I was completely clear on the fact that I wanted Holly to change her name after we got married. It was never something I thought about, but as soon as it came up, I realized that I really wanted her to do it. It was one of those times when I surprised myself by skewing uber-traditional. Holly was pretty mellow about it. After all, she’s the one who wanted the wedding. I mean, it's not like I didn't want one -- but she knew I could have lived without it. The point is she understood that this was something that I wanted and that she could give to me, and since I was giving her what she wanted by getting hitched, a swap of sorts was fair. This might sound weird, but I really liked the idea that it would be on paper. I was (and still am) into it being really clear that we are married. By the time we actually said “I do,” we'd already built a life together, and I liked having it represented under a shared last name. We were really committed before, but since we were taking the plunge, my feeling was, “Why not go for all the details?”
I think that (for me, personally) all the little formalities helped enforce the overall mindset of being married. What do you think?