so how does one go about changing one's maiden name when it was not changed on the marriage license? this has been bothering me for months now. you see, when we went to the county recorder's office to get our marriage license they had us sign it right there (which i thought was a bit odd at the time i'd always thought it was signed after the wedding, but i figured that i was just nervous and excited). when i asked how i should sign it, i was told to use my "legal name". now my legal name at the time was my maiden name (obviously) and all of my official documents (driver's license, passport, student visa, university registration, etc) had that name. since we were moving internationally in a matter of weeks, i was not about to change anything; but i wanted to be able to at some point in the future.
so i signed the marriage license with my legal name, my maiden name. and thought very little of it for the next year and a bit (except for when i had my passport stolen and needed to get it replaced...).
a few months ago my family was drawing up some legal documents and needed my legal name. my parents called and said that according to the lawyer, it was "whatever i'd put down on the marriage license". i was nearly shocked - i almost felt less married (which is completely silly)...

so now i'm stuck, i want to change my name to my husband's. but all of the instructions seem to imply that in order to do that with out going to court, i need to have signed the marriage license with the name i wanted to take. so now i don't know what to do...