As your wedding day gets closer and closer, so too does your honeymoon. And it’s just as important, and possibly a bit more fun, to plan because it’s only about the two of you. To make sure you both have a memorable and enjoyable trip following your soiree, here are five of our best honeymoon tips:
1. Planning:
Between planning your wedding (and living your life), your honeymoon may feel as though it’s getting lost in the shuffle. Our tips here are two fold: if you are more involved in planning your wedding, ask your fiancé to take the lead on your honeymoon plans. Another option: set aside honeymoon dates while you picnic in the park, chat over brunch, or simply hang together in your living room and really dive headfirst into where you would like to go and what you would like to do on your honeymoon – no wedding talk allowed.
2. Choose a Date:
Choosing where to go is difficult, but choosing when to leave on your honeymoon might be a bit trickier. There’s the age-old plan of leaving the day after your wedding. While it’s an idea, it might not be the best option. Between getting married, chatting with guests, and dancing the night away, your wedding day is busy. The day after your wedding, you might feel content relaxing and perhaps enjoying brunch with family and friends before they leave town (read: recuperating). If you would like to travel right after your wedding, plan to leave a few days after your celebration so you’re rested and in a more relaxed state of mind.
Another option: plan a mini-moon that’s close to home. Visit a bed and breakfast, tour a nearby city, or plan a staycation for a few days following your wedding. Then save your honeymoon for a few months down the line. This is perfect for the couple wanting to save more, plan further, or let the wedding fun continue for a little while longer.
3. Your Registry:
In addition to classic registries filled with items for your new home together, there are also travel registries, like Wanderable. Travel registries allow you to register for experiences in your chosen honeymoon destination. These can range from flights and hotel stays to meals at known restaurants in the area and excursions. Guests can opt to purchase a specific item from your travel registry, or just place an amount toward that experience. These are a fun option to add because travel-loving guests will enjoy having the opportunity to play a small role in allowing you and your love to have the trip of a lifetime.
4. Packing:
This tip is particularly important if you’re planning to leave for your honeymoon the day after your wedding. Do not plan to pack the night before your wedding or the night after because there’s simply too much to do and not enough time to think about it. Instead, plan to pack as much as you can at least a week in advance. That way, you’ll only be left adding the key pieces you use daily to your bag at the last moment rather than attempting to pack an entire bag.
5. Your trip:
Just like you need to book vendors like event planners, photographers, and venues early on, the key points for your honeymoon also need to be booked early. In this case, it’s your flights and a hotel. You can always continue to keep your eyes peeled for a better hotel deal, but you’ll feel better knowing you have a way to get there and a place to stay.
In terms of planning what you’ll do while you’re there: it’s better to not plan enough than to plan too much. Not planning enough allows you to truly enjoy the experience you’ve chosen for that day, while over planning may make you feel like you’re rushing through one activity just to make it to the next place in time. Plus, not planning enough allows room for you to add on different experiences once you arrive and start hearing what others are raving about.
