I was so excited about wearing my band but Troy said I needed to wait until the wedding. It's less than two months away now. The time is going to fly by as we still have so much to do but the time will seem so far away before we can wear the bands we got each other.

On the bright side, having the license has made "getting married" seem so much more real. A lot of the things that we have done for the wedding was essentially to prepare for a party. 

It also addressed a couple of my concerns. I was able to retain my last name by adding it to my middle name. I had read that some places required a court order in order to change the middle name so I was relieved that it was as simple as designating my desire in an application form.

Another thing that removed a load off my shoulders was getting an answer to how soon I could get a certified copy of the marriage certificate after the wedding. I planned my wedding to be before my birthday which was also when my license was going to expire. I wanted to renew the card and do the name change in one go. The thing was that the wedding was two weeks before my wedding so I did not know how quickly things could get done. It turned out that instead of mailing the license, I could go to the County Clerk-Recorder on the Monday after the wedding to submit the completed license and receive the certificate and copies. With that in hand, I could then go to the Social Security Administration to legally change my name, followed by a stop at the DMV to renew my license under my new name. 

I hope that information helps anyone getting married in Santa Clara County and had the same questions.

I found the workshop helpful with hands-on practice of the skills that they taught us. We also participated in exercises to help us learn about each other. I liked how the couple who led the class were psychologists who had worked with a lot of couples in their clinical practices and in the workshops. They shared their own experiences and instead of making us feel inferior with their perfect marriage, showed us that no marriage is perfect and that what was important was how we handled the conflicts and challenges.

Although Troy and I like to do the bulk of the planning ourselves, I really liked that I will have Mega's help with the details in planning. She would also make the actual wedding day more worry-free for us since she would take care of the business details, coordinating the schedules and key players to make sure that everything will go smoothly.

With a lot of the burden removed from my shoulders, I can feel excited again about the wedding, and I won't feel the urge to elope. :)