A Change of (Honeymoon) Plans…
May 13th, 2008 @ 6:12 pm by Mrs. Hummingbird
As a girl who hasn’t had any time off in almost five years, one of the things I was most looking forward to about our wedding was the fact that I could finally use some of my hard earned vacation days. As it is, thanks to some strategic planning on my part, I managed to schedule 11 days off for myself, including two before the wedding and an eight day honeymoon! (I know compared to you three week honeymoon ladies, this is nothing, but seriously this is heaven for me!)
Anyway, when we first started planning the wedding, one of the things we talked about was going to Paris. I have never been overseas before and have been absolutely dying to go, so it wasn’t that hard a sell, especially since I know some French and we had a line on a nice and inexpensive place to stay.
Picture courtesy of www.destination360.com
However, the more we thought about it, the more we realized that with all the wedding excitement and the jetlag, the trip could end up being a bit of a wash for us since we would probably lose a day on either side from exhaustion. So Paris was out . . .
Then we came up with good idea #2 - Vegas! Mr. Hum went on business last year and could not stop talking about how much fun it was so it seemed like a decent plan. We could sleep all day if we needed to and then drink as many Warp-Core Breaches (the special drink they have at the Star Trek bar) as we wanted at night.
Picture courtesy of www.howstuffworks.com
But then, the more we thought about that, the more we started to think that maybe being surrounded by 4th of July crowds on the strip wouldn’t be the most relaxing thing in the world after planning a wedding with our 80-90 closest friends.
So we took another stab at it and came up with lucky idea #3 - Stay in Ontario and head North to a resort!
Picture courtesy of www.bluecmi.com
As much as I would like to blame the Ontario tourism board for their annoying and relentless “There’s No Place Like This - Ontario!” campaign which has plagued my television and movie watching experiences for the past year, the province we live in is actually really beautiful and we’re both happy with this decision. This way, we don’t have a plane to catch so we can just enjoy the next morning’s breakfast with our families, we don’t lose any money with the erratic exchange rate and we can still have a great time at a very nice place. Plus, Paris and Vegas will still be there when we’re ready for them.
Anyway, we’re booking this week (hooray!) but I wanted to know what the rest of you ladies did/have decided to do after your wedding? Did you pack it up or stay somewhere local? Tell me about it.
For your added viewing pleasure, a clip of the Ontario Tourism Board commercial I was talking about. Enjoy!
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26 Responses to “A Change of (Honeymoon) Plans…”
We’re going to Cambodia and Laos for a little over three weeks.
We are staying local, too! I think we will go to Aspen, or maybe a ranch in Wyoming. We still have a few months to decide, and since we don’t have to buy plane tickets, I figure it is no rush.
WOW that commercial is annoying - I’m sorry Miss HB 
You poor thing!
I love your idea of staying in Ontario… I like in Southern California and FH and I have toyed with the idea of just renting a car and driving up the coast to Central CA and maybe Northern too and staying in a few places along the way.
We struggled with the same thing! Staying local (Northern CA), wasn’t quite warm enough for me and our other potential destinations involved long flights - not so good with a 10-day honeymoon. So we compromised and are heading to Belize for some sun and beachy goodness. The Mayan ruins are also a draw, but we can either explore or veg out completely, as our energy dictates.
For me, the main thing was not sitting on a plane for too long or going somewhere that required a lot of logistical planning/coordination - organizing the wedding will be quite enough without a complicated trip afterwards. 
We are delaying our departure by two days, so we’ll be able to tie up loose ends and say goodbye to people before we head off.
We’re doing something similar to you, Miss HB. We were initially going to go to Hawaii for 8 days, but my fiance was presented with a job offer a few months ago that he really couldn’t refuse.
With the new job, though, came a lack of vacation time. So we decided on a “mini-moon” to Yosemite, which is just three hours away. This presents us with the opportunity to spend some time with our out of town guests before we leave and have a leisurely send off instead of rushing to catch a flight at 7AM. It works for us!
We’ve barely thought about the honeymoon! Unfortunately–at least as far as the honeymoon is concerned–Mr.GV works at a university, and he might have to work the DAY after our Sunday wedding! (Hopefully he’ll be able to rearrange his schedule a *little.*) We’ve talked about honeymooning in Alaska so we wouldn’t have to deal with crappy exchange rates, but maybe by next summer the $ will be a little better. As much as I love an adventure, I think staying close to home and not dealing with jet lag is a great idea… as well as giving yourself a couple extra days.
We’re in the midwest and we’re going to the Canadian Rockies for 8 days - we have an awesome condo in Canmore, Alberta and we’re looking forward to exploring. We, too, initially thought of going overseas but we don’t have that long of a break so we stayed semi-local.
We’re doing the exact same thing! We live in the kitchener-waterloo area in Ontario and we’re heading up north to the Couples Bear Trail Resort. It looks amazing! It’s just outside of Algonquin park. I thought that it would be nice to just relax and do something simple for our honeymoon and then do something crazy and big in a year or so when we don’t have to worry about post-wedding exhaustion!
We are thinking of going to Vancouver…we’ll only get a few days off so it’ll be nice…then when we have more time we’ll go to Hong Kong.
We are thinking of going to Vancouver…we’ll only get a few days off so it’ll be nice…then when we have more time we’ll go to Hong Kong.
You are so smart. We went to Ireland right after our July wedding and drove all over (not unlike the Lovebugs, actually), touring the island and staying at B&Bs. It was nice, but at the end of it we were just pooped. In hindsight we should have just driven to some nice quiet spot and spent a calm week together and saved our money. After the wedding, you need it!
Oh my gosh Miss Hummingbird! Haha…as an Ontarian (ya Hamilton area!) who’s been living in Nova Scotia for a year now, I can honestly tell you that commercial makes me miss home and I’m so glad you posted it, even if it was in jest
I think you’ll love honeymooning up in the Georgian Bay area…I grew up cottaging around there and I think it would make a great lovers’ resort getaway!
we’ll be staying local as well. financially it made the most sense for us so we looked around us and we are headed to the Carolina coast!
nothing is set in stone yet, but we’ve got our eyes on some of the nicer resort styled islands. we plan to lay around, relax, and eat! our favorite activites made even better by being together and MARRIED!
(insert sappy grin here)
We had planned to do 10 days in Italy, but as time has started to fly by and we have not even begun to research, we’re now leaning toward just going to some tropical locale and lounging for a few days. The thought of planning one more thing just wears me out!
if you thought that commercial was annoying… the newer one is even worse… EVERY SINGLE SHOT (with the exception of one shot of the parliament building) was of Toronto! as if Ontario was so “small” that Toronto is the only place to go! It was terrible!
in light of my brother’s new wedding plans the following spring, we now have no money for the honeymoon. none. we’ll be lucky if we can even go to niagara for the weekend. yippee.
We stayed local too, we paid for the wedding ourselves, and at the time our son was 14 months old, so we just left him with my parents for the weekend and went up to Niagara… we’ll do a big fun one later on when he’s older and we can enjoy ourselves more. ( being a 1st time mummy away from her baby was stressful enough for me… haha)
Our wedding is not until next summer, but the honeymoon is already on my mind. Originally, the idea of galavanting across Europe was enticing as I have been to Europe several times and would seriously move there if I could. My future husband, on the other hand, has never been and it is something I long to share with him so it seemed perfect. The more I think about it, the more I am thinking we may stay semi-local too for finances and to make sure we have down time to enjoy each other…maybe 5-7 days on Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket or Cape Cod (we’re in the Finger Lakes region of NY) with a larger more elaborate honeymoon, perhaps abroad, to celebrate our first anniversary.
Good plan, Miss Hummingbird! Are you hitting up Muskoka, or further north?
We are also doing a local honeymoon. My fiance did some work for one of the nice resorts up the North Shore of Lake Superior (in Minnesota), so we will be staying at that resort for a super-discounted rate! Yay for saving money, and for going to enjoy something I live near but don’t get out to see nearly often enough!
Yay Georgian Bay! We have a cottage there (my fiance’s family has been vacationing there for over a century) and we just got back from our first visit of the season. My fiance wanted to go there for our honeymoon but I think it’ll be pretty chilly at the end of October
We had been thinking Hawaii but had the same reaction to the amount of plane travel involved. So we’re driving north also, to Maine from Boston.
A local honeymoon sounds great and Ontario looks really gorgeous!
Can I be a bit cheeky and ask where this nice and inexpensive place to stay in Paris is? We’re thinking of going on the Eurostar in the spring but we’re on a serious budget and so far everywhere we can afford looks really grotty.
Thanks!
it doesn’t matter where you go as long as you’re with the person you want to be with. We didn’t go on our honeymoon, although my in-laws offered to pay for an inclusive cruise. Our jobs (at the time) placed restraints on our plans. We plan to make up for it after the baby arrived.
My first husband and I stayed in Ontario, but we went to the Stratford area. Considering he had told me that we were going to Hawaii and then possibly to Vermont, this was a bit of a let-down, especially as he had made no plans to see a play (in Stratford!!!! what else do you do there?) and he hated shopping. Needless to say I wanted to go home after a few days of that. We did stay at a very nice place north of Toronto, but for the most part, it was boooorrrring.
@AliCherri1: You have no idea! Just be happy I didn’t post the Ontari-ari-ario song. :P@Laura: That sounds awesome. (My step-sisters-in-law are from Kitchener-Waterloo.)@haliwood: Glad I could give you a dose of your home province. I feel like I should send you Blue Jays gear now.
@rhi: We are indeed staying in Muskoka.
@Peonies and Polaroids: I think it was $500 for a week, but I would have to check with Mr. Hum’s aunt and uncle who are the ones who found the place.
[...] only would my workload by slow enough that I could actually take a honeymoon (wahoo!), but June 28th this year will be the four year anniversary of our very first date (meaning [...]
Mrs. Hummingbird, Toronto
Age and Occupation: 25, Publishing Coordinator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Videogame Designer/Cartoonist
Engagement Date: May 4, 2007
Wedding Date: June 28, 2008
Blogging Since: September 18, 2007
Venue: A garden wedding followed by a tented reception on Mr. Hummingbird's father's property.
About Me: I’m a pop culture loving, vintage obsessed foodie living in Canada’s biggest city with my fantastic fiancé and our lovable fluffy cat Bettie. I’m stoked to marry my best friend and to throw what I hope will be
the most fun and colourful party of our lives.
We are to Italy for 9 days! Long flight (especially from TX) but hopefully well worth it!!