Weddingbee Blog

Choosing our honeymoon location was not an easy decision! We wanted a place with wine, good food, beaches, and plenty of relaxing. One place we always pictured ourselves honeymooning was Europe. Two years ago, an internship made it possible for us to spend some time together in France. One of our favorite stops was Nice, so we set our sites on the French and Italian Riviera. Look how beautiful the towns are! With great wine and cheese, to boot. Ti Amo Italia!

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We initially thought a two week trip would be perfect! We searched for flights, train tickets, car rentals, even bike tours. Needless to say, it added up quickly, since we really wanted to travel on our own. Then we discovered most of this coast was not going to be a beachy time like we had in France, because most of this area of the coast is, well, a cliff.

A beach is quintessentially honeymoon right?

So we thought we’d check out more “beachy” areas. My coworker has gone on the most amazing trips to places like Bali and Maldives, seen below. They took these with an everyday digital camera.

Can you handle more?

So amazing. After researching Bali and overwater bungalows—swooooon—Mr. Sunbeam wasn’t sure he was up for ten days in Indonesia, since the cost was at least equivalent to Europe, and there didn’t seem to be much to do. And at that point, we had started house hunting.

Since this is “the time to buy a house”, we couldn’t ignore all the for sale signs going up in our neighborhood. After some serious thought, we decided to cut our honeymoon budget in lieu of a house fund. Luckily, that still gives us money to go somewhere special. We looked into the Napa Valley. A few days at a really nice hotel with a spa, wine, and reservations at top restaurants like Gary Danko and The French Laundry (if we could get in) sounded pretty good.

Our photo

We’ve always enjoyed going to the wine country, since it’s just outside the city, but that was also a turnoff. It won’t feel like much of a getaway in Napa. If we wanted, we could go here any given weekend, and I’d probably want to stop home to visit our furball if she’s only 45 minutes down the road. So, we tucked this plan away as a backup.

Finally, we decided on Hawaii. We’re going to do a 6 day trip, mostly spent in Kauai. Everyone on the West Coast says San Francisco is so close to Hawaii, that you kind of have to go while you’re here! It might not have the five star restaurants or fine wine and cheese we had hoped for initially, but it’s just far enough to get away and merit a shorter visit. It’s beachy, full of activities (if we want them) ;), and who can turn down a couple’s massage on the beach?! Not. I.

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Not only that, but some of our friends have been there, loved it, and have great recommendations to pass along. And as one more added bonus, the hotel we are staying at is opening the day we arrive! I love the thought of a fresh bed waiting for us! The foodies in us made the biggest compromise with this trip, so we plan to end the honeymoon with a one night stay in Napa, hopefully after an uber fancy meal the French Laundry, thanks to a gift certificate from Momma Sunbeam. As for Italy and Maldives, we know we’ll see you soon! Hopefully by then we’ll be leaving behind a house we can call our own.