In my last post I talked about waiting to book our honeymoon. Well, we officially decided to wait until late January 2013 to book our “real” honeymoon to Antigua, so we decided to plan a so-to-speak ”mini-honeymoon” after the wedding.

So I know you are thinking, why plan a mini-honeymoon when we can just do the real thing? Well, MG Bear and I have a flight credit with Southwest that we have to use before October of this year, so instead of wasting the money we already spent we figured why not go somewhere after the wedding! Plus, we won’t be taking our week long trip to Myrtle Beach because of all this wedding stuff. We decided to go to Fort Lauderdale, Florida (which is only a 2 hour flight for us from Maryland) and after doing some research we found the Beach Comber Resort right on the beach! They have great prices on rooms and it looks perfect for the laid back vacation we are looking for.

We figured that after the stress of the wedding that it will be nice to take a little trip to the beach and enjoy ourselves. We are only going for four days so we don’t ruin the feel of the actual honeymoon. All I know, is I can’t wait to get my toes in the sand!

Well, I am happy to report that our honeymoon has been booked. This whole thing was the last bit of planning on our minds and much to a lot of our friends dismay we were thinking about just heading to Bar Harbor and enjoying Maine.

However, I rather enjoy checking out groupon and living social deals so one morning I noticed a deal on living social for a 5 night stay in an all inclusive resort in Cozumel! Between mister pom and myself we also have enough miles on the Star Alliance airlines to get us there for free! Now here’s hoping we can line up the days right…a lot of the time the redemption miles are very hard to book. But either way, boy are we excited! How did you all plan for your honeymoon? Have any if you been to Cozumel? I would love some tips on what to do there…other than lounge.

Today, I bought a scale. Yupp. I haven’t even taken it out of the box yet, but just the knowledge that it is sitting there waiting for me is a little more than daunting. That’s right. I’m officially on the “getting more fit for my wedding” bandwagon. That dress won’t look fabulous by itself (okay.. yes it would, but I’d still like to do my part ).

Kicking my butt into gear!

Let me explain. I’m currently a size up from my usual due to a very severe ankle sprain that occurred a few months ago in while in Ireland (two words: Irish cider). This kept me on the couch for a week and off the running track for almost three months. I’d definitely like to be back to my usual size if not a size smaller by the big day. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those brides that purposefully ordered her dress several sizes too small as an “incentive” to lose weight. My dress fit just fine when I tried it on in the bridal shop. And due to my shape and the cut of the dress (pear-shape for me, a-line with a fitted bodice and voluminous bottom for the dress), I can easily go up or down a few sizes and it will still fit me perfectly; a small blessing of being a pear girl is that my top half has stayed the same size no matter what and is therefore one less thing I have to worry about looks-wise. While a belly bulge is something that won’t be apparent in my gown, my arms will be out in their full glory. And you had better bet that I’ll be sporting some toned and sexy limbs that day! Time to get to lifting weights, I suppose!

Another motivation to tweak my fitness is the honeymoon! Clearly the future hubs is very attracted to me. But if we choose a tropical destination I’d like to not have to worry about covering up my “trouble areas” for the camera; you’re supposed to have fun and be carefree on your honeymoon! I’d love to be able to give my fiance the gift of me not being anxious about how I look in a swimsuit/photographs.

No dressing room freak-outs for me!

And so, here begins my journey! I’ll be stepping on the scale tomorrow morning. Dun dun dunnnnn! Have you Buds included fitness into your wedding planning? What are your goals?

I am so excited! We have officially booked out honeymoon! We were not sure what we wanted to do at first. We wanted to go lay on a beach in Hawaii, then we wanted to go to Europe. It was a really tough decision. We just weren’t sure if we wanted to go to an all inclusive place and relax or spend our time being tourists! I won a trip from the Kidd Kraddick Show in February to the Hard Rock Resort in Punta Cana that we are taking this year, so we didn’t need a beach for the honeymoon!!

So…we really wanted to do something different so we are going to Europe! We are going to Dublin and Paris!

Why Dublin and Paris? I use to live in Dublin for a study abroad and LOVED IT. Mr. Cherry was not able to visit me when I lived there- this is my chance to show him what are my favorite things about Dublin! We are going to stay here:

The Shelbourne

Our hotel is the city’s leading 5 star international luxury hotel. We are perfectly located in the heart of Dublin city centre overlooking the magnificent St. Stephen’s Green, only 30 minutes from Dublin Airport. Some of the hotel’s features include 265 guest rooms including 19 suites, 13 state-of-the-art meeting and event rooms ranging in size to accommodate up to 350 guests, and a superb choice of restaurants and lounges all within the hotel.

Some of the MUST see spots for us are..

         

It's so much fun!

The Dublin Ghost tour!

Guinness Factory!! (My photo..took when I lived there!!)

Love this! Took this last time!

Then off to Paris! We are staying the Grand Hotel Leveque!

ahh! I can see the Eiffel tower!

We will also be seeing things like this!

If you haven’t been able to tell yet- Paris is Mr. Cherry’s choice! I am learning about all the FANTASTIC places we will see.. be sure to give me your tips and tricks and places to see!!!! Where are you going on your honeymoon?

So a few weeks ago I blogged about where in the world Apricot Dude and I were going to go on our honeymoon. Well…..after lots of research, we decided to book our trip to the Bahamas! Apricot Dude and I were completely sold on the beautiful beaches, excellent reviews (both personal and from the internet), and a great professional recommendation from our travel agent.

So excited to play the course! I might even hit one in the ocean for the heck of it!

Here are just a few tips that we picked up on while working on our honeymoon plans. When looking at an all-inclusive resort, make sure you know what all is included. This leads me to my next tip and that is to work with a travel agent. Typically, there are not any extra fees associated with booking through your travel agent. Actually, you help them out quite a bit as they usually get a cut from the resort for booking a trip! Your travel agent should have a detailed layout of the inclusions from the resort. Another tid-bit I would share with those planning is to check into what extras or little bonuses you can have thrown into your package. Our awesome travel agent got us a $200 spa credit and $200 golf credit- both things I am SIKED about. My final tip is to ask questions if you don’t know the answer. We called Sandals to ask if airport transfers were included and sure enough- they were!

Our honeymoon villa suite!

My last piece of advice is to book early. Like our travel agent said, things aren’t going to become any cheaper. They will only grow in price. And if for some reason there is a decrease in price, you will typically be reimbursed in some fashion for the difference. So go out there and book your dream trip like Apricot Dude and I did!

Shortly after arriving in Atlanta, Georgia for our layover we called the parents to check-in and let them know we were safe on the ground at least for awhile. That’s when my mother-in-law broke the news. Her morning Facebook browsing uncovered that our aunt, uncle and co. would be leaving on the same cruise with us the next day!

I was originally seriously pissed, and here’s why: the family joining us on the honeymoon hadn’t bothered to RSVP in anything close to an official manner and didn’t show up at our wedding… but they were going on our honeymoon!

{Our personal photo}

Having the family on the same cruise as we were for our honeymoon was not ideal, but it turned out to be much less annoying and obtrusive as I had expected. Since we had different interests and there were 5,500 other people on the ship as well, we only ran into them a handful of times. They were kind enough to realize that we wanted to be left alone but also  pitched in a little to one evening a little special by sending a bottle of wine to our dining table.

Crazy stuff is going to happen with your wedding/honeymoon and sometimes you just have to roll with it.

We enjoyed a wonderful honeymoon cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas.

Although we were one of nearly 100 couples celebrating their honeymoon on board, the staff and other cruisers made our honeymoon special!

Here are a few photo highlights (no worries, it’s PG!)

(All photos contained in this post are from our personal files)

A beautiful hotel room with a beautiful view the night before.

A wonderful balcony to enjoy the Caribbean from.

Elegant formal nights and classy champagne that felt like a high class party.

Royal Caribbean honeymoon perks like towel swans, rose petals and chocolate.

Fun with new friends like the Dreamworks penguins!

Plenty of quiet places to spend romantic evenings.

We truly couldn’t have asked for a better honeymoon. We took over 1,000 pictures on our honeymoon, so there were plenty of memorable moments!

But stay tuned to hear about our potential honeymoon nightmare!

So Apricot Dude and I recently began our exploration into one of the best parts of wedding planning: HONEYMOON RESEARCH!!!!! I must say, I’m ready to just fast forward to June 10th next year and be on a beach. Sigh…………

Back to reality—call us crazy but we initially wanted to go to Tahiti! I’ve have heard nothing but incredible things about the area and thought that it would truly be a once in a lifetime trip. Well, after much research I realized that it might take up our once in a lifetime budget as well. Plane tickets alone were outrageous and we decided that we would be a bit more conservative in our spending. Another sigh….

So we have been looking in the Caribbean, Punta Cana and the Bahamas especially. I’m intrigued by Antigua just for its more private beaches and less of a popularity. The Sandals properties have been especially appealing. I have heard awesome things from friends who have went as well as online reviews. From the looks of it, the properties are clean, offer friendly service, private and just an overall great experience. We are leaning towards the newest Sandals, their Emerald Bay property in the Bahamas.

Sandals Emerald Bay Pool (Photo Courtesy Sandals.com)

Sandals Emerald Bay Resort (Photo courtesy of Sandals.com)

I’m enjoying the research but finding that this decision is tough! We have turned to a travel agent for some help….maybe they can sneak us on a flight to Tahiti! I’ll keep you posted on our decision.

What are your thoughts on all-inclusive resorts? Worth it?

After countless days of trying to figure out a great package for our honeymoon and contacting travel agents…I finally booked our honeymoon.

{Allure of the Seas}

We have decided to go on a 7 day cruise to the Caribbeans on the newest and BIGGEST ship in the world called Allure of the Seas (Royal Caribbean).  My aunt told me that this was the most fun cruise she’s ever been on.  She told me it has the best entertainment and activities.  Even if you have to be stuck on the ship for all 7 days, there’s so much stuff to do that you won’t be bored!  Lol…so guess what I’m excited for the most?  Well, other then spending time with my future hubby.  I’m stoked about going on the giant water slide that starts from half of the ship to the front!!  =)  I’ll probably be the only adult in line amongst a whole bunch of kids anxiously trying to go on the slide.  And if those kids try to butt in front of me, they won’t hear the end of it!  JK of course.

Why a Cruise?
Even though it would be nice to stay in a nice hotel on the sandy beaches of Hawaii (which was our other option), I think we would get bored after a while.  We’re not the type that just can sit and relax all day.  Plus, I don’t want the hassle of planning excursions and contacting different people to see which one has a reasonable cost.  Not only that, your meal is covered on the cruise, there’s entertainment, on board activities, and if you’re a social butterfly…you’ll always get a chance to meet someone new.  =)  With the cruise, it has everything you need on one ship.  The crew pretty much plans everything for you…which is very nice after planning a wedding.  Furthermore, going on a cruise may be cheaper then going for a 7 day trip at a luxurious hotel.

Click Here for more info about the Allure of the Seas

Shop Around: Before booking your cruise, make sure to shop around.  Call up different agents to see what prices they can get you and other special deals they could offer.  Other great traveling websites you should check out is travelocity and expedia.

We booked our July 2011 honeymoon in August 2010. Choosing our honeymoon destination was quite the long, elaborated story for two people who want to travel the world (practically). So I’m going to do this in segments. Today: how we chose!

Mr. Magnolia and I decided to prioritize the honeymoon, allocating quite a large budget to it. It will be the first time we take a proper trip together – if we exclude road trips, of course. We decided to give ourselves two and a half weeks for our honeymoon.

So we started thinking about where to go. With our budget and time frame, we could go to Europe.

Oh, Paris, how we long to visit thee.

I went to Europe in August 2009. I knew that Euro trips are a lot of sight-seeing, walking around, and as gorgeous as they are, they are also exhausting.

Since it’s our honeymoon, and we’re going to *already* be exhausted from buying a house, moving, wedding preparations, and the wedding itself… we decided to unwind and relax on our honeymoon.

In casual discussions, Hawaii came up. I started googling, and kept noticing how many people thought Kauai was the most beautiful island in Hawaii.

Kauai was a real contender. But then I came across some “cons”: apparently there are roosters that crow at all hours (umm… so much for relaxation), and the deal-breaker: the fact that we’d have to take 2 stops (so three flights) in order to get there. With my motion sickness. I wasn’t really super excited about this.

We also looked at Virgin Gorda, a little-known British Virgin Island. If we wanted (and we sort of did) a secluded spot, this was it. But then again – for two and a half weeks, that might be a little long to be so secluded with only one restaurant and one hotel. And then flight issue was still standing, two stops to VG too.

My mother stepped in at this point, and suggested Barbados, which is an easy 5 hour direct flight from here. I researched, and even found a gorgeous hotel that caters to adults (16+), and only has a handful of rooms to ensure intimacy, and was often rated the number one hotel in Barbados: the lovely Little Arches. But my heart wasn’t in it. This wasn’t the honeymoon we had envisioned.

So back to Hawaii we went. A little bit more research, and then..

Maui.

Maui: it was a one stop flight. It had gorgeous beaches, lots of activities if we wanted them, a volcano to visit, many, many types of accommodations to choose from. We fell in love with Maui and decided to go there – yay!

Up next, I’ll tell you about finding our honeymoon love shack

Are you/did you have trouble deciding where to go on your honeymoon? How did you choose?

Lilac Dude and I just had our honeymoon upgraded!

Photo from Royal Caribbean International, royalcaribbean.com

I was excited for our honeymoon before, I think I’ve even more excited now,

We will be sailing on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas in the Western Caribbean!

My consultant at Alfred Angelo recently asked me if we had any honeymoon plans and I gushed all about them to her. I was quite surprised when she told me that she’d had a bride who didn’t know, nor care, much about the honeymoon because it was just another thing to plan and she was sick of planning. Wow!

So I feel like I should say this, because there are brides out there so stressed out that they can’t be excited for a honeymoon, a honeymoon is a celebration of your new marriage, a vacation together just the two of you and an awesome chance to relax after all that planning.

What are you most excited about for your honeymoon?

Lilac Dude and I decided that we should invest in passports to make travel easier. Since we are leaving the country in October we decided to apply this summer and not rush anything. While we were discussing applying for passports we found out that prices were going to go up by $35 on Tuesday. We managed to make it to the Clerk of Courts on Monday and spent 10 minutes in the office applying and now… we wait.

Photo from Travel.state.gov

I would have been writing this post sooner had I known sooner about the price hikes in advance. Regardless, some of you out there may still need passports so I’d like to help you get started on that and spend as little time and money on the process as possible.

The one and only piece of advice I can give anyone applying for a passport: BE PREPARED

1. Go here: http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html and find the appropriate application, fill it out and print it.

2. Also while you’re at this site, look up a close location for processing and then call them to be sure that they still process applications and see if you need an appointment or if they take walk-ins.  Post offices and title agencies usually process passports.

3. Take your own picture. It will take about 20 minutes at home and save you about $12. You can find picture requirements here: http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/first/first_830.html the pros to this include as many takes as you’d like, access to mirrors and make up.

Lilac Dude and his passport photo. (Personal Photo)

4. Here’s what to take to the processing facility: Filled out application (but not signed, you have to do that there!), 2 pictures, a copy of your driver’s license and your sealed birth certificate.

As soon as you have a marriage license get to getting your name changed on the passport (if you’re changing your name). The last thing you’ll want to do is pay for a renewal in order to get a name change.

When we were planning our honeymoon we had two choices. The first one was to get up the morning after our wedding and drive 5 hours to board a cruise ship for our 7 day honeymoon cruise. The second choice was to wait two weeks and then drive 3 hours, spend the night with my parents, and then the next morning drive about 2 hours to board a cruise ship for our 7 day honeymoon cruise to Half Moon Cay, Freeport and Grand Turk island.

We chose choice #2 and every day for the past 8 days (since our wedding) I have been THRILLED that is the choice we decided to do with.

We had a ‘mini’ honeymoon immediately after our wedding. Our wedding took place at the beach and we booked a hotel room the night before (just for me), the wedding night, and the night after. We chose to stay at the Turtle Cay Resort in Virginia Beach and when we checked in we learned we had been upgraded to the penthouse suite. It was gorgeous and we loved staying there. Our suite overlooked the strip and we could see the ocean from our room.  It was amazing.

The reason I am so happy we decided to wait the two weeks is that we are finally getting back to our normal routines (we lived together for about a year before getting married). We spent about 4 days following the wedding just exhausted. Our house in finally back to normal – wedding gifts have been opened and put away, we have caught up on laundry, and last night we even hosted our first bbq at our house (we got to use many of our new fabulous serving pieces) we received as wedding gifts.

Homemade mexican layer dip I made using our new Rachael Ray baking dish we received as a wedding gift.

My fiance oops I mean husband and I are so looking forward to our honeymoon a week from today and waiting a bit…even if it is a few days if you can is something we highly recommend to other couples.

Lilac Dude booked our honeymoon today.  I am happy to say that after tying the knot we will be cruising on the same ship where he proposed to me.

Freedom of the Seas

So why a cruise?

Aside from the fact that we love cruising and travel we picked a cruise as a honeymoon for several reasons.

Lavender Blossom posted a blog about her honeymoon and the need for relaxation after their wedding.  Dude and I feel the same way, we plan on relaxing in the cantilever hot tubs and taking advantage of the adult only solarium.

Another reason that we chose a cruise is the cost. When you add the prices of transportation, 5 star dining, nights at a luxury hotel, and activities (including: swimming, surfing, rock climbing, ice skating and shows). It adds up to a fairly hefty price tag. Going on a cruise is actually cheaper.

Dining Room

Cruises are similar to all-inclusive resorts where you can go to dinner and not worry about the price tag. The only additional costs you incur on a cruise are souvenirs, alcohol and shore excursions.

Atrium

Finally, we find it hard to imagine anything more romantic than standing at the railing and watching the sunset over the ocean.

Are you considering a cruise? Here are 10 reasons you may want to.

Where are you going on your honeymoon?

When Lavender Dude and I were deciding where to have our honeymoon, we definitely knew that we wanted to go somewhere with a beach, pool, and sun.  We both had done a lot of the Caribbean islands, so we started looking on the Pacific side of Mexico.  After talking to both of our parents, we decided on a beautiful location in Mazatlan.  I had heard of Mazatlan from my grandmother who used to travel there a lot when the city center was very up and coming. The theater district there was actually a hot spot, as was the shopping and restaurants. Unfortunately since then (which had to have been about 30 or so years ago) the city center has lost a lot of it’s excitement. But that didn’t stop us from going.  We stayed at the Emerald Bay, Pueblo Bonito – and the part I loved the most was the way they had made the hotel look like a mix between ancient Italy (where we got engaged) and ancient Greece (Lavender Dude is Greek).  There was a pool just for adults, which for us was very important – only because I wanted peace and serenity, and the hotel was actually about 15 minutes from the city center – so it was secluded enough that we felt like we are on our own island.

However, I’m not only sharing where we had our honeymoon to give you an idea of where to go, I wanted to share because I think it’s really important to know just how exhausted you’re going to be after your wedding.  I had not anticipated it, so when we were looking at activities around the area, I couldn’t wait to sign up for them – horseback riding, sailing, waterfalls, you name it and I was excited about it.

Then we arrived at the hotel, and all I wanted to do was find a chair and a pool.  Everyone said I was going to be tired, but I didn’t expect to want to literally sleep the entire time we were in Mazatlan. So it was very important that we went somewhere where I could basically do just that. When Lavender Dude and I arrived, we put on our bathing suits, ordered a Margarita, and enjoyed a lot of R&R for the 7 days we were there. I could not imagine if we had planned a honeymoon to travel Europe or do any crazy activity.

So, when you’re planning your honeymoon definitely think about how tired you’re going to be.  Your body definitely is flying high for your entire wedding weekend, and however many months of planning, and then all of the sudden it just crashes. If you’re out in the middle of Europe with a back pack on – you might regret it when you realize you really just want to be sleeping.

If you’ve started booking your honeymoon, where are you going?

With just over a month to go, I finally booked our honeymoon! Long ago, we talked about what we wanted to do and settled on enjoying some outdoor activities, pampering, and great food in Mendocino, California.

We even set up a honeymoon registry chock full of all the things we wanted to do after some preliminary research, such as a sea kayaking tour, side-by-side couple’s massage, and hike in Van Damm State Park followed by a picnic lunch. However, it was not until this week that I finally made reservations.

After much research on the internet, at sites like Mendocino.com, Mendocino-honeymoon.com, CaliforniaTravelDream.com and TripAdvisor.com, we will be staying at the Little River Inn just 2 miles outside of Mendocino proper, in a room with a peaceful ocean view and lots of privacy.

from http://www.littleriverinn.com/

For us, planning our honeymoon was a set of compromises. I wanted to be pampered in warm weather (I gave up the warm weather). He wanted to do outdoor activities and travel (he gave up the traveling since we will be coming back from our honeymoon so that I can go to class.). We both wanted some peace and quiet (we’ll get it!).  It also needed to meet our budget needs (it did!). It took a little while to agree on a place and find one that met all our needs and wants, and the beautiful Mendocino coast was perfect for us.

Where are you going on your honeymoon?

After our wedding reception ended, Magnolia Dude and I head over to Hotel Charleston, for a very romantic wedding night…. we were both exhausted and could not wait to start our honeymoon next day.

Our honeymoon was a present from my brother and his wife and we will forever be grateful, it was the best present we had ever received in our lives. With the help of my mom they had found a hotel on a remote private island in Cartagena, called Isla Palma.

At 11:30am we went to the port and got on a speed boat that went over 60 miles per hour for 2 hours, in the middle of the ocean, until we arrived to this very pretty island, welcomed by singing and dancing hotel crew.

“Isla Palma is an exclusive private island located in the Natural National Park of Islas del Rosario and the San Bernardo Archipelago, just two hours from Cartagena. The hotel is surrounded by exotic coral reef beaches, swamps, and mangroves; where a rich variety of continental and marine fauna and flora abound.”

Being on a remote island, in the middle of nowhere, was exactly what we needed after a year of planning, and 5 days of partying. From day 1 we felt as if we were re-encountering ourselves. The hotel crew was nothing but nice and accommodating and we enjoyed free drinks 24/7. We sipped on Pina Coladas, Coco Locos, Coco Cherry, and a bunch of other drinks the bartenders would make for us. There was also all-you-can eat buffets for breakfast lunch and dinner! Amazingly, we both lost weight instead of gaining because it is so hot and humid we sweated it all!

Magnolia Dude and I took walks on the beach and went on an ecological walk around the island. There is a small zoo on the other side of the island, an aquarium, birds, and all sorts of interesting animals to see.

The hotel has a spa, with the most amazing masseuses I’ve ever encountered. We decided to have a massage the first day, only about $25US for a whole hour, and it was so amazing and relaxing we couldn’t help but to have one on a daily basis from then on. These girls have the best hands in the world!

On day 3, we had what I will call the most magical experience of my life… swimming with dolphins. The hotel has a natural pool, right next to our pool, with two local dolphins, Camila and Fiona…. we were allowed to go close and touch them but we really wanted to go in the water with them. Since they knew it was our honeymoon they decided to give us some private time with them. I’m in love with dolphins, being in the water with them feels so peaceful… they got really close to us, gave us kisses, and pulled us around in the water. I never wanted to come out!

Magnolia Dude and I also did something else we had never done before, we went scuba diving…. at first it was scary, it is hard to breath through your mouth all the time… but they gave us a small mini course on the beach, also by hotel crew, showed us how to use the oxygen, how to breath, what to do, etc…. after about 20 minutes of training we head out on a boat to the middle of the ocean where we jumped right in. I have to say that I handled it much better than Magnolia Dude I was able to swim all the way to the bottom a few times… it was a great experience and now I want to continue doing it whenever I get a chance.

This honeymoon was the most romantic, best spent time I’ve ever had with my honey. It could not have been planned any better… we forgot about civilization, computers, phones… we only had time to spend with each other, relax, experience things we had never done before, be surrounded by nature and good people. We fell asleep on a hammock in front of our room, facing the ocean and watching the sunset every night…. we are thinking of celebrating at least one of our anniversaries back at this island in the near future

When choosing a place to honeymoon, the dude and I did quite a bit of research.  First we went over places that we would like to go that neither one of us had been to.  We felt that if one of us knew more about our destination than the other, it might be a little boring for the one who has been there before.  Having all new experiences was top on our list.

The next thing we both wanted was all inclusive.  Either an All Inclusive Resort (in Colorado would be nice) or a Cruise (anywhere).  Getting to rest and just be together was vital to our Honeymoon experience.  The less we had to think, the more relaxing our vacation would be.

Tropical Destinations like Tahiti, Jamaica, Mexico, and Aruba are all great places to honeymoon, but we went to Hawaii last year together and were looking for somewhere cooler than Texas.  Plus we didn’t want to go anywhere that there was even a slight chance of a hurricane or tropical storm, being that it is Hurricane Season.

Our first choice was Canada (and after seeing Sunflower Buds post, I am highly considering Quebec City, Canada for a vacation sometime soon!).  Of course we were thinking more western Canada because we will already be on the West Coast for the wedding.  We heard Canada is beautiful, cooler than Texas in the Summer (duh…where isnt?), full of things to do outside, great local pubs, and restaurants.  We just couldn’t find too many All Inclusive Resorts we were interested in.

Our second choice was The Alaskan Cruise on Princess Cruises.  Many of our family members had been on this cruise and highly recommended it as a honeymoon.  Whenever we mentioned it as our option to anyone, someone had been there or had heard of someone going there saying it was the most amazing trip they had been on.  We liked all the positive feedback we got from this trip, and decided together, to book it!

Booking it was simple.  The dudes parents got us a travel agent who helped us with all the details from getting to Seattle from San Diego to getting to the ship from the Seattle airport.  Since they are paying for our honeymoon I am glad we got a travel agent to do the breakdown for us and also get us all of our paperwork needed to get on the cruise.  I feel very fabulous.

Where are you going on your honeymoon?  or Where did you go?

Lotus dude and I had a lot of discussion about where we should go for our honeymoon.  But given the number of vacation days we would have available to us after the wedding, an extended vacation was not going to be possible for us. Therefore, we’ve decided to go for a “mini-moon.”  We’ll take a small vacation after the wedding just to get away and have some time to ourselves to savor our first week as a married couple.  But it won’t involve an exotic locale.

As we would only have five or six nights to get away after the wedding, it doesn’t make sense for us to go somewhere that will involve a long flight as that will just eat into our limited vacation time.  We briefly considered a jaunt to somewhere in the Caribbean, but we decided against it once we realized it would be hurricane season in September.

So we have settled on Las Vegas!  We spent our third anniversary there so it has some meaning to us and we are a little bit familiar with the city.  But we only spent a couple days there so we still have plenty left to see in Vegas.  It has plenty of fun restaurant and show offerings for us to spoil ourselves.  Lotus Dude’s grandfather has offered us the use of his time share there for most of our stay, and we’ll spend two nights in a hotel so we still get a bit of that pampered feeling.  There are plenty of cheap flights to Vegas, and we’ll save money by only needing 2 nights of hotel stay.  We’ve decided on the Mandalay Bay as they have built a beach in the hotel so we’ll even get a bit of beach time in.

And we’re still planning on a trip to an exotic locale.  We’re just postponing it until our first anniversary so that we will have more time to save, more time to plan, and more vacation days available.  It will also give us something else to work on and look forward after the wedding when we may be feeling some post-wedding drop.  Currently the plan is a trip to India so I can introduce Lotus Dude to my extended family and the country I was born in.

Sunflower Dude and I booked our honeymoon today!  We had been kicking around ideas, and were most enamored with spending some relaxing time in Quebec City, Canada.  We love the European charm and romance that the city provides, and it’s only a 5 hour drive from our wedding location.  We considered going somewhere further and more exotic, however, since I’m stressing enough about the wedding, I wanted to have an easy relaxing honeymoon.  Also, saving a bit of money on this trip will still allow us to go on our yearly January trip to Mexico!  We booked our honeymoon at the beautiful and majestic Fairmont le Chateau Frontenac.

Fairmont Chateau Frontenac

I jumped at the chance today to book when I heard news of this amazing sale for Fairmont Hotels!

If you’re considering a Fairmont destination for your honeymoon, do it before April 20th!  This allowed us to save about 50% on our hotel stay!  So I have already booked us a couples massage in the spa

Pool at the Fairmont le Chateau Frontenac

Did you consider exotic locations then decide to stay closer to home?

I am a AAA member, and one of the perks of membership is receiving Via, a bi-monthly travel magazine. Honestly, I have chucked the magazine into recycling every time I have gotten it… until today. It caught my attention this time around because I saw “Mendocino Getaway” on the front cover and beautiful Mendocino, CA is where we are planning to go for our honeymoon.

From flickr.com

One hot tip that now tops our honeymoon itinerary is a traveler’s art lesson with local artist Suzi Long. I think it’ll be a great keepsake in creating our own artwork from our honeymoon. Here’s a charming sample from one of her classes:

photo from suzilong.com

In addition to information for our honeymoon planning, I also found an article about Yolo County, CA, the county where me and Calla Lily Dude live. And I was quite surprised to see something about Yolo County, because I think of it as a place most people, even in California, have never heard of.

The article mentioned Wilbur Hotsprings, a resort about an hour and a half away from us, which will make for a wonderful wedding-planning-free (and affordable!) romantic weekend getaway.

photo from wilburhotsprings.com

Amazing, something the I have dismissed for months was a great resource for honeymoon and romantic getaway planning. (I have to wonder, what juicy tidbits and travel tips have I missed all the times I simply chucked it? Luckily, I can search their website or comb through the archives to figure it out!)

I tell you, resources are all over the place, not just in bridal magazines, all you have to do is pay attention and not toss them out. My trash was a treausre I just hadn’t discovered yet!

Honeysuckle Dude and I decided not to go on a honeymoon immediately after the wedding mostly due to scheduling. We’re both teachers and so taking off in the middle of a semester was not going to fly.

Photo by Liz Duren

Postponing the honeymoon until a school break really didn’t come as a disappointment as we found lots of benefits in delaying the honeymoon, such as:

• less stress- Planning the wedding is stressful enough. I’m glad I didn’t have to add planning an itinerary for the honeymoon as I was busy with all of those last minute details. We also didn’t have to worry about packing everything for the honeymoon and make travel arrangements.

• more time to spend with family- Our wedding weekend was devoted to spending some quality time with friends and family we rarely see rather than jetting off after the reception.
• saving money- We were able to pay off a lot of the wedding bills/debt and save for exciting things to do on our honeymoon.
• more time to reflect and still maintain the natural high from the wedding- By delaying our honeymoon, we are still excited newlyweds. I didn’t really experience a disappointment or depression after the wedding since we still had an exciting part to look forward to. However, we were still fortunate to be able to pause and reflect on how amazing the experience was.

Photo by Liz Duren

That said, in four months, we’ll be going on our honeymoon to Charleston, SC! We have some exciting things planned, such as parasailing and cooking classes and of course lounging on the beach. But we also decided to squeeze a honeymoon portrait shoot in as well. I can’t resist dressing up again and rekindling the magic of marriage, so it may possibly turn into a trash the dress session. We found an amazing photographer through the Weddingwire reviews whom we are ecstatic to work with. I’m excited to capture our romance and the elegance of Charleston (especially its architecture) together.

Other than the obvious what fun things have you planned to do on your honeymoon if you are taking one? Has anyone done a trash the dress shoot? How did that experience go? And if anyone has any recommendations for restaurants in the Charleston area, I’d be glad to hear ‘em. We’ll be celebrating Honeysuckle’s birthday during our stay.

We booked our Honeymoon this week.  It’s exciting and scary all at once.  It’s super exciting that we’ve finally decided on a location (2, actually), and made reservations and travel arrangements.  It’s one big thing to cross of our list.

Photo of Frenchman's Reef from marriott.com

However, it’s scary in that it all happened pretty fast.  I am a big planner, and I didn’t really feel I had the time to truly weigh our options in terms of cost, activities, etc.   I wonder – did we get a good deal?  How much will food and activities run us?  Will we need to rent a car?  Are there enough things for us to do?  Did we choose the right hotels?  Did we choose the right islands?  Is this going to break our budget?  But, maybe I’m just being paranoid.

We are spending 6 nights at the Marriott Frenchman’s Reef and Morningstar Resort on St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.  See, I’m a little freaked because I never saw this picture of it until I just searched for an image to insert into my post.  It looks a little far away from everything else.  Will we be able to easily get to other areas of the island?

Photo of Frenchman's Reef from marriott.com

Then, we will be flying to St. Kitts and spending 5 days and 4 nights at a Marriott there.  This one is actually part of Marriott Vacation club, so it’s more of a timeshare.  But we upgraded to a villa and will have our own kitchen, washer/dryer and two bedrooms (not that we’ll need 2).

Photo of St. Kitts Resort from marriott.com

Despite my personal freakouts, it is very exciting, and I am having fun looking into all the exciting and relaxing things we can do while on both islands.

Photo of St. Kitts Resort from marriott.com

We still have a lot of planning left to do for the honeymoon, but the biggest hurdle is over – we know where we’re going, when, and how.   Our credit card will take a pretty big hit this month, but the airfare and hotels are taken care of, so now we’ll just have to worry about food and activities and transportation while on the islands.  By the way, getting married at a Marriott has allowed us to accumulate a lot of points and we’ll be staying on St. Thomas for free with our rewards.  Yeah!

When picking a date for our wedding, we focused mainly on the weather conditions at the location of our ceremony and reception.  However, when it came down to deciding on where we wanted to go for our honeymoon, we realized one of our very favorite places to visit didn’t have the ideal weather during the same time. We absolutely LOVE the Caribbeans, but we’re getting married in the fall and as most of you know, that means hurricane season.

Photo from 2getheras1.com

Some people have suggested that we take the risk and still go there. Others have said to delay the honeymoon or even go early. However, I am not a big risk taker and I have always liked the idea of going on a honeymoon directly after the wedding.  Therefore, we have decided to look elsewhere and are now most likely leaning towards the beautiful Greek isles.

Photo from bestluxurytrip.com

Since we love to travel, we’ll probably have to be creative on where we go for our anniversaries and choose others reasons to visit the Caribbeans islands…which I’m sure won’t be too hard as there’s always reasons to escape to paradise.

So… when you are thinking of what date to choose, you may also want to consider the weather of your ideal vacation spots to celebrate. If you are like me and want a warm weather honeymoon, here’s a list of suggested places by month from the Knot. Happy Planning!

January & February
Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Bali, Belize, Brazil, Canada (ski destinations), Caribbean, Central & South Africa, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Maldives, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, the Florida Keys, USA (ski destinations)

March
Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Belize, Brazil, Canada (ski destinations), Caribbean, Central & South Africa, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, French Polynesia, Hawaii, Maldives, Mexico, Morocco, the Florida Keys, USA (ski destinations, Southeast, Southwest)

April
Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Caribbean, Central & South Africa, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, French Polynesia, Hawaii, Italy, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Spain, the Florida Keys, USA

May
Belize, Bermuda, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Caribbean, Central & South Africa, Czech Republic, Fiji, France, French Polynesia, Greece, Hawaii, Ireland, Italy, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Seychelles, Spain, Thailand, the Florida Keys, USA

June
Bermuda, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Central & South Africa, Czech Republic, Fiji, France, French Polynesia, Greece, Hawaii, Ireland, Italy, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Spain, Thailand, USA (Alaska, Northeast)

July & August
Bermuda, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Central & South Africa, Czech Republic, Fiji, France, French Polynesia, Ireland, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Seychelles, Thailand, USA (Alaska, Northeast)

September
Australia, Bermuda, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Central & South Africa, Czech Republic, Fiji, France, French Polynesia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Spain, Thailand, USA

October
Australia, Bali, Belize, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Central & South Africa, Egypt, Fiji, French Polynesia, Hawaii, Italy, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Seychelles, Spain, USA

November
Australia, Bahamas, Bali, Belize, Brazil, Canada (ski destinations), Central & South Africa, Egypt, French Polynesia, Hawaii, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Seychelles, Spain, USA (ski destinations, Southeast, Southwest)

December
Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Bali, Belize, Brazil, Canada (ski destinations), Caribbean, Central & South Africa, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, the Florida Keys, USA (ski destinations)

When Plumeria Dude and I first started talking about a honeymoon, we figured there were a number of options available to us that were relatively convenient to Islamorada:

• Traveling further south in the Keys, like to Big Pine Key and Key West
• Hitting up Miami and the Florida Everglades
• Flying to a resort in the Caribbean, Mexico or Central America and chilling on the beach
• Doing the Disney thing in Central Florida
• Going on a cruise from either Miami or Fort Lauderdale

Photo of Big Pine Key from visitflorida.com

I was leaning toward leaving Florida altogether, having grown up there and seen most of the sights. We were also working under a relatively tight budget. With that in mind, a cruise became the best option for us. In order to narrow down our choices, we decided we wanted to depart the day after our wedding. We also looked for cruises that were approximately a week long.

There was still an overwhelming amount of information to take in. Neither of us have ever cruised before, so to brush up, Plumeria Dude and I both dug into sites like Cruisemates and CruiseCritic. Plumeria Dude made up a spreadsheet of all of our options, with pricing and itineraries included.

When he read off the list of choices, I was particularly enamored with an option that detoured from a typical Caribbean route. The one we ended up choosing includes stops at Cozumel, Mexico, Belize City, Roatan, Honduras and Grand Cayman. There is a wide variety of activities to do in each port– I had never even heard of cave tubing before! Even better, are some great cruise deals online these days. We booked with Travelocity, which gave us a room upgrade and discounts on shore excursions. I’m sure there are others elsewhere online too.

Photo of Roatan by Stig Thormodsrud

Plumeria Dude and I still need to buy travel insurance and book our shore excursions, but we are both super psyched about our honeymoon!

[I would like to add a poll here]

What are you doing on your honeymoon?

1. Road trip!

2. Soaking up the sun

3. Theme parks, baby!

4. Cruising the high seas

5. Something active

6. Something educational