As your wedding day approaches, gifts from family and friends begin pouring in…hooray! You’ll also start receiving wedding checks. Monetary gifts are wonderful, as they allow you to purchase exactly what you want/need for married life, but they can occasionally cause trouble at the bank.

Well-meaning relatives LOVE to write checks to Mr. and Mrs. Jones. Which is great, if you’re planning to change your name to Jones, but what if you’re hyphenating or not changing your name after marriage, or if your spouse is taking your name?

Name change does make cashing
wedding checks tricky

However, if you both set up a joint bank account before your wedding, most banks will allow you to sign the checks and deposit them regardless of what versions of your names appear on the check. If a check is made out to both you and your spouse, then when you are depositing checks with two names, make sure that you both sign the back of it.

If you run into a clerk that is a stickler for the rules, you can wait to deposit the check until you can present a certified copy of your marriage certificate. The other solution? Use the ATM machine to deposit your checks. I deposited wedding checks written to my maiden, married and misspelled last names with zero issues!

Also keep in mind that in most cases you do not need to pay taxes on when depositing wedding checks.

Wedding Check Deposit Tips:

1. Create a joint bank account BEFORE your wedding
2. If a wedding check is made out to both of you, make sure that you both sign it before depositing
3. You can use your certified marriage certificate to deposit checks made out to your married name
4. When all else fails…use the ATM machine for your wacky wedding check deposits!