We started hearing about this trend more in the last few years and as it turns out, Isabelle and her fiancé (now husband) decided to do it too! Now to be fair, this was in part because of COVID (which even further restricted their options), but they had originally liked this idea to begin with. (PS Amanda and her husband did the long-plane-ride-international-vacation and looking back, although they were young and full of energy, the idea of a more low-key getaway right after the wedding sounds genius)
Twice the fun
Ok, who doesn’t want an excuse to have two vacations anyway…?! The main appeal of going this route is that you would do a more low key getaway (read: very little planning involved when you already have a lot going on) after a big/exhausting wedding. Go crazy planning something for your one year anniversary with that international destination you’ve always wanted to visit!
Budget conscious
Weddings are expensive and we always emphasize that the budget should be at the forefront of planning. So for many couples the wedding will be the big ticket item this year and then they can save up for a bigger vacation the following year. A small road trip where planes and passports are not required and the budget focuses on some nice meals and massages can be a perfect way to celebrate without breaking the bank.
Notes from Isabelle
One thing that attracted us to the idea of a “two-part” honeymoon was that we knew we wanted the focus of our “first” honeymoon to be more on us and less on the location (in the planning as well as the time/energy to get there and all the fun things to explore in a vacation spot) but we still wanted to do a bigger trip to celebrate our marriage. It also means we could take a chunk of time off from work for the lead-up, wedding, and honeymoon and then take another chunk off later for a longer trip without asking our employers for a month off all at one time.
Overall we loved that we could pack up the the car, take a short road trip, and get to just relax for a few days. Then we didn’t have to spend much time getting home so that we weren’t exhausted by the time we got back, plus we had a day to unpack before jumping back in to work. We are also having lots of fun thinking of things we can do once we can travel again!
All that said…
COVID has really thrown a lot out the window and made many aspects of wedding (and honeymoon) planning laughable. If you’re able to take that big vacation you’ve been dreaming about, do it! And be safe :) But if there are travel restrictions in place and you feel stuck, we hope you can still find something relaxing to do and know there will be opportunities in the future!
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