Wedding Recap and Withdrawal

No honeymoon

Are there any brides here that did not have a honeymoon after their wedding? We are thinking about going to a nice hotel a few hours away and enjoying the city (we live in a rural area), maybe going to a nice restaurant or seeing a show or museum but nothing big or serious. We will probably just lounge around the hotel and enjoy each others company. Did anybody else choose not to have a lavish honeymoon and do you regret it?

Re: No honeymoon

  • We initially weren't going to go on a honeymoon, and instead, save those funds for part of a house downpayment. Wedding planning is stressful though, and we ended up opting to go to the big island for 10 days, and we have zero regrets about that! We both had a fantastic time, and got to see so many awesome things, and it was really nice to get away together for a few days.
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  • My opinion is that if you take a few days off after your wedding, that's your honeymoon. Even if you just stay in your house. We went away for a few days to the Adirondacks and Montreal (we live in the northeast US). It was a great, low-key trip. After the hustle and bustle of the wedding, we really just wanted to relax together. Your honeymoon sounds lovely.
  • I'm sad we aren't doing our honeymoon right away, wedding planning was very stressful in the last week and I kind of feel robbed that I had to go back to work 2 days after my wedding (oct.5)! We are doing a weekend thing this weekend (going away for 2 nights) and then doing our big honeymoon in the summer when I have time off (I work at a school).
  • We are thinking of driving a few hours to Niagara Falls and staying at a nice hotel.  It would be nice to go to Italy or something but we decided that would be too expensive and to use that money that we would "save" on the wedding instead.
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  • I highly recommend at least going for a short trip! I got married last month and we did not go on what many would consider a "honeymoon", just a 3 day/2 night trip to somewhere 3 hours away from home. (We purposely chose an inexpensive semi-rural area so that it would be cheaper and less of a scene so we could relax more.)

    It was SO nice to get away. We stayed in an old historic hotel, ate really good steak (both nights! yum), went for a hike to see the fall colors, soaked in a hot springs, went to a local microbrewery, window shopped in art galleries. The whole thing was about $500. So relaxing and very worth it!
  • We are having a delayed honeymoon, I guess. A day or two after our wedding we will be joining a family trip to Yellowstone, which we've toured several times. We do want to do some sort of honeymoon trip eventually, but it'll be at least 6 months to a year out.
  • raeah219 said:
    Are there any brides here that did not have a honeymoon after their wedding? We are thinking about going to a nice hotel a few hours away and enjoying the city (we live in a rural area), maybe going to a nice restaurant or seeing a show or museum but nothing big or serious. We will probably just lounge around the hotel and enjoy each others company. Did anybody else choose not to have a lavish honeymoon and do you regret it?
    We haven't done ours yet, but we were only married 2.5 weeks ago. We are planning to do something before my husband deploys since he had to report to work the Monday following our wedding. I think there's nothing wrong with enjoying the city or doing whatever makes you guys happy. Honestly, by the time we actually have our honeymoon I will appreciate it far more than I would've immediately following the wedding. This gives us something nice and exciting to look forward to ( even though we haven't actually booked anything yet!) but we may end up doing something similar and just driving to a nearby city and exploring and then doing a bigger trip of our 1 year anniversary! :) Anyways, no regrets yet!
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  • We stayed at a lovely cabin (B&B) with a jacuzzi tub and an awesome bed for three nights, in a town about an hour and a half from where we live.  During the day we lazed about or did touristy things.  We did one huge blow out dinner at a vineyard at the chef's table, with a specially planned menu on our last night away.

    I loved every minute of our honeymoon and am so glad we decided to not take the cruise we had talked about doing.  While a cruise would have been fun, our cabin named "France" was so much more peaceful, which was nice after all of the wedding hubbub.

    We're going back for our first anniversary.
  • I really recommend taking at least 2-3 days for a honeymoon. My DH and I took a week-long honeymoon and it really gave us a chance to relax and decompress after the wedding/wedding planning craziness. In our case, it was extra nice because we hadn't gone on even a short vacation for a few years.

    We went to Oregon with some time in Portland and some time on the Oregon coast. The coast part was my favorite. We stayed in a hotel, with a seaside view, that had a gorgeous in-room Jacuzzi tub. It felt luxurious and extravagant...without costing that way, lol! 

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  • We went to Niagara Falls (approx 4 hour trip) from where we will and took advantage of a groupon deal for a hotel. It worked with our budget. We had fun together, hit a few wineries, went to the casino & just relaxed too & enjoyed sleeping in (our dogs don't let us do that). It was a big fancy get away but we enjoyed it. What I enjoyed more was not spending more on a honeymoon then we could afford. We didn't have to dip into our wedding gifts to pay for our honeymoon. We did stop at IKEA and a Columbia outlet store on our way home and had fun using some of our wedding money to do some shopping.
  • raeah219 said:
    Are there any brides here that did not have a honeymoon after their wedding? We are thinking about going to a nice hotel a few hours away and enjoying the city (we live in a rural area), maybe going to a nice restaurant or seeing a show or museum but nothing big or serious. We will probably just lounge around the hotel and enjoy each others company. Did anybody else choose not to have a lavish honeymoon and do you regret it?
    We are doing the same thing.We live on the west coast of Florida and we plan on driving over to the east coast (Miami or Fort Lauderdale) for a few days. We figured we'd just get a nice hotel on the beach and go to some nice dinners. I think I'm mostly looking forward to having a few days without the kids, lol.
  • I think a low key honeymoon sounds great. I'm not getting married until January, but I often think how it is nice to just do NOTHING, or, do whatever you WANT to do. Nice dinner, hot spring/jacuzzi, hike, winery.... all sound lovely to me!

    Since FH and I are having our wedding in our hometown, I am taking 10 days off of work anyway to travel home a week prior to the wedding to finish last minute stuff, plus have a few days after the wedding to wrap things up and see family before returning home, where I then go back to work the next day. We are staying in a hotel for the wedding night, but after that returning to stay at my dad's house, and will likely be visiting family and friends those last few days. So we are saving up to go on a nice vacation next fall, likely to Arizona. We are from Alberta, so it'll be a "tropical" (even though the climate is dry) destination for us, and we'll likely relax by the pool, eat some good food and do some hiking in the local state parks and such. 
  • We are getting married May 18th but not going on our honeymoon until June 13. Several reasons played a factor (all of which no longer play a factor, but we have already put down the deposit). We are excited. 
  • I think the biggest reason I want FI and I to honeymoon is because it might be the last time for a long time we can spend the money on a vacation for us. I have a 3 year old and not taking her is going to be hard but holy cow I don't know what a week of sleeping in would be like! I know people who feel robbed that they never got a honeymoon but even if we JOPed it and did nothing afterwards, I would be happy that I was married to my FI ya know, so even though I want a honeymoon I don't think of regret not having one if we couldn't.
  • We went and stayed 1 night in a hotel after our wedding. We waited a few days. i WISH we could have gone somewhere and did something though. 
    Married 11/12/05 ~ Renewed Our Vows 11/9/13. 

    "The LORD will fight for you, you need only be still."


  • We are going to have to wait. The idea was to go during Feb break - as a teacher I can't take a random week off right after the wedding. Now due to a layoff, we are working with one income, so we are not sure when we will be able to swing it. :/
  • We have to wait due to a layoff as well.  And my now husband was in a car accident 2 days before the wedding. The other driver didn't think they had to "yield".  Thankfully, no one was hurt, but we had to go truck shopping pretty quickly!  However,we did spend the wedding night in a hotel with an amazing bathtub!  :)  We took a couple of days off from work and will go to the Caribbean in the early spring.  I don't regret it.  I feel like it makes the celebrating last longer!  Not only that, we had to move our wedding up by 13 months and only had seven weeks to plan. No pressure there!  lol
  • We got married on Nov. 9, only took a few days off after our wedding.  We are going on our honeymoon in April because hubby is a teacher.  We are going on a cruise to the Caribbean, can't wait!  It will be nice to be able to celebrate all over again.
  • My parents went to hawaii ten years after their wedding, i wouldnt advise waiting THAT long, but saving up for a while can make it great
  • I initially thought I could not afford it, but realized close to the wedding date that I could, so we actually went a few weeks later. No regrets
  • No budget for a honeymoon yet. I would like to do a low key B&B or something after though. Just to have a couple days to destress after all the wedding madness!
  • I won't be having one. We are paying for our wedding, and a honeymoon doesn't fit in the budget right now. We thought of going somewhere small after the wedding, but we chose not to. Plus, my boyfriend's band is playing a music festival the weekend after our wedding.

    We think it might be more fun to take an anniversary trip instead.
  • I won't be having one. We are paying for our wedding, and a honeymoon doesn't fit in the budget right now. We thought of going somewhere small after the wedding, but we chose not to. Plus, my boyfriend's band is playing a music festival the weekend after our wedding. We think it might be more fun to take an anniversary trip instead.

    I love the idea of an anniversary trip if you can't do a honeymoon right away.
  • Yay for this post!

    FI and I probably can't afford Hawaii (which I desperately wanted); his parents have offered the use of their timeshare week in Lake Tahoe, on the Nevada side. We have vacationed on the California side, and enjoyed it, so we will likely go there. (We live in Sacramento, CA-about 2 hours from Lake Tahoe.)

    We have talked about doing a trip in Fall/Winter 2014 (wedding is May 3rd) or Spring 2015...but, we are going to try for a baby after the wedding, & I hope we can get pregnant right away-if we do, I don't think I'll want to travel at that time!

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  • Everyone I know says that even if you can't go on a lavish honeymoon that a low-key mini-moon for a few days away from home at a cabin, hotel, B&B, etc. just to get away and relax together is a great idea.
    Formerly known as flutterbride2b
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  • We won't be doing a honeymoon anytime soon after the wedding. We are paying for the wedding ourselves so we don't have the money to spare for a honeymoon. He's a Soldier so it's not like he can just take time off from work whenever he wants. I also don't have the comp time to spare as well. So instead we are going to pay off the wedding this year and then save up to have an awesome honeymoon next spring.
  • We are combining our honeymoon with our wedding. We are leaning towards an immediate family only destination wedding at Disneyland Resort. We will then do a day or two at Disneyland with our families. We just got back from a big trip just the two of us to Walt Disney World, so we really don't feel the need for another big trip at this time.
  • CMGragainCMGragain member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited February 2014
    We had a mini-moon of two nights in Kansas City.  Our first big, romantic trip was on our 25th wedding anniversary.  I would do the same thing again.
    You see, back in the stone age when I was a bride, we didn't live together before the wedding.  DH and I lived 1100 miles apart, and decided to get married in a hurry.  Our mini-moon was busy, KWIM.  We never left the hotel until it was time to go back home.  An expensive trip would have been wasted.
    In the 37 years we have been married, we have gone around the world on 17 romantic cruises, and we are planning on more in the future.  The best is yet to come.
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  • We're doing a honeymoon mostly because we want to be able to relax after the wedding!  I know that by the time we get the wedding done, I'm going to be ready for a break.  We discussed a few options and settled on Vieques, Puerto Rico so that we have some activity options, but mostly time to relax and enjoy spending time together.
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