A very interesting thread this one, people often ask about FLR, commonly known as a visa extension, visa extensions can be obtained not just for fiancee's who marry in the UK, but also for spouses who married in the Philippines but failed to enter the UK within a reasonable period, generally because the qualifying period for indefinate leave to remain starts from the date a visa is issued in the overseas British mission, this can cause problems later on.
Applicants who enter the UK are advised in all cases to come straight away, this gives the full 6 months to arrange the wedding, it is not neccessary to have a passport name change at the Philippine Embassy.
And in any event the passport holders name remains the same, only an annotation on a seperate page is made by the Philippine consular officer to show that the passport holder is using her married name.
This in the past has caused problems with other foreign embassies where visa's are issued for travel, for example the Chinese embassy will not issue a visa in the married persons name, they will only issue the visa in the passport holders name, that is the name on the last page where the passport number and paticulars are, they seem to ignore the amendments page completely.
As to sending off the application for FLR, this should be done as soon as the marriage is completed, however, the Home Office will allow the passport holder to remain in the UK whilst their case is considered, provided all the paperwork is in order, the payment for the fee is made, and the application is straight forward with the required evidence.
It should be a formality to be issued with a new visa, this is the general trend, so sending off the application near to the expiry, in itself does not present a problem, the earliest an application can be sent is normally 21 days prior to the expiry of the current visa.
I hope this clears up the situation in the future.