we know it’s not the norm but hear us out.

when we got engaged the idea of name changing came up in conversation, just like it does for most couples. we went back and forth for well over a year about who would change their name, why we wanted to do it, what names mean to us as individuals and as a couple. honestly, this was the hardest decision we made while planning the wedding. we both feel a deep attachment and appreciation to our own family names, and neither of us felt like giving that connection up in favor of the others was a fair ask.

as time passed, we realized how much we wanted to share a name and appreciated the symbolism of being a family that a name gives you. choosing a new, unrelated name was suggested to us and it finally like a really good compromise. we both will move our last name to a middle name and we selected a name we both love and felt connected to. so when we get married, we won’t be mr. and mrs. hartzler or mcneely, we will be the wilders and we are excited for it :)

we wanted to pick something inspired by the natural world and had loose meaning to us. one of our favorite runs at Taos (the mountain we ride) and the one we skied after getting engaged is called Wild West. west is taken by a certain celeb family, so we went with wild and then altered to wilder so it sounded more like a last name.

we know its a change and are down to answer questions you have <3