Weddingbee Blog

I thought we had our honeymoon plans settled. We’d spend time at Mr. Snow’s family’s beach house, then truck back up to Wisconsin so I could start summer school. No muss, no fuss, no unexpected expenses. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to go to Europe next summer.

But…

Yeah, there it goes again. But.

But, as we’ve gotten closer to the reality of our wedding, this honeymoon plan seems less and less appealing to us. For one, the beach house, while amaaaaaazing, is a place we’ve gone for vacation just about every year since we started dating. It’s great, but there’s nothing inherently honeymoon-ish about it. It’s where we go to spend quality time with family and friends, and part of us wants to keep it as that and not as our honeymoon destination.

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We’re thinking something along the lines of St. Lucia…

Another element is that Mr. Snow and I really really enjoy traveling together. If we had to order our compatibilities, I think travel styles would be near the top of the list. When we’re traveling, we’re at our best, as weird as that is to type. We both like faster-paced, go-go-go vacations where we see and do a lot. It may be weird, but the idea of sitting on a beach or in a house by ourselves for a week really isn’t our thing, and it never has been.

So, we’re kind of at a honeymoon crossroads in terms of budget and plans, and we need to decide something fairly soon. If we plan a more adventurous honeymoon, we’re almost certain to tip our budget and have to save more, borrow from some other areas of the budget, and/or have to put a small fraction of the cost on credit cards.

I know the right answer to credit card expenses is, “NO ABSOLUTELY NOT!” but I’ll take the very unpopular road here and suggest that sometimes (very rarely!) putting something like a trip on credit is worth every dime of that ridiculous APR. Bad, Snow, bad—but honest. And we have the means to repay it pretty quickly after the wedding.

But is it worth it? Right now, we’re leaning toward, “Yes.” We’ve talked a lot about this, and decided there’s never going to be another time where we’re brand-spankin’-new married—where we can comfortably take this time and be real-deal newlyweds fresh off a whirlwind of friends, family, excitement, and love. That doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of opportunities to travel together in the future, but for some reason, we both kind of see a honeymoon as potentially amazing adventure for our first week of marriage. And, as many people have told us, there’s a strong likelihood that if we put off the honeymoon, we’ll never take it. In reality, Europe is a bit of pipe dream (and an expensive one at that!). Houses, dogs (we want a dog SO badly), work, new cars, etc. etc. also have the potential to get in the way. There will be other trips, but they won’t be honeymoons.

But (there’s always a but), we’re realistic. Maybe we’re just buying into wedding hype that suggests that we need some exotic vacation… we don’t know.

Any advice, hive? How are you prioritizing your honeymoon? Did anyone borrow from their wedding to pay for their honeymoon? And are there any other honeymoon adventurers out there?