Honeymoons - Where ya goin'?

Phillyboy06

Ok ladies.  Maybe i'm too "giddy" about this.  I just can't wait to get married in the OBX next year to my beautiful KSJ!!!  But after the wedding, where ya goin' away to as "officially" Mr. and Mrs.?????  Are you leaving from the OBX?  If so, by car or by plane?  Etc.  I think our plan is to take two weeks off of work.  Our ceremony/reception will be during that first week(not sure of date yet, but Friday before Labor Day has been talked about), and if we do Sunday-Sunday rental, would give us Saturday to recoup, then Sunday to fly out to where we have been discussing for our honeymoon.  Dominican Republic.  What is everyone eles's plans/destinations?  Did you include these costs into your final budget?  Geesh, sorry ladies for being so loooooong winded! 

keb2482

No apologies Philly, I'm always long winded   I think we are going to the Bahamas.  I know, such a cliche right?  Neither of us have ever been though.  I think we've decided to go all out though.  We want to do the Sandals Royal Bahamian.  Its gorgeous and all included   Yay!  I have a 2 year old and one on the way so we've decided this will be our last chance for quite some time to do a vacay together....hence...we're going all out; all included, ocean front suite

We are paying for it ourselves, so not in our final budget, as my parents will be paying for the wedding.  We might do a honeymoon registry - or at least put it up as an option on our website to our guests.

The Dominican Rep. will be a ton of fun I'm sure!  I hear its gorgeous

hibiscus118

We went to Hawaii and San Diego.  We took a week off for the wedding, Came home and worked for two weeks, then headed out for 2 weeks again.  We were really lucky because of our jobs that we could do this (ok it helped that DH's boss was one of our groomsman lol) We didn't count this in our final budget since my parents and DH's parents, as well as us, were contributing to the wedding budget.  We saved for the honeymoon ourselves and used wedding money for "fun money" out there.

We were planning on doing the honeymoon this past spring instead, but I decided to go back to school so we just opted to go soon afterwards so it didn't conflict with school. Plus, I found a great deal.

sarahebrown

We are staying in the Outer Banks in a sweeeet rental house for the week after the wedding. My FI has more time off work in the winter, so we will take a trip in February to Daytona Beach, FL and see the Daytona 500 together (he's totally into racing).

We did not include our honeymoon costs into our wedding budget.

rebecca2929

We're leaving the night of the wedding and driving to Raleigh to fly out to Key Largo on Sunday.  I'm taking 3 days off before the wedding and the following week for the honeymoon.  The honeymoon wasn't figured into the budget.  My fiance handled the honeymoon...decided where we would go, found the resort, flight, rental car and paid for it.  I had too many other things to worry about and I knew he would pick a place that I wanted to go.  We're splitting the cost of the wedding...he paid for the honeymoon and I'm paying for a majority of the wedding with a little help from him.

JAK33

Welcome to the board!  It is great we have another couple on here (in addition to OBX2011 and her mama!).  Love it!

I work in the travel industry, so I am hoping to score some awesome deal and go somewhere we normally dont vaca to.  Europe, Maldives, Figi are all contenders.  I don't think we will know until closer to the date when I see some deals come out.  We arent including this or the cost of our house rental in our budget for the wedding. 

Re dates, we may go directly from the wedding week, or we may go a few months later.  This is also TBD.  I have a feeling FI may need to get back to work and it may be hard to convince him to take 2 weeks off, on the other hand, I would love to go somewhere right after the wedding.

Good luck in planning!  I am not a travel agent myself, but have been a lot of places and work for a travel company on the corporate side, so any questions, I can try and help answer

OBX2011

Thanks JAK  Momma Boo rocks it out, lol

Do you recommend going through a particular travel company?  What are your thoughts on Sandals resorts?  Any info would be great

We are taking our HM in late Jan/early Feb of next year.  FI's boss is a real tool if ya know what I mean and getting the week off for OUR WEDDING was stressful enough....seriously.  He actually told Brent that "you should've come and talked to me about this first man...."  I'm sorry, but what did you just say you a-hole???  Now Brent won't tell me the entire conversation and it's probably best that he doesn't, but I know that his supervisor left the job site when he heard the boss-man say this, drove to his house and basically checked him for saying that to Brent.  Apparently I am a "rambler" too, lol

I'm pretty sure we are going to St. Lucia.  He has been to Hawaii before but I have never been to a tropical destination and thought it would be a nice break from the dreaded cold of winter.  I am excited   

Our HM is separate from the wedding...however; FFIL (future father in law) offered to pay for our flight so that was a sweeeettt surprise!


PhillyBoy....under the Chit Chat page, there is a "post-it" note at the very top that will give you a link to all of the abbreviations on here in case you want to take a peek

sarahebrown

OBX- this pic of you and your FI is tooo cute!!!! Love it

JAK33

OBX- I still owe you an email re housing rentals! 

I would recommend working with an agent, the pricing they can get for you is usually the same, if not better if you did it yourself.  They will also take care of you like you are a VIP.  Since they know its your honeymoon, they will always try for room upgrades and may send an amenity (like a bottle of wine, etc).  Agencies have preferred partnerships with many hotels and vendors, so they will def. recommend those over another vendor since they will be able to offer better pricing and have a better chance to work with that vendor on your behalf.

Planning yourself isn't a bad thing if you are into planning, I would recommend going directly to the vendor.  But be careful of the discount sites- they are usually offering deals, but can get stuck in the room near the elevator and dumpster without a view.  Hotels usually hold a block of the lowest class of rooms for the discount sites.  Just an FYI.  If you need to cancel or change your plans, the discount sites usually require a payment in full when you make the reservations, so you are usually out of the cash.  They often don't let you use your preferred programs to obtain points as well, but this can vary.

I could go on and on re travel... to go back to your original question OBX, I have heard good things about St. Lucia and Sandals, I was actually considering it myself before we decided on a far away location and if that changes and we plan in the winter time like you, I may be considering it again!  If you do work with an agency, they will be able to give you lots of info on Sandals and St. Lucia and other comparable trips. 

And the sooner you can start planning, the better!  Flights will just go up and up and as the hotel gains reservations, that will likely go up as well.  If you do book a hotel on your own, make it a changeable one, and you can always check back to see if you can get a better deal, cancel and rebook.  I do that from time to time myself   If you do book a package with agent, you can add insurance for pretty cheap which will cover changes if you need to make them.

Keep me posted!

OBX2011

Thanks Sarah

JAK...thank you for the info and all of the tips.  I think I will be using an agent and it just so happens that the lady who assisted with my gown, is an agent on the side so I will defintely be contacting her very soon.

And yes....I need house updates miss lady

ldybug78

We are waiting to go on our honeymoon until next May bc of vacation time at work and money.  We plan to spend a week in Italy and then a week in Greece (depending on the safety factor we may go to Ibiza instead).