Honeymoon Planning 101

What could possibly be more exciting then planning your wedding? Planning your honeymoon! Okay, okay, I’m personally a fan of the wedding planning, but hey, if a project involves any sort of “planning”, I’m up for the challenge. 🙂

Honeymoons give you and your love the perfect opportunity to sit back and relax after the crazy few weeks (or months) leading up to your wedding. And, depending on where you go, they give you a chance to explore a new area with your best friend. What could be more fun?

So, if you’re about to start planning your honeymoon, here are a few tips to get you going.

Set a budget. If you’ve already started planning your wedding, you know a thing or two about budgets. Unless you have one of those magic trees that sprouts money in your back yard, you’ll have to determine how much money you want to spend on your honeymoon. Consider all the factors – plane tickets, hotel rooms, food, activities and in-town transportation, and anything else you want to do, along with how long you’d like to stay.

Do your research and pick a place. Europe? Mexico? Nappa Valley? What’s more your style? Are you history buffs? Love warm weather and soaking up the sun? Or maybe you just really, really love a great glass of wine. With your budget in mind, pick a place that has everything you want – the sights, the cuisine, the overall feel of the city or town – whether they are across the world or right next door to where you live.

If your budget is a small, consider going somewhere close so you don’t have to pop for plane tickets. Or, consider staying at home for a few days and trying something new (or visiting your old favorites) each day. Cook dinner together or get dressed up and go out.

Make reservations. If you have picked a location (or multiple locations, as it may be), decide on where you’d like to stay. Call or email to make sure there are no major functions happening at the same time – do you really want to fight a crowd of model plane enthusiasts in town for a convention? – and book the specific nights you want. Also arrange transportation if you’ll need it. Side note: Have a backup plan. Make sure you have a few alternate hotels in mind just in case there are any issues or last minute surprises at the places you have picked.

Make your To Do list. Alright, so…by now you’re probably sick of To Do lists. And, truth be told, you don’t really need an itinerary for this vacation, but it IS a good idea to have a general idea of the things you’d like to see and do while you’re honeymooning. Maybe you just want to sit by the beach for five days straight. Or, maybe you want to eat at this really great vegan place you’ve heard about after checking out some historic buildings around the city. Either way, by having a general idea of what you want to do before you get there, you’ll have to spend less vacation time hunting down addresses and directions and just getting things figured out.

Get ready. Oh traveling. Make sure you come prepared with your swimsuit, walking shoes, sexy dancing outfits – whatever you’ll be needing on your trip. If you’re leaving the day after your wedding, pack what you can before wedding-craziness kicks in (I’d say a week or so before the Big Day).

Also, be sure your passports are current and that you have all the other travel documents/necessities far in advance. As some of these can take weeks to obtain, you don’t want to leave things like this until the last second.

Go! Get ready to have a relaxing (or thrill-filled) time! Take lots of pictures to document the trip (yes, you’ll probably have a lot of one-person-in-the-shot photos), blog about your experiences, mail a postcard or two to your families (and yourselves), and enjoy your time together as newlyweds!

Want more information on honeymoon planning? There are tons of great travel sites out there to help you plan and coordinate your trip. Or, if you want a little more help in mapping out the vacation, turn to pros like Liberty Travel (“America’s Vacation Experts”) to help you make all the little details happen.