Fiancé and I are intending to get married in early September 2019, and I intend to take his surname. The problem is that I'll be graduating in mid July 2019 and I would like my degree to display my married name rather than my maiden name as this is the name I will be using professionally and, hopefully, for the majority of my life.
I have contacted my university and they have told me the following:
- The degree will only be issued with the name I have in their student records.
- They will only change my name in the student records if they receive evidence of legal name change, such as a marriage certificate or deed poll.
- This evidence must be received before July 2019.
- The degree cannot be reissued with a different name at a later date.
I'm not really sure what to do from here. It appears to be a lot of paperwork and a fee if I change my name by deed poll in advance but my main concern here is won't the marriage certificate be issued in that name? In which case our marriage certificate would be the marriage of e.g. John Smith and Jane Smith rather than John Smith and Jane Doe. And I would assume this is the name I would have to state during the marriage ceremony as well?
Moving the wedding forward doesn't seem like a very feasible option as we have already moved it forwards by about 8 months from our original planned wedding date. We intend for our wedding to be very small and low-cost already and I fear that by moving it forward any further it would become a complete non-event due to the lack of time to plan anything.
Has anyone got any experience, advice, or just thoughts about the situation? I'm a bit stuck at the moment and I'll take just about anything. Thanks in advance!
