Changing to your married name before Trip?

Oh the great and powerful Dis! I'm hoping some of you may be able to shed some light(and no doubt realities) on this question please!

DFi and I will be getting married May/June next year and then a Disney trip, or Disneymoon, come November 2016. Reading up on the Ontario government websites it can take 10 weeks for your marriage to be registered, and I believe its only then, once I get a certificate, I can go in and assume my husbands last name and get drivers and health cards changed.. which takes 4-6 weeks and then I believe I can change my passport, which takes about 20 days. So that comes out to about 19 weeks give or take. Which takes me to end of October.

Does this sound about right? Anyone recently tie the knot who can confirm? I asked my few married friends but they can't remember now as its been a few years(and kids) since it happened. I would really love to travel with my married name. I know that your passport and travel documents must be all under the same name, hence why I'm trying to crunch the numbers.

Oh, and yes no firm wedding date. We're going to be going to City Hall which bookings for that time frame doesn't open till end of the year.

The only thing I can comment on is the passport part. When my husband became a Canadian Citizen he needed his passport for a trip to the US and we literally went from the Citizenship Ceremony to the passport office and paid the extra to get his passport within 48 hours. We are lucky to have a passport office in Kitchener, which is about 20 kms from our home in Guelph. If this is the last thing you would need to get, you could always pay the extra to make sure your documents were good to go.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding, I will be celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary on Tuesday Aug 4, the day before our trip to Florida!

When I got married in SK (about 10 years ago) I was able to start changing my name right away using the marriage documents given to me by our officiant. Sometime it took a few weeks for my new cards to come in but I would think that if you start right away you shouldn't have any problems getting your new passport in time.

canadiankim said:

The only thing I can comment on is the passport part. When my husband became a Canadian Citizen he needed his passport for a trip to the US and we literally went from the Citizenship Ceremony to the passport office and paid the extra to get his passport within 48 hours. We are lucky to have a passport office in Kitchener, which is about 20 kms from our home in Guelph. If this is the last thing you would need to get, you could always pay the extra to make sure your documents were good to go.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding, I will be celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary on Tuesday Aug 4, the day before our trip to Florida!

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That is true! They do have an expedited service for passports, although hoping to not have to use it and save some $$$. Good to remember and note that its an option though!

And thank you so much! Very excited to finally be married to each other! Congratulations on 25years! No better place to celebrate then Florida and being close to the mouse!

jcourtney said:

When I got married in SK (about 10 years ago) I was able to start changing my name right away using the marriage documents given to me by our officiant. Sometime it took a few weeks for my new cards to come in but I would think that if you start right away you shouldn't have any problems getting your new passport in time.

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Ooooh interesting! I like this possibility! Hoping that might be the case here. I honestly find the government websites lacking in detailed information. I may try calling them to clarifiy....hopefully I can get someone who knows what they are talking about though! lol.

If you take your marriage certif and your current passport directly to the passport office to have it done, it should take less time. We've got a passport office close to us, and it usually takes between 7 to 10 business days, sometimes even quicker, depending on how busy they are. They do ask if you've got a trip pending when you have it done, so mention you will be travelling outside Canada soon. It's extremely important to have your married name added to your passport. I had this done many years ago, and boy that passport got alot more attention than normal. We went on our honeymoon a month after 9-11, and I had to explain many times why there was 2 names on my passport. They typically add a page to your passport near the front stating what your married name is. For the small of the cost of having this done to your passport it saves a great deal of problems.

Oooh thanks for the tip! We had our passports done two years, wasn't at dedicated passport office though so maybe if I take a morning off work and head over to one it will help process it a little faster! Noted!!

Woo! Starting to feel a little better about this! I also called the registry office and they said a marriage certificate will be closer to 4-6 weeks then the 10 weeks it says online. Fingerscrossed!