Love Is Being Stupid Together

Newlywed love is being stupid together! Most weddings I attend (including my own) have a reading from First Corinthians “Love is patient, Love is kind…”  While this scripture is very true, I feel that the strongest newlywed couples understand that love is also being stupid together.

In a world that emphasizes and idolizes “perfect couples”, it’s freeing to know that being goofy is okay.  In fact, silliness and inside jokes helps cement your relationship. If you haven’t laughed or been stupid together in a while, here are a few suggestions:

  1. Rent a Comedy – Plop on the couch and reconnect as you laugh at actors antics.  You may even pick up a movie quote that will make you both laugh for years to come.
  2. Play Charades – This game is guaranteed to have you both laughing hysterically as you try to guess what your partner is acting out.
  3. Play With Small Children or Animals – There’s nothing like little kid laughter or puppy antics to make you smile and have a good time.
  4. Have a Squirt Gun or Water Balloon Fight – Who can keep a straight face when they’re chasing or being chased by their mate armed with liquid ammo?

How do you enjoy being stupid together with your fiancé or spouse?  We’d love to hear them in a comment!

Wedding Checks: 4 Newlywed Tips for Depositing Without Hassle!

Wedding Checks - How to Deposit without hassle

New Spouse, New Name, New Journey: Embrace Your New Married Life.

With Personalized Name Change Services for Every Newlywed.

Ready for a New Name? Order Now!

As your wedding day approaches, gifts from family and friends begin pouring in…hooray! You’ll also start receiving wedding checks. Monetary gifts are wonderful, as they allow you to purchase exactly what you want/need for married life, but they can occasionally cause trouble at the bank.

Well-meaning relatives LOVE to write checks to Mr. and Mrs. Jones. Which is great, if you’re planning to change your name to Jones, but what if you’re hyphenating or not changing your name after marriage, or if your spouse is taking your name?

Name change does make cashing
wedding checks tricky

However, if you both set up a joint bank account before your wedding, most banks will allow you to sign the checks and deposit them regardless of what versions of your names appear on the check. If a check is made out to both you and your spouse, then when you are depositing checks with two names, make sure that you both sign the back of it.

If you run into a clerk that is a stickler for the rules, you can wait to deposit the check until you can present a certified copy of your marriage certificate. The other solution? Use the ATM machine to deposit your checks. I deposited wedding checks written to my maiden, married and misspelled last names with zero issues!

Also keep in mind that in most cases you do not need to pay taxes on when depositing wedding checks.

Wedding Check Deposit Tips:

1. Create a joint bank account BEFORE your wedding
2. If a wedding check is made out to both of you, make sure that you both sign it before depositing
3. You can use your certified marriage certificate to deposit checks made out to your married name
4. When all else fails…use the ATM machine for your wacky wedding check deposits!

New Spouse, New Name, New Journey: Embrace Your New Married Life.

With Personalized Name Change Services for Every Newlywed.

Ready for a New Name? Order Now!

Top 3 Newlywed Gift Ideas For Hard To Buy For Spouses

Hard to buy for spouses are the worst during the holidays. While there is so much anticipation to spend the holidays as a newlywed, there is also the feeling that you need to create the perfect moment/buy the perfect gift to treasure always (thanks Hallmark). Looking back at my first Christmas, there was definitely a good bit of (self inflicted) pressure to find just the right gift for my husband.  I trolled the mall, braved Best Buy and even flipped through the seemingly thousands of catalogs that kept coming in the mail.

Are you feeling freaked out about what to get your spouse this holiday season?  As the woman married to the man who has everything, I feel capable of giving you some ideas.

1. Hobby Subtlety: Does your spouse have a hobby?  If so, don’t buy him the obvious (fishing flies for the fly fisherman)…go for something special like a monogrammed case to hold his fly collection or a special gear bag designed for his specific sport.

2. Photos: If you’re newlyweds, this is the one time you can give him an amazing photo of you two without being lame.  This acrylic photo block is really cool and would look nice on any desk in any office.

3. Adventure: If you’re totally stumped on what to give him, consider some sort of adventure activity.  Often Groupon or LivingSocial have local deals for skydiving, kayaking and race car driving.  Can’t you hear him telling the guys at the office..”Oh yeah, I didn’t get a golf club this year.  My wife got me passes to race Ferraris!”

So what did I get my husband for our first newlywed Christmas?  This is terrible…I can’t remember! What I do remember was deciding to open our gifts for one another on Christmas Eve instead of during the big family hubub of Christmas Day. It has become a tradition to light a fire, pop a bottle of champagne and open our gifts privately.

Moral Of The Story: No matter what you end up buying your spouse, the time you spend together will end up being what you remember.  Try not to over emphasize the gift…emphasize the love!

What are you all getting your hard to buy for spouses this year? We’d love to hear from you in a comment.

Family Gift Giving 101: Newlywed Holiday Etiquette

Newlywed Holiday Etiquette

Newlywed holiday etiquette, it’s so important! The holidays are filled with happiness, love, good food, great friends, and the creation of many wonderful memories.  However, for many, this time of year also comes with great stress, as one is forced to consider the etiquette of gift giving within a new family. 

It is absolutely wonderful to give a gift  and enjoy the look of thrill that comes with opening it, but giving a gift to a person who wasn’t expecting it often means giving a handful of guilt as well. When you are the one on the receiving end, with nothing to give in return, it can be horribly embarrassing.  So now that you’re part of a new family, how do you know who you are supposed to buy for and how much to spend?

Who Should You Be Buying For? This is often the first question asked in new marriages.  While it might be obvious what gifts need to be purchased on your side of the family, because you are very familiar with the traditions, it can be far more difficult deciding which relatives of your spouse will expect a present. One of the easiest ways to figure this out is to inquire about the annual holiday events.  Is there a big get-together with the extended family?  Who attends it?  Are gifts exchanged and how? 

In many families, especially large families, it is nearly impossible to get a gift for every member, so names will be drawn from a hat so each person buys just one gift.  Others may choose to have a gift swap for which each person brings one or two wrapped gifts and names are drawn deciding the order in which participants choose from the table of presents. 

Knowing what happens at your spouse’s holiday gatherings can often save you a great deal of worry.  If you are still unsure of the situation, consider stockpiling a few small items wrapped and on hand for unexpected circumstances. Consider small ornaments, kitchen gadgets, scarfs, candles  or other items that anyone might enjoy and if someone gives you a gift who you haven’t shopped for, use one of these standbys to prevent an uncomfortable situation.

How Much Should You Spend? This question should not have a universal answer.  Each family faces a different set of financial circumstances.  Staying on budget with your holiday shopping should be the primary goal, rather than worrying about what others are going to shell out for gifts.  Create a budget for what you can afford, who you need to buy for, and divide the total among them.  That way, there will be no question as to whether or not you have spent enough – you have spent what you can afford.

As a final note, in some families, there will be a price limit set for gifts.  If that is the case, abide by the guideline, even if you feel that it is really too little.  This avoids embarrassing those who can’t afford to spend more.

Are you anxious about holiday shopping for your in-laws this year? Hopefully our newlywed holiday etiquette explanations helped.  Stay tuned for our Top 10 In-Law gifts post later this week!