Name changing.. hmm.

Because I'm so excited about the actual wedding -- I sometimes forget the bigger picture here: marriage.

And my visions of "marriage" and what it is to be "married" and how we'll change [if at all] once we are "married" go hand-in-hand with dreams of a family, a cute house [maybe a vacation home somewhere nice], growing old together, etc., etc., etc., -- you know, the whole "shabang!".

But along with the topic of "marriage" [unlike the topic of the "wedding"] comes different decisions -- one may say, more important decisions than which flowers are on each guest table or which cake bakery we choose. Things like money after the wedding, and actually buying a house, and actually living together for the rest of our lives, and how we'll function as a "married" couple, work out problems as a "married" couple and survive as a "married" couple are [in my mind] the most important things to think about and to actually work out.

However, one thing that I didn't think about at all, [until now that is -- and ONLY because everyone keeps asking me] is what my name will be once we are married.

And why didn't I think about it? I mean, really think about...

Sure, when we got engaged I kept saying "I'm going to be Mrs. Duffy!"... [says on repeat for days]. But when people started asking me if I would change my name -- I thought two things:

1. Why wouldn't I?

and then,

2. Why should I?

Now, I'm not questioning my name changing choice because I'm a feminist who doesn't want to conform into my husband to-be blah, blah, blah. That's not the case.

But, I'm almost a little sad that if I only take his name -- my name, or what was my name for 23 years will no longer exist! How strange!

So, of course, I have the option of hyphenating my name. Except that my current name is already hyphenated -- so, I could potentially have two hyphens! That's a little much.

But taking into consideration the fact that I don't have a middle name -- keeping my name and adding Sean's on to the end would still be very doable but is it necessary? I mean, if when we have kids, I would want them to have his name and not mine. So what is the point of keeping my name at all, if not to "pass" it down.

...So basically this is the [most important] lingering decision to be made...

One thing I'm sure of: I'm glad I have the choice. =)