Weddingbee Blog

Let’s talk about what everyone really wants to know when it comes to wedding planning anyway… the honeymoon.

I wasn’t that girl dreaming of big puffy dresses. I was that girl dreaming of her one big chance to get to see a piece of the world. Traveling and vacation was something my parents chose to sacrifice so my mom could stay at home and raise her children. That’s something I will always cherish (especially as a mom who has to work). Knowing that it was unlikely I would see the world sometime before I got married, I dreamed of the fantastic vacation that would follow the wedding.

I mean, really, we spend months working our arses off, trying to pull the biggest event of our lives together. We deserve that vacation. A couple of weeks of peace and relaxation shared with our one true love.

As a teenager, I dreamed of Tahiti and Aruba, Hawaii and Mexico. I grew up on the beach, and I couldn’t imagine spending my honeymoon anywhere but on an exotic beach surrounded by palms.

When Mr. CC and I discussed honeymoon destinations, it was quickly apparent that my idea of relaxation had changed. Mr. CC and I were throwing around places like Italy, Ireland, and Greece. Mr. CC and I wanted to go somewhere that we could see history, experience culture, and perhaps explore our heritage a bit. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but Mr. CC is a huge military history buff (um, hello, National Infantry Museum!). I knew if we traveled to Europe, we would spend most of our honeymoon touring WWII battlefields and concentration camp skeletons. Have you ever toured a battlefield? If you aren’t familiar with the actual battle maneuvers, it’s really just a field full of ghosts. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the history and significance and sacrifice that those fields and beaches stand for. I even want to experience it someday. But, it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when it came to our honeymoon. (Gosh, that sounds harsh and inconsiderate. I promise I appreciate what those battlefields represent and the sacrifice our soldiers made on those fields.)

Ireland was a definite possibility.

I have family in the UK, so we would have a home base. People speak English (Yay, ’cause we are so not bilingual!) and I think June would be a pretty good time to visit Ireland. We even sat down with a friend of ours who spent two weeks in Ireland a few years ago and got her recommendations. When we started looking at flight prices, I almost went into cardiac arrest. We would have to spend almost as much on airfare as we had planned on spending on the wedding. Then we would have to have shelter and food, and perhaps actually see and do some stuff. Ireland was no longer a viable option, at least not right now.

Frustrated with the demise of my childhood dreams of an international honeymoon, I started looking at domestic destinations. Among the top contenders were Sedona, Arizona, New York City, and Seattle.

The same month Mr. CC and I started dating, I spent a week in Arizona attending a medical conference. I took a day off and traveled via group tour bus from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon. OMG, what gorgeous country! I immediately fell in love with Sedona and the surrounding region. I was definitely pushing for a Sedona Honeymoon.

I’m not sure what made us think New York City. (BTW, I can’t say (type?) that without thinking of those salsa commercials where the cowboys are shocked by the salsa made in New York City, complete with that crazy southern accent!) Mr. CC has family in NYC (cops, natch!) and I’ve always wanted to visit. But again, the minute I mentioned NYC, he started yammering about battlefields again.

{Insert record scratching sound here}

Mr. CC and I spent a week touring Civil War Battlefields and participating in the 145th Anniversary of the Battles at Gettysburg last summer. We traveled with another couple and the boys were overjoyed to visit the battlefields. The ladies were not so crazy about that plan. We made it through Antietam (Sharpsburg for you Yankees), but skipped out on Gettysburg and went shopping instead. Anyway… that’s the deal with the Battlefields… I still get the creepy crawlies from visiting Burnside’s Bridge.

{Back to the main event}

Seattle… How I envy you Pacific Northwest Bees. I grew up in Seattle. My roots are there. I may consider myself a Southerner now, but I can’t forget the years spent under the rain clouds in Seattle. I miss the Puget Sound and the feel of the seaweed on your legs in the Lake. I miss the hills of Queen Anne and the Puyallup Fair. I pushed and pushed for a trip to Seattle. Mr. CC wasn’t so enthusiastic.

I was getting frustrated.

Several weeks passed. I kept Googling things like “Top 10 Domestic Honeymoon Destinations” and variations on it. But I was just getting more and more agitated with the whole thing. I was actually beginning to think about minimooning in Savannah and putting off the big honeymoon until we could afford Ireland, when a friend (the wife of above mentioned Gettysburg travel partners) suggested Panama City. Pretty soon I was transported back to age 16, with images of big blue umbrellas and fruity mixed drinks and Gulf sunsets swirling in my head. Panama City is nothing new in the Crab Cake household. We spend New Year’s there every year (at least for the last 4 years). But this was something different. PCB in the summer. A trip to the Coast without my siblings, aunts and uncles, or my daughter. This was something new and exciting. Every trip to PCB for New Year’s has included my daughter. Her first dip in the Gulf was New Year’s Eve 2004. She was a mere 4 months old.

My favorite shot of Mini playing in the sand on NYE 2008.

The deal was sweetened by an amazing offer. We were gifted a 10 day stay in our friend’s parents’ condo. Um… SOLD! How could we turn down such an awesome deal? We have no idea what the condo looks like, where it is, or what’s around it. But we do know that we will drive down the day after our wedding and spend 10 days basking in the sun on the Gulf. There’s no worry about passports, airfare, or lost luggage. We don’t have to recover from any jet lag. I really wasn’t even worried about a hurricane. Yes, June is hurricane season, but I’m well versed in hurricanes and I’m not afraid of the Cat 1 and 2 storms that are produced in June. I would be concerned if we were traveling to the Caribbean, so I’m not trying to discredit anyone’s hurricane season concerns. I actually wouldn’t mind watching a Cat 1 come in from the porch. They are really quite pretty.

So, I ended up with my beach honeymoon, although the destination is a little less exotic than I had originally imagined. Mr. CC will likely sleep for 10 days, as the sound of the ocean puts him to sleep immediately. But I’m definitely looking forward to sitting on the porch enjoying the sunset with my new husband!

Are you staying in the States for your honeymonn? Where are you going?