Wedding Wednesday: Booking your Honeymoon

Hello blogosphere!  I hope everyone had an enjoyable end to their summer!  I apologize for the lack of posts in August.  Work and personal life and enjoying the last bits of my favorite season got in the way of blogging. :)

Getting back into the swing of things, I wanted to post a Wedding Wednesday that I think many other bridal blogs don’t necessarily touch on: The Honeymoon!

Yes, technically it is after you have already been married, but it can be a detail that brides and grooms struggle with.  You only have ONE honeymoon, so there can be a lot of pressure to make the right decisions.

I recommend investigating and thinking about your honeymoon early in the process.  It will help you budget and plan accordingly.  You want to make sure you will leave yourself with enough time to take the vacation, as well as enough funds to afford to go on the vacation.

Mr. Bear and I started by making a list of the types of things we wanted to be able to do on our honeymoon.  We determined we wanted to go to a beach, but we also wanted to be active and adventurous and wanted to go for about 10 days.

After making this list, we began investigating destinations that would fit our requirements.  I found one of the most helpful places to be Community Wedding Message Boards (i.e. weddingwire, theknot, weddingbee) in addition to my go-to of TripAdvisor.

We then made a short list of countries we would want to visit that fit into those requirements and began investigating hotels (TripAdvisor is my favorite for this) and types of activities/excursions.

After finding a lot of hotels and activities that met our desires in Costa Rica, we made the decision to focus our honeymoon hunting there.  Taking into account our budget, I narrowed it down to a few hotels/resorts.  There were two areas in Costa Rica we wanted to hit: Arenal (a volcano area in the rainforest), and Guanacaste (the resort focused area near the beach).  Costa Rica ended up being the perfect decision.  We went ziplining, waterfall rappelling, swimming in hot springs and hiking to a volcano.  In the second part of our trip we enjoyed a relaxing time at the beach.

I am always the one to book and plan all aspects of a trip, but it became relatively overwhelming trying to figure out flights, transportation, hotel check-in, etc.  This is where we employed the help from some family friends who are travel agents.  

They were very helpful in helping us book flights (since we would be flying in and out of different airports), AND they booked our transportation to and between the two hotels through a shuttle company.  It would have been much more expensive and a larger headache had we booked the transportation ourselves.  Additionally, since they made all of our reservations through their systems, they were able to let all the companies know we were on our honeymoon and we got many upgrades.  Finally, since we booked through them, we were able to pay for the trip in its entirety before we went, only leaving incidentals and food, so we didn’t have to worry about maxing out our credit card in a foreign country right after paying for our wedding.

If you are doing a multi-destination honeymoon, or haven’t travelled out of the country much, I highly recommend going through a travel agent.  It will be one less thing you have to worry about.  Travel agents are very helpful in recommending places that meet your desired experience if you don’t know where to begin.

Obviously every honeymoon doesn’t have to be an international or beachy affair!  There are tons of great options in the States and in locations that fit all types of vacationers.

Some great options for those who want to get away but may not have a ton of time they are able to take:

-Rent a nice cabin for a few nights in a romantic location.  The Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee regions have tons of options

-On the West Coast, do a few nights in Wine Country OR travel up to San Juan Island in Washington

-My best friend and her new husband went to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

-New Englanders could also take advantage of the scenery in Maine

-If you are looking for a big city feel, there is always New York City.

-Internationally, think of places that might be outside the typical honeymooner’s thoughts.  Friends of our went to Iceland for their honeymoon!  They have amazing pictures of swimming in hot natural springs surrounded by snow!

There really is a honeymoon for every budget and style.  A little work in the beginning of your engagement will lead to an excellent and exciting honeymoon. 

Just remember that flights fluctuate in cost.  Buying super early or relatively close to the date usually results in the best prices, so why not book early and not have to worry about it later when your wedding planning is in full swing!?

Keep in mind that you will want to have a concrete date for your wedding before making any travel arrangements.  Refunds or changing dates can result in fees, etc. with the airline companies.

One last thing to think about; travel insurance. We didn’t purchase this, but I highly recommend if you are planning to travel somewhere during the winter months when snow or bad weather could impact your travel.  Look into it and see what it covers.  Ultimately it will be up to you whether it seems like something that could be valuable to you and your soon-to-be spouse.

-Danielle