It’s easy to get so wrapped up in wedding planning that you almost forget about the honeymoon. Quite honestly, the honeymoon is the best part. Problem is how do you decide what to do? Where do you go? How long will it be? Can you even get work off?
While there may not be explicit pressure to have the perfect honeymoon, it’s certainly implied. After all, you’ve seen the Instagram photos of your friends and their lovers honeymooning in Bora Bora, or maybe of your best friend skydiving with her new beau. It is both inspiring and off-putting. You want to have a great honeymoon, but you might not have the funds to travel far immediately after getting married. Or perhaps you can only get a weekend off, and so you’ll basically get married, and then go back to work within two days.
We’re here to tell you that there’s a way around that. Why not have two? Here’s why two honeymoons are better than one.
Relax your First Time together, then Party Again in a few Months
“A few months” is subjective: it could be your first-year anniversary, it could be within a few weeks, or six months after you get married.
Whenever the second one is, try to just relax and enjoy each other on your first honeymoon. Wedding planning is stressful, and dealing with a whole new kind of stress regarding traveling to exotic places will only put a damper on the trip, not enhance it. A honeymoon is meant for couples to take some time together and get used to being married (usually meaning being together all the time).
We recommend that for your first honeymoon, you choose something low-key. What’s low-key? Well, that’s up to you. For me and my husband, we rented a hotel room that was about five miles out of the nearest largest city and binge-watched Parks and Recreation. When we got cabin fever, we went into the city and walked around. We went out to eat and watched a movie. It was the best way for us to adjust to each other as a married couple, especially since we took a foreign trip a month after that.
Another friend of mine rented a hotel in a local city and visited animal shelters with her husband because they were both into pets. Whatever you choose, it doesn’t have to be exotic and exciting. Save that for the second honeymoon.
It’s Healthy for your Budget
Weddings are pricey. You might have managed to budget your way to heaven, and props to you for that. Or perhaps your parents have been feeling generous and offered to pay for half of it, or even all of it. However, for the rest of you whose piggy banks are feeling a little hollow, it’s better to postpone the big honeymoon for when you can afford it. You’ll have taken the relaxing time together as a couple already, and so when you get into the big business of vacationing, you don’t have to feel the stress on your bank accounts.
The best way to do this is to make sure your first honeymoon is as relaxing and enjoyable as you would like it to be. Make sure you have some room to spend money on your first honeymoon – you don’t have to live in squalor just so you can have an even better one down the line. Just be willing to sacrifice a few things for a bigger payoff in the end. Then, when you’ve saved your pennies, look up www.besthoneymoondestinations.com and let your dreams come true.
Overall, while you might be jealous of your friends’ exotic honeymoons in the beginning, remember that in the long run you’ll be able to have an even better trip. It’s more important to revere the first honeymoon as a time you and your new spouse were truly in love – not a time where you were stressed out and trying to compare your experiences to others’. As long as you know how to save your money and are open to different ways of honeymooning, you’ll have the time of your life.