12 Must Know Things That You Must Do After Getting Married

Just got married? Congratulations! I know that you must feel relieved to finally get through the wedding planning process. Now it is all about getting the remaining things off your list and off to your honeymoon. However, there are many things to do after getting married and after your honeymoon that you must know. Don’t worry I got you covered, here are a few things that you must do after getting married. Let’s cross it off your list.

1. Ensure your Wedding Vendors are Paid

The last thing you want is to have lingering payments or messages during your honeymoon asking for money. Therefore after the ceremony, make sure you pay all your wedding vendors. You will want to get a receipt for each person ahead of time so you know how much money you owe in order to pay everyone before leaving the reception site.

If you don’t want to be the one to give the money to the vendors, then you can assign someone at your wedding party to hand it out or transfer the money the day before. I chose to have all my vendors paid before the wedding and then provide tips in a thank you card that was distributed the night of my wedding.

2. Organize Wedding Rental Returns

After your wedding day, there will likely be a lot of last-minute details to take care of such as your wedding rental returns. I know that was the case for me when I was planning my wedding. Make sure that you have all the rental items ready for pick up or packaged up to be dropped off at the post office. The last thing you need is to end up paying extra fees because your items were late or not fully returned properly.

3. Pack for Your Honeymoon

If you have booked your honeymoon in advance then all you have to do is pack your suitcase. I recommend packing in advance so that all you have to do is add a few remaining essentials. Don’t forget to snag a free honeymoon packing list, if you are looking for some ideas about what to pack for your honeymoon.

6. Open presents

When you get back from your honeymoon, don’t forget to open your gifts! Your guests are going to want to know if the item arrived if they ordered to have it shipped to your home. Make sure that you are making note of who sent you each present or gave you a card of money. This is going to help you out when you are writing your thank you cards.

7. Write all your Thank-you Cards

Writing as many thank you cards as you will be can seem daunting. What do you write on a wedding thank you card? Check out my article here if you need some wording inspiration. If you don’t want to write on thank you cards, you can always send text messages expressing how appreciative you are for the gift or even take the time to have a phone call with the person or even send a short video message. These are all great ways to make your thank you notes personable.

8. Make it Instagram + Facebook Official

Don’t forget to keep the celebration going by sharing the good news over your social media. Of course, maybe stick to sharing this until the next day as you should be staying in the beautiful moment. There is not going to be a moment like this again, therefore don’t allow your phones to distract you from fully appreciating the moment in front of you. Then you can take the time to share a photo, add a caption with your big news and make your status on Facebook official!

Related: How to Make A Wedding Hashtag

9. Close out your Wedding Registry

If you set up a wedding registry, you should think about when you plan on closing your wedding registry. It is best to have it up a little longer in case there are some family members or friends who are still planning on getting you a gift however do not keep it open for too long. If there are some lingering gifts that you still want, you can use the money received from the cards in your card box or gift cards that were given to purchase them yourself.

10. Receive your Marriage Certificate

There is a set amount of days before you are able to apply to get your marriage certificate. Make sure that you check the required days needed before you apply within your city. Once you have passed the required days, you are ready to fill out the form needed to have your certificate on hand. This is something you will need in order to change your last name and more.

11. Change your Name

If you want to change your last name to match your husband or wife, this will require your marriage certificate to show proof that you are married. Make sure you have identification when you apply to have your name changed. Here are a few official documents you can change your name on:

• Driver’s Licenses
• Health Card
• Sin Card (or Social Security)
• Passports
• Bank Accounts
• Credit Cards
• Utility Bills

12. Change your Marital Status on Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)

If you live in Canada like me, then you should change the status on your account. This is something that can be easily missed if you are unaware that you need to make this change. It is important that this gets done as it plays a role in your tax information for tax season. In fact, something that I learned is that you must tell the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) about your marital status by the end of the following month. Click the link to find out more information here.