After your amazing wedding day and you arrive back from your honeymoon there are still a few important things that you need to do (after you open all of your wedding gifts of course!!). Check out the information below to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Unwanted Gifts

If you have ended up with three cheeseboards or other gifts you do not want or need you can work out if there are any gifts you can refund or exchange or you can even sell them online. Try to be sensitive to your guests feelings but they would rather you have something you can use then something that will remain untouched.

Finances & Paperwork

Becoming Mr & Mr or Mrs and Mrs may mean that you will want to make changes to some of your finances.

You may wish to consider the following:

• • Will you be changing your surname?
  • Do you want a joint bank account?
  • Will you both be named on your mortgage?
  • Can you achieve any financial advantage by filing a joint tax return?
  • Do you need to inform your insurance companies you are married in case it affects your policy?
  • Have you thought about writing a will or amending your existing will?
  • Will your bills now be in joint names?

Inheritance Tax Planning and gay marriage
Gay married couples will be able to pass assets on to their surviving partner without paying inheritance tax. If you are not legally married you will not be seen as the next of kin. If your partner dies the estate can be passed on to you without paying any Inheritance Tax Charge.

Capital Gains Tax and gay marriage
This tax is payable when people give away or sell an asset where the value of which has increased. If you are legally married you can give assets to one another without paying capital gains tax.

Income tax and gay marriage
In gay marriage the higher income earner can reduce their tax payments by giving an income-producing asset to the lower earner, whom pays tax at a lower rate. The donor loses control of the asset.

Pensions and gay marriage
When you are legally married you can claim a state pension from the National Insurance contributions of a deceased civil partner.

Send Thank You Notes

Your guests came to your wedding and took the trouble to bring you a present now you should formally thank them individually by sending them a thank you card.

Make a list of who attended your wedding and if you can soon after your wedding day record who bought you what present – not so you can see who is the most generous – but so you can refer personally to their gift. Write your thank you notes within two months of your wedding so ensure you order your thank you cards in good time. Try to make each card as personal as possible and if your guests gave you money then tell them how you have or how you will spend the money. Our Pink Proposal Range offers a stunning choice of gay wedding stationary and some lovely gay wedding thank you cards.

Gay Parenting

Becoming a gay parent

Gay marriage and now gay parenting – what on earth will be next we hear the homophobes cry! Just because you are in a gay relationship doesn’t mean that you cannot have children. There is evidence to suggest that children born from a gay relationship are often emotionally secure and live perfectly happy stable lives. The number of gay couples choosing to become parents is sharply on the incline so explore your options and consider if you would like to raise a family together. After your honeymoon of course! Search now for potential co-parents and sperm donors.

There are more and more gay people quietly getting on with their lives and having babies with or without gay marriage. This has been a growing trend for several years now in fact the number of lesbians having fertility treatment to become pregnant has doubled in the last year. It’s only when there is a gay celebrity baby that every starts talking about it.

There is no evidence to suggest that being gay means your child will grow up to be any less stable than a child from a heterosexual relationship. In fact recent studies have demonstrated that children growing up with gay parents have positive psychological outcomes.

Wills

Until gay marriage became legal lesbians and gay men had no legal status if they lost their partner or if a family decided to cut off the surviving partner. Registering a gay marriage will give you next of kin status and important tax protection.

If you have already made a will prior to your gay marriage then it is very likely that your Will may not be valid unless you have specifically made reference to your gay marriage.

In the UK if you have entered into a civil partnership and you die without a valid Will then the first £125,000 of your assets will go to your next of kin that is your surviving civil partner.

If you leave more than £125,000 and have children then your partner will get £125,000 and a life interest in half of the remainder, your children would get the rest. If you have no children but your parents are alive your partner would get £200,000 and half of the excess amount. The rest would go to your parents. Brothers and sisters will only inherit what the parents would have received if the parents are deceased. Please note these figures are under review.

Gay Divorce

Gay divorce is otherwise known as ‘Dissolution’. Inevitably some relationships do go wrong and the grounds for dissolution can include unreasonable behaviour. The term ‘adultery’ isn’t classed as grounds for dissolution as the word means extra-marital relations with a member of the opposite sex. Gay marriage ends on annulment, death or formal dissolution. You cannot apply for dissolution within the first year of marriage.

If there is a dispute then it may be necessary for the Court to decide how property and income is to be divided, who is to care for the children and who may stay in the family home.