Honeymoon Timing

SaintPaulGal · November 2016

Putting this here where more people post.

For you wise old married ladies who went on honeymoon trips, did you leave right after the wedding? Are you glad you did/didn't?

All along I have been figuring that we would go on our honeymoon immediately after our wedding day. But recently I have been thinking more about the logistics involved. The wedding will be on a Saturday. We will want to see at least our immediate family members the next morning, particularly since they are coming in from out of town. So the earliest it would make sense to leave would be Sunday evening.

If we waited a week, we could leave Friday night/Saturday morning and get an extra couple of days of vacation. (We each get limited time off of work.) Plus it would probably be less stressful to pack and get ready to leave when it's not also the last few days before the wedding. But then we would have to work that week in between the wedding and our departure. Would that ruin the wedding momentum and make the trip less "special"?

I'd love to hear what others chose to do.

CharmedPam · November 2016

We didn't go right after for a few reasons:

1) family had flown in from IL and Canada, so spending some time after the wedding with my side of the family was important to us

2) DH only has 3 weeks a year, which starts every January. We plan vacation very carefully with that, and by the time of our wedding, we pretty much used up all of it for site visits, going back to NY for the Holiday and other vacations. I was able to save up 5 days to roll over into January since my company "accumulates" vacation days.

3) January is cold, and the magic of Christmas and NYE is all gone, and we always want to get out of dodge in January or February anyway.

I like your idea of waiting a week, especially with the packing thing, I do not think it wont make it 'less special" IMO.

mrsconn23 · November 2016

We left the day after our wedding. I wish we would have waited until Monday. But I was more than happy to GTFO town after the wedding.

We got married in November and if we would have waited a week, we would have had issues backing up into Thanksgiving. But waiting a week would be fine, IMO.

*Barbie* · November 2016

we went right after (like we spent our wedding night at a hotel at the airport, so we could catch our 6-ish am flight) - it was a whirlwind.

i don't think the week in between is unreasonable. it will give you a bit of time to relax and hang with family, and take an extra day or so.

6fsn · November 2016

We had a brunch at my folks Sunday morning then spent Sunday night near the airport and gl out Monday morning. My sister waited 6 months. We both loved our honeymoons.

ShesSoCold · November 2016

We waited several months. It wasn't the original plan but we're happy we did. We got to get all excited and shit all over again months after the wedding was over.

But had we gone sooner, I probably would have done what you're thinking - leave the following week. That would give time to get thank you cards done, time to plan and pack without the wedding stress looming over, shit like that and especially the extra days of vacation with the full weekend.

lyndausvi · November 2016

There is not right wrong way. It very individual.

My sister left very early the next morning and she did regret that. She would have preferred an extra day. Or at the very least taken a later flight.

We we got married on a Saturday and left mid-day to the airport (we had a 10pm flight, but was 5 hours from the airport). We wanted to wait until Monday to leave, but there was an issue at the safari lodge on the back end being booked. So if we wanted 5 days, we had no choice but leave the next day. It worked out well, since we still got the morning with the family. Then we had lunch together and were on our way.

It should be noted that the boat I worked on was shut down (as it was every Sept). We got married in the states and then continued on to Europe and Africa. It totally made sense for us to continue on the honeymoon. Otherwise we wouldn't get time off until the following summer.

sparklepants41 · November 2016

Our wedding was on a Saturday. Sunday we went back home, put the top tier of our cake in the freezer, packed for our honeymoon and then had a relaxing evening. Monday morning early we had a car service pick us up to take us to the airport for our honeymoon. We were so glad to have that one day in between to chill out with each other, decompress from the wedding, get organized, and order delivery.

short+sassy · November 2016

I really preferred having an HM right after the wedding. Or shortly after. We got married Sat. night. Spent Sun. at my mom's where there was brunch and reception leftovers for dinner. OOT relatives hanging out with us on Sun. also. Left Mon. morning for our HM.

Here was our timeline. Left NOLA on Wed. night for CA. Married in CA on Sat. Left CA on Mon. morning for Portland, OR. Flew back from Portland to NOLA on Sat. (expensive to fly on Sun.). Went to work for three days. That Thurs., July 3rd, was a half day for me. I took it off. And then Friday was July 4th, holiday.

So I took 7 days of vacation (1 1/2 weeks). Though it would have been less than that if we had gotten married where we lived. Came back to work for 3 days. Then had a 4-day weekend, where we stayed home. It was pretty sweet timing!

thefanciestbeckler · November 2016

Our wedding was on a Sunday and we were *supposed* to leave the next day for our honeymoon. We missed our flight because it was at 6:30 am and we were so tired that we overslept. Ended up waiting at the Atlanta airport for 12 hours for the next open flight to Miami. We finally got on a flight that night, stayed the night in Miami, and flew to St. Kitts that Tuesday morning. So it was kind of a disaster.

I don't regret leaving right after the wedding at all. For us it was really nice to relax for a week before returning to the craziness of life. I DO regret booking a flight that left at 6:30 am the day after the wedding, so keep that in mind if you choose to leave right after

Edited for clarity

MissKittyDanger · November 2016

Depends when wedding is vs where vaca is.

For ours, we wanted somewhere warm and got married in August. So we went in February for our Honeymoon {better weather on both areas}

M's cousin went right after their wedding, but they were only going to Vegas - so it worked out.

Heffalump · November 2016

We left the next day, but we had short flights so fortunately we didn't have to get up early or anything. It worked out really well for us, but I've heard of lots of people who waited and were also happy.

SaintPaulGal · November 2016

Thanks for all the feedback, everybody! It's so valuable to hear from people who have been there done that.

I know for sure that I don't want to push the honeymoon back more than a week, for two main reasons: I want it to feel like part of the wedding experience, and I know it will be easier for both of us to get away from work if we have a specific time that we "need" to go versus a vague desire to get around to it sometime.

The wedding is July 22, and we would either leave on the 23rd or the 28th/29th. Not entirely sure where we will be going, but probably Eastern Europe. Leaving immediately would give us 13 full days, and we could potentially bump that up to 15 by waiting for the next weekend to roll around.

I think right now I'm probably leaning toward waiting. Glad to hear people who didn't go immediately didn't feel like they missed out on anything.

climbingsingle · November 2016

We got married on a Saturday and left for our HM on Tuesday. We purposely did that to have some downtime between the wedding and trip, and I'm so glad we did. We got married at a resort and actually stayed until Monday morning. Then we drove home and had the whole rest of the day to pack and get ready for our HM.

charlotte989875 · November 2016

We did things a little different. We were married in NY on a Friday, and we left Monday to drive back home to NC. We waited two weeks before we went on a trip to Spain, that I worked the first three days (international conference) then went on to another city.

I will say it didn't feel like it was part of the wedding/honeymoon, probably because I worked and we didn't get to choose the country. Also, we didn't have a ton of money at the time so we were limited in what we could do.

If I could do it all over again I wish we would have taken a traditional honeymoon in the few days after the wedding.

SaintPaulGal · November 2016

One more thing that applies to my specific situation: we are getting married in our own city, and our house is less than 15 minutes from the airport. So that helps to simplify things!

monkeysip · November 2016

We got married saturday night, and left on our honeymoon that wednesday.

Why wednesday? Well... those were the cheapest flights, lol. It was nice having a few days to pack, cash checks, write thank you notes, etc. We moved into together after the wedding too, so we started that process.

I did always think it'd be romantic to leave on your honeymoon literally right after the reception, like they do in movies. But practically, that just sounds exhausting.

short+sassy · November 2016

SaintPaulGal said:

One more thing that applies to my specific situation: we are getting married in our own city, and our house is less than 15 minutes from the airport. So that helps to simplify things!

This might not be your cup of tea but, if you leave for your HM the next weekend, maybe take just that Monday after off work. Though maybe that defeats the purpose of trying to save vacation time! Spring for a nice hotel in a fun, nearby town or your city's downtown/fun area. Do just a little mini-staycation for some of Sunday-Monday. Book massages. Order room service. Whatever little extras you all would like to make it on the luxurious side.

It will be a chance to BREATH after the wedding hoopla and still spend some alone time with your new H, but with the benefits of more time for your big HM trip.

OliveOilsMom · November 2016

We married on a Friday in March, then went on a 2 night mini-moon to a B&B on Sunday. Basically we took all the time H could get. He actually worked right up until Friday and was even toying with the idea of working on Friday. He was a part time teacher's aide at the time, so he had very limited time to take and no vacation at all. He had to use sick/personal time, thankfully his principal was easy going and didn't care he used sick time.

So due to H's work, we took our honeymoon in July. I actually really liked having the longer wait in between. All of the craziness from the wedding had died down and we were settling into our lives again. Then we still had this great big vacation to look forward too.

If we did have a choice to go right away for our honeymoon, we probably would have done it, if H had a different job. March would have been a much cheaper time to travel to our destination. We went to Hawaii and July is their most expensive month to travel there. They have the most tourists in July, so hotel rooms and car rentals are more expensive due to demand. You are also looking at the higher summer airfares too.

Thankfully, that Dec H got his current job and it includes vacation time! We don't have to worry about when to travel now, in fact H's busiest time is summer, so we rarely go away for anything other than long weekends then.

littlemushroom · November 2016

We got married on a Saturday and left on our honeymoon the Friday after. We were so happy we did it that way. The day after the wedding we were exhausted after seeing family off and the long day before, and it took a couple more days to get back to normal. I got all my thank you notes done before we left on the honeymoon, which really took the pressure off too. Plus we got to enjoy the leftover wedding cake before we left. It was wonderful feeling refreshed and excited for the trip instead of exhausted. We wouldn't change anything.

InLoveInQueens · November 2016

We got married in October and went on our honeymoon in February. We did have a little mini celebration, my MIL insisted on booking us a hotel in the city for our wedding night and we got to have a little time away from home (even though after our wedding lunch we went home and took a nap before heading into the city for our night away) but it just worked out best for us to wait. We took a cruise and wanted to wait for a specific trip.

CharmedPam · November 2016

yeah, I get the whole waiting in between and it feeling like a vacation and not a honeymoon thing you speak of. If that's the case, we stuck around the area 4 days after the wedding, so you could say our honeymoon was in White Plains, NY. lol. We go on vacations a lot, anyway. We told our travel agent the upcoming cruise was acting as our honeymoon and he said he'd have a bottle of campaign in our stateroom when we got there. That's probably the only difference.

Another reason why we spread it out was money. We paid for the majority of the wedding, so having a few months to build up money for a vacation made sense too.

ei34 · November 2016

We were married in February and went on our honeymoon in Apri. H's vacation time is flexible but I had to go around when schools are off- Feb break which was a couple weeks after our wedding, our destination would've been chilly, and had we waited until the summer it would've been too hot, but Easter break in April was just right.

We both really enjoyed having 2.5 months in between our wedding and HM- especially having time on the wedding end to unwind, write thank you's asap, watch as the tagged pictures on Facebook came in, etc. However, my sister and BIL went on their HM one day after their wedding, and said it was great, so I think it really depends.

Subwayloves · November 2016

We got married on a Saturday, and left for our honeymoon super early Monday morning. We had an extremely busy Sunday (breakfast with my family, lunch with MILs family, and dinner with FILs family!), but it all felt like kind of one big wedding weekend, so I didn't mind. We got home at a decent time to finish packing, and had a fairly long flight that we slept most of the way on the next morning.

I loved the way we did it, because it did all feel like one big event, a magical week. Our honeymoon was also the first big trip H and I had taken just the two of us, and it was also the first time either of us had been to an all inclusive so it was extra special. Even though it was busy and a bit of a whirlwind, I wouldn't change how we did it!

ernursej · November 2016

I got married on a Tuesday evening and we left the following Saturday. I wouldn't have wanted to leave sooner. I liked that I didn't have to worry about packing before the wedding and then I had a couple of days at work to straighten everything out before we left.

SP29 · November 2016

We got married on a Saturday in January. We didn't go on our HM until October of that year. Mainly due to vacation time (I had JUST started a new job, and DH was starting a job that month), and then we decided we wanted to go somewhere warm, so decided not to go in the middle of summer. Ideally we would've gone sooner- but c'est la vie. Trip was still awesome- it was definitely still special.

Personally, I'd give yourself a few days. Spend some time with your family, cash any cheques, get any gifts home, and pack. I KNOW that if we had done something where we left for our HM right away, it would've stressed me out trying to pack for a trip right before the wedding- I'd be so worried about forgetting something, either for the wedding or trip.

We did spend our wedding night at a hotel and had a nice leisurely day after.

I don't think waiting a bit will spoil the "moment". We were also quite content to be newlyweds at home- the same old, same old still felt a bit different.

drglitter · November 2016

We waited a week to leave. He liked having the week between and I hated it.

I had to work all week and found it very hard to focus because I'd just gotten married and had yet to pack for my honeymoon.

He likes things to happen at a slow pace and needed to wind down after the wedding. In fact, he mentioned several times how happy he was that we were waiting a week, until I reminded him that the reason he was so relaxed was that he worked one day that week and had all week to veg and pack.

I wish we'd have left right away, but having said that, the honeymoon was great anyway, and will be no matter when you take it.

MesmrEwe · November 2016

The best way to time the HM - during a time when you know you won't have AF - just saying!

SaintPaulGal · November 2016

After all sorts of back and forth, it turns out that his big quarterly board meeting is going to require him to fly out on the weekend that we would be getting back if we pushed the honeymoon back by a week. So it seems that by necessity we will be leaving the day after the wedding so as to be home in time for that. Now to spend the next several months watching for flight deals...

short+sassy · November 2016

SaintPaulGal said:

After all sorts of back and forth, it turns out that his big quarterly board meeting is going to require him to fly out on the weekend that we would be getting back if we pushed the honeymoon back by a week. So it seems that by necessity we will be leaving the day after the wedding so as to be home in time for that. Now to spend the next several months watching for flight deals...

I highly recommend the Hopper app. It's only an app, not a website, so I find that annoying. But they have crazy good flight deals.

They also predict if the price for your flight will go up or down in the coming weeks/months.

If you want, you can set your dates/destinations as a "watch". They will send a text message about once a week to let you know the current amount for your flight along with their updated prediction.

I'm a serious flight bargain shopper anyway, but it's rare I can find anything that beats their prices. For example, I've found r/t flights between NOLA and LAX for $128. And r/t NOLA to San Diego for $209. Those flights usually start around $340 r/t. You can't see the details until you go to book it. But you do see the details before paying.

PrettyGirlLost · November 2016

mrsconn23 said:

We left the day after our wedding. I wish we would have waited until Monday. But I was more than happy to GTFO town after the wedding.

We got married in November and if we would have waited a week, we would have had issues backing up into Thanksgiving. But waiting a week would be fine, IMO.

We were married on Saturday, left for our honeymoon in Monday. Honestly, I was over family friends and entertaining ppl by that point.

Originally we were going to wait a week or so-why I have no idea- but we got a very good deal on our trip since it was the last of it's kind of the season.

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