Planning A Honeymoon
The bride tosses off the bouquet, slips out of that gown and into some fabulous Jackie Kennedy number with a pillbox hat and the happy couple hops into the convertible and sets off down the highway with all of us waving until the “Just Married” sign is a dot on the horizon and the sound of the tin cans fades away into the night. Ha ha ha. Not so fast tiger – here’s what you need to know so the honeymoon planning only causes half the arguments that the wedding did.
Thing No. 1
Go home.
After the wedding, go home or to a bridal suite somewhere locally, but do not plan to leave for your honeymoon. That’s crazy – there’s been too much chaos for months and you will have had a huge day – you need to go somewhere alone, drink some more champagne, gossip about who wore what to the wedding and who showed up with whom and then spend a leisure day packing, dropping off keys, stopping mail etc. before you start traveling.
Thing No. 2
Decide whether you want to be vertical or horizontal.
There are two kinds of trips – the kind where you move around a lot and the kind where you don’t. You both need to agree in advance which kind this is going to be. If he wants to helicopter ski and she wants to lay on the beach with umbrella drinks…these ideas are not compatible. Theoretically, you will take many trips together over your lifetime so figure out how you both want to spend this one in particular. Without a doubt make sure at least the first few days are horizontal. You will be exhausted.
Thing No. 3
Register for the honeymoon.
Lots of couples forego the toaster gifts (on account of they already have a toaster) and register for the honeymoon. You can register at places like giftpile.com or thebigday.com where you’ll select your destination and then create your list of activities each of which is associated to a corresponding cash value. The registry company collects the funds and once it’s time to go, they send you a check, with which, you then turn around and pay off your credit cards (kidding – sort of.) Point is, your guests love the idea of sponsoring a romantic dinner on the beach but the truth is, you’re just getting a bundle of cash and the honeymoon police are not going to arrest you if you decide to order a pizza instead. Some are affiliated with travel agencies and will book your travel and some aren’t. The way they charge for their services are all over the board – some charge a one-time setup fee ($295 for giftpile.com ), some skim a percentage of the take from a sliding scale (depending on the cost of the trip) all the way up to 15-percent. You can avoid all these fees by publishing your honeymoon wishes on your wedding website – that way, guests can feel like they're getting you something special but you do without the middleman.
Thing No. 4
Maiden names for this maiden voyage.
Ladies, don't get carried away and start booking your travel under your new name. You won't have time to change passports, visas etc and in this age of Homeland Security, it's better if everything matches.
Thing No. 5
A shoulder to cry on.
Consider planning around the “shoulder” season. Of course, off-season is the cheapest but you really don’t want to be on the beach in the middle of a hurricane so, in-between seasons are the next best thing. You can find information about shoulder seasons around the world at contrariantraveler.com and travelandleisure.com.
