- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee Blog
Mr. Lovebug and I were fortunate enough to be able take a break from wedding planning and escape to the Big Apple for a Christmas mini-moon! Despite living in Arizona, I’m a cold-weather girl at heart. So it was an absolute treat to spend a week bundled up, strolling around the city and enjoying the holiday scene. But I have some concerns about that great city…
Sunday morning we woke up bright and early, and after a breakfast of leftover sugar cookies and kourambiedes (my mom sent a whole tray with us)…
we hit the outlet mall. Osage Beach is famous for its outlet mall–this thing is massive, and it can easily take a day or even two of shopping to hit every store. That would’ve been above Mr. Blueberry’s tolerance level, though, so we just hit a few places (my die-hard favorites): Coach, GAP, and BCBG. Gotta love cute stuff for cheap 
.
Because of Mr. Blueberry’s car troubles, we didn’t leave for our minimoon until about 7 pm–meaning we didn’t get to the lake until about 10:30 pm.
We got to the Lodge and checked in, and Mr. Blueberry asked the desk clerk if we could get a free upgrade since it was our honeymoon. We had booked a regular room in the main lodge; he gave us a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo with full kitchen and sunroom that was a couple miles offsite. Talk about an upgrade!
Here are a few pictures I took of the condo, that night:
The living room:
I think we may have found our mini-moon destination! A quaint little four guest-bedroom B&B in Camden, Maine. It’s still in town, but located on a quieter street (not that there will be much traffic there in April). The other plus is that the owners have avoided decorating the room in Victorian/Laura Ashley motifs—Mr. Broccoli despises both (and I have to admit, I get a little freaked out in places like that too).
This room, called the Copper Beech Suite, is the largest one in the B&B, has a stove fireplace, a little sitting area, and a bathroom complete with a 2-person jacuzzi tub. Oooh-la-la! Not bad for $165 a night!
Anyone else taking a mini-moon? If so, where to and what made you decide to wait before going on the “all-important, real honeymoon” ? (as I’ve heard it called)
Featured on Weddingbee
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
There’s going to be a winter storm tonight in the NYC area, and I got this in my e-mail. I would love to go - I could use some Bahamas R&R. It’s extremely cheap too. Just thought I should pass this along in case anyone is interested. 
It would make a nice mini-moon also.
~~~
NEW YORK–FEBRUARY 13, 2007– CheapCaribbean.com just slashed a Bahamas vacation to $399. This offer includes roundtrip air from New York and 3 nights at the award- winning Sheraton at Our Lucaya beachfront resort.
We especially like this 40% OFF deal because it’s available for long weekend getaways. You can travel 7 days a week between Feb. 26-April 29 (based on availability).
Last night Mr. Blueberry and I started talking about our minimoon. We’re taking one because we only have a few days between the wedding and when my summer semester starts, and we’ll also want a chance to recoup and save up some $$ before our “big” honeymoon next January.
We had been planning on going to Mackinac Island, in Michigan. But *somebody* never got around to booking it, so now it will just be a lot cheaper to go elsewhere. We’d been meaning to vacation to Chicago sometime, since it’s only about 3 hours from our college town and Mr. Blueberry has never really been, so now we’re thinking about making that our minimoon. I went a few years ago with my mom, and we had a ton of fun shopping, navigating the El (would you believe we didn’t get lost once?!), and going to all the museums–basically, anyplace we could go without driving .
When my mom and I went, we stayed at the Lenox Suites downtown and it definitely met our needs (and budget!), so that’s probably where Mr. Blueberry and I will stay on our minimoon. It was within walking distance of the big Marshall Field’s and Michigan Avenue.
If Mr. Blueberry and I go to Chicago for our minimoon, what are some “must-do’s? We’re already planning on hitting the Shedd aquarium, the science museum and art museum, the navy pier, and spending at least one day on Michigan avenue. But I’ve not been there since I turned 21, so I know next to nothing about the restaurant and bar scene.
Chicago readers, where are some great places to eat downtown? Any other awesome things we must do while we’re there?
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
On that same honeymoon vein, I have a few more honeymoon-related polls for you!
Miss Kiwi has officially termed me “The Pollmaster” so I have to live up to my title! 
But yeah, I’m hoping there’s at least one other person out there who appreciates statistics as much as I do!
Because of the way our flights work out for our honeymoon in Madagascar we have to (poor poor us! :-D) spend one day in Paris! Our flight from NYC to Paris lands at 11AM and then the next flight out to Madagascar is the next day at 10 AM. So there’s just no way NOT to spend 23 hours in Paris. Hehehehe.
Which means - we need to pack AS MUCH sightseeing into that time as possible, and pick a hotel! I have been to Paris a couple times (but never for long and not for awhile), but Mr. Bluebell never has, so he wants to hit all of the best spots and stay in a hotel/neighborhood that feels appropriately Parisian. Which means we need some advice!
1) Does anyone have any recommendations on the best areas to stay in Paris (right now we’re thinking either the Marais or 6th arrondissement), or better yet, specific hotels? We don’t care a great deal about luxury, but want it to feel charming and Parisian and, you know, be clean.
2) Does anyone have a good plan for 12 hours of Paris? We’re definitely going to be jet-lagged so I’m not sure if we’ll even be able to stay up a full 12 hours, but we’d like to see as much as possible, going more for character and atmosphere than specific landmarks - but seeing as many landmarks as possible along the way! But our ideal plan would be one big walking loop where we can see a bunch of things, and the majority of the time is just romantic strolling between various destinations.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
As you know, we’ve decided to go to Costa Rica for our honeymoon, but we likely will be taking it almost a month after the wedding. Since Mr. Kiwi thinks we need to take a few nights after the wedding as a little break, we were trying to come up with an idea of where to go.
As per usual, my choice is Disneyland. I would live there if I could. Mr. Kiwi on the other hand, had his fill last year. Another option I suggested was Santa Barbara, where we planned our first trip together in the early days. Mr. K gave that idea a vague “Yeah…” My next suggestion was San Diego, where he planned our first Valentine’s day together. That was also replied with a “Yeah…”
Jeez, this man is hard to please! I gave up, and decided to let him choose the plan. So, this morning when we were watching the weather channel, they were talking about Las Vegas. This may be insane, but I LOVE Las Vegas. Unfortunately, Mr. Kiwi and I have never had a chance to go together - we’ve been to Reno (like a middle-aged Las Vegas) but that’s as far as we’ve gone out of state together.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 30 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
