married name

Nov302010

Scammers Abound – Even (Especially?) in the Wedding World

I just had a pretty eye-opening experience. A mere month and a half after we got married, I decided to finally order our marriage certificate. Yeah yeah, I’m a slacker. You don’t have to tell me.

Anyhow, I’d received 2 letters in the mail shortly after the wedding with 2 different websites to order our marriage certificate from. They both had our certificate number and looked official enough. I didn’t think much of them, and put them away. Today, as I went to finally order the certificate, I pulled the letters out. Different addresses, different prices, different websites. Weird, right?

First I DM’d my go-to everything wedding Vegas girl, Jennifer, then started digging around on the Clark County website. As it turns out, it WAS weird to get those 2 letters. On the Vegas Recorder page, there is an “Important Consumer Alert” front and center telling recent married couples that other sites aren’t legit and aren’t associated with the court house.

These companies may charge significantly more for copies of documents than what a customer would pay if requesting certified copies directly from the Clark Country Recorder’s Office.

Wow. Just wow.

Marriage capital of the world and of course there’s scammers!

The good news is that the certificate has been ordered and from the official site so my credit card is [hopefully] still safe. Good thing I know to check up on these things before blindly handing my credit card over to random people!

I sure do hope more people dig around before ordering stuff online.

And so ends my PSA of the day. =D

spacer
Sep052010

Life Update

I debated long and hard about not posting my dress online. And I lost... to myself. So I present you with my wedding dress. Kindly ignore the super-fab hair turban. I was fresh from the shower. =D

I know, you probably miss my wedding chatter, right? (I didn’t think so.) Are you enjoying reading the 30 Days of Becca? I’m having fun writing it.

There hasn’t been a whole lot of wedding-related stuff happening lately. Hopefully you’re following my antics over on TweetMyWedding, though I do cross post my entries here. This week, I had my first (and only) fitting of my wedding dress. All it needed was an adjustment to the straps. And, well, a larger bust section*, but that’s not happening.

After contacting several Vegas hair and make-up artists about a month ago, I realized that my time is ticking down quite rapidly. I finally booked Storybook Brides after checking their reviews on WeddingWire, Facebook, and even their web page. Yes, they were the cheapest and I’m hoping that doesn’t bite me in the butt. I’ve emailed the owner several times and she seems very nice and responds quickly. All her reviews on WW are really positive. For an updo, it is $80 and they’ll come to our hotel room. I’m doing my own make-up, which means I need to practice! It’s been a while since I’ve worn make-up and even longer (never) since I’ve put on photo-worthy make-up.

The problem now is that I really need some awesome pictures of updo’s that can hold my heavy-ish veil. This is where all y’all can help me. Thrilling, yes? My hair is a few inches below my shoulders. In October, in the middle of the afternoon, the temperature should be roughly 70 degrees. During October, temps fluctuate between the low 50s and the 80s. Holy gorgeous, Batman! What was I talking about? Right, hair. I tend to get very hot and always put my hair up. Add to that about 5-7 pounds of yarn. Basically, as beautiful as a half updo would be, I think it needs to be totally up. Sooooo, feel free to post me links or pictures of hair you’ve seen that you think might work. Thanks!

I ended up re-branding myself 6 weeks before my marriage officially change my name. I changed my Facebook name, my LinkedIn name, and even reserved a twitter name. Everything is set and pending for all my networking tools and websites. I’ve also created a new website (BeccaCreative.com) as I am changing my last name, which means everything branded as RIB-Art Designs is now outdated. The timing couldn’t be better as ribartdesigns.com is set to expire on 9/18/10. For the first time, I am letting a domain expire!

Tweet: I need a job. MBA, social media fiend.. loves marketing/ PR/ whatever. i’ll even do admin work. i’m not picky. is your Miami company hiring?
In non-wedding related news, I kinda need a new job. By new, I mean either part-time or full-time with somewhat flexible hours. I do have a job, sure, but it’s extremely part-time. When the work is done, I have to leave which means extremely diminished hours and paycheck. Yes, I am blessed and thankful to have a job, I just need more money to be able to pay our joint and my personal bills.

Ideally I’d love to do social media, marketing, graphics design or even admin work. Preference for work is south Kendall, Homestead or anywhere easily accessible from the turnpike since we’re literally right off the pike. I have been using both Twitter and Facebook to find personal connections in my network that work at companies I’ve found with ads. It’s my own version of LinkedIn’s network… sorta. I’m really not picky. We just need the extra cash. Steve just started a great new (and well-paying!) job, but I still need the money for my half of the stuff.

Tweet: looking for place to have a bday dinner near the Falls on 9/17 or 18. suggestions please! & consider yourself invited if you’re in SoFla =D
In other other news, my birthday is coming up! It’s not a milestone or anything, that’s next year. This year I’m turning 34. Next year we’ll hopefully have a big party for my 35th. I’ve trying to find a good place in a place central to Homestead and Ft Lauderdale, which somewhat seems to be The Falls area. PF Changs was suggested, which is amusing as I’ve celebrated at the Durham PF Changs for the last 2 birthdays. I’d like to try something different, something very Miami, and not a chain place. Any ideas?

So how are you doing? What’s new in your life? If you have a blog I should be reading, feel free to link it up here. I’m an avid Google reader girl and can always use more blogs to check out.

spacer
Aug312010

Aug 31 TMW Post

Tweet: i so want to change all my screen names now to make sure i get them after i print them on my business cards. 42 days left..

To go along with last week’s TMW post, I am designing business cards. Well, more like personal calling cards as I don’t really have a business. Yet. Anyhow, I changed my Facebook username (yes, already), reserved a new twitter name, changed my LinkedIn profile name and am debating changing my Foursquare name to my married name. I also reserved and started using my married name Gmail address. The only thing I wasn’t able to change was my Etsy username, but c’est la vie… nothing I can do about that.

What steps have you taken to change your name after marriage, if you are changing it, that is?

Tweet: my mom described my wedding as “a bunch of 30somethings romping around Vegas for a few days” which i think is quite amusing & accurate.

Oh wow… this made me SO happy! We’re just over 6 weeks away from our weeklong trip to Vegas with about 10 of our friends and my younger brother. My brother’s amazing girlfriend and I have been discussing the various shows we want to see. We’re also planning a day trip to the Grand Canyon and, of course, casino hopping. She also wants to find and ride all the roller coasters up and down the Strip. I, on the other hand, will be perfectly happy taking pictures of her on said coasters. =D

We’re staying at the Luxor, so the far south end. I’ve already checked out the monorail and shuttle system to get us around town without a car or too much walking. Steve and I both have bum right feet (self-diagnosed as Plantar Fasciitis) so we’d really like to not have to hike the full 4+ miles of the Strip.

I haven’t looked too much into restaurants to be sure to eat at, but Emeril’s Steakhouse is a must visit for us. And the Flamingo buffet. We want the unique to Vegas places. No chains for us! That’s actually my rule of thumb for almost all my vacations; to get the full experience.

Are you a Vegas fan? What are your favorite must-see shows? What about favorite restaurants?

spacer
Aug242010

August 24 TMW Post

Tweet: i’m having a major crisis of uniqueness.. my name goes from being 100% unique to utterly common in 50 days. 100s have my married name..

So, @celestialaxis and I were discussing this the other day. My name is currently 100% unique. I’ve checked. If you google my name, every result will be me. When I googled my married name, I found 38,100 results of hundreds of different people. Do you know how horrible that is? Yes, I am taking my fiancé’s last name. No, I do not want to hyphenate. Basically, I’m having a crisis of my identity. But no, not an identity crisis. I know who I am.. but, well, you know what I mean. I will become Mrs. Rebecca Maiden-name Married-name in a mere 47 days.

A big part of this crisis stemmed from my latest business plan. I am crafty (hello DIY bride!) and wanted to revamp my etsy storefront. Along with that revamping, I was creating new business cards for myself. Up until now, I never gave my personal brand a second thought. Since the moment I was born, I was MsRIB. My name has special meanings to me, not because I am the last of the line (I have 2 brothers) but because my father named me after himself. He signs his artwork MrRIB. MrsRBF doesn’t have the same ring to it. By the way, I’m not changing my twitter name.

Did you/ are you changing your name after marriage?

spacer
Jan192010

Married Name Email Address

apparently rebecca fletcher, & most all variations of it, are taken on gmail. #marriedname

whatcha think: ribfletcher, beccafletcher10 or fletcher.becca for my #marriedname email addy? currently is becca.benaim

beccafletcher42 is also available

beccafletcher42 it is..

I have always identified with my name. Not the “duh” statement that it sounds like, but because my father named me after him. That is, he gave me his initials: RIB. And in just shy of 9 months, I will be losing my awesome initials. I made the decision not to hyphenate and to just have 2 middle names. My mom did it, but uses her maiden name on legal documents instead of both. I just don’t feel right saddling our kids with a huge last name just to keep mine. I am thrilled to be taking on Steve’s last name.

However, I will go from being 100% unique to quite common. Every time I Google my name, I know I will be every one of the results. I was told a few months ago by a friend that I will be the third Rebecca Fletcher on her facebook page after I change my name. Utterly common. But hey, my name will be easy to spell and pronounce!

This morning a twitter friend mentioned securing her married name’s email address. I tried so many different combinations before finally landing on benaimfletcher42. My maiden, my married, and the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” 42 is also the binary number of our wedding date. Oh yes, I went there. I admit to my geekiness!

42 is also something I’ve been contemplating for my next tattoo…

spacer