Weddingbee Blog

What do you do when you are stuck in the middle of a soggy Southern hemisphere winter? Daydream about your honeymoon, of course. Bali, baby. Oh how much I wish I was there right now, enjoying a pina colada by the pool instead of typing this post with frigid fingers.

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Because we both grew up in Indonesia, Bali is a familiar holiday spot for Mr E and I. One might ask why we would choose to honeymoon somewhere we have been many times before, and the answer is that we chose it precisely because we are so familiar with it.

I admire couples who explore brand-new (to them) places on their honeymoons, but, as for us, we prefer to hole up in our hotel room the majority of the time (*cough cough*), be lazy slobs on the beach, and re-visit all our favourite childhood restaurants. That, people, is bliss to me. Bali also is a place of many nostalgic memories for us both, and we want the chance to create more memories there. A new destination would just be wasted on us, because we wouldn’t feel like exploring it. In the future, we definitely want to explore the world, but not on our honeymoon.

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As you might realise, getting to Bali ain’t cheap, though. Not from New Zealand, especially as you usually have to stop in Australia on the way. So we sat down and thought about it for awhile, and in the end we decided to make the honeymoon a priority in our budget and go for it. These are some of the factors that swayed us:

1) Yes, getting to Bali is expensive, but once you get there you can eat at very good restaurants and enjoy yourself on the cheap. Whereas if we went somewhere with cheaper airfares (like the Gold Coast of Australia) those things would turn out to be much more expensive.

2) One of my parents’ biggest regrets about their wedding is that they did not have a honeymoon afterwards. They have always encouraged us to go on our dream honeymoon, even to the point of eloping if we have to.

3) Bali is definitely the place we always envisioned ourselves for our honeymoon, and nowhere else got us so excited at the prospect of spending the first days of married life there.

4) Having parents who work in Indonesia has its bonuses. My dad has a contact who got us half price hotel rooms at one of my favourite hotels and chucked in a free massage to boot.

When we looked at all those factors, it really wasn’t a hard decision. I um-ed and ah-ed for a short while over it, because I’m indecisive like that (Mr E, though, knew exactly what he wanted!), and I just wanted to make sure it was the “right” decision. However, after the decision was made, I now feel so excited and relieved that we will be going there that I know it will be worth it, despite the money being tight. We can make it work.

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Anyone else take the plunge to go on their dream honeymoon despite financial or other obstacles? How did you make the decision in the end?