Brides2Be

Marlena Wojcik lives with her fiance in Eagle River, AK. Originally from Chicago, she moved to Alaska last summer to be with the love of her life and is currently making plans for her Special Day, which will take place next October just thirty minutes outside of Chicago--- it's a destination wedding, sort of. Her challenge is to balance needs, wants, aesthetics, practicality, family politics, and THE BUDGET...dah da duuuuuuuuh. So far, she and her fiance are still getting along. Got any advice for them? Planning a wedding? Just finished planning a wedding? Share your stories/suggestions/forewarnings here. This is your forum.

...Because no Bride2Be should suffer alone.


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Archive

One Week Left: Maybe I Don't Want to Have the Wedding of My Dreams - 10/4/2008 11:35 pm

T minus Less Than One Month - 9/16/2008 1:57 pm

When Duty Calls - 8/29/2008 1:48 pm

Today's Poll: Calling All Opinions - 8/26/2008 1:06 pm

Tie the Knot, Renew Vows or Fall in Love Along Thompson Pass - 8/26/2008 12:42 pm

Engaged and En-Gulfed in Pre-Wedding Bliss - 8/19/2008 3:21 pm

In Other Cultures… - 8/19/2008 3:08 pm

Wedding day tradition: Saw a log? - 8/15/2008 11:15 pm

&^%# Wedding Invitations - 7/1/2008 1:26 pm

Pointers on Toasts and Toast Points - 7/1/2008 1:17 pm

Chapel Cinema: Sex & the City? Love & Los Anchorage - 7/1/2008 1:15 pm

Battle Cry for the Bachelor - 6/2/2008 11:22 am

Minor Setbacks vs. Global Catastrophes - 5/30/2008 7:30 am

Expect the Unexpected Expenses: aka Bride2Be Goes To Traffic Court - 5/30/2008 1:37 am

Happy Fishing Report Thursday - 5/29/2008 11:34 pm

Face the Music and Dance - 5/25/2008 9:18 pm

Weird, Wild Wedding Etiquette - 5/15/2008 4:50 pm

For Richer or For Poorer; In Fitness and In Flab - 5/13/2008 4:13 pm

Mothers and Daughters - 5/12/2008 8:41 am

The Power and the Glory - 5/6/2008 12:31 am

Happy Earth Day - 4/22/2008 8:42 am

...And that is how the wedding planner profession came to be, Kids! - 4/22/2008 8:31 am

full archive »

Issue #3: Taking Time To Honeymoon

Posted by brideblog

Posted: January 21, 2008 - 2:23 pm

One day? One week? And where? What makes for a good honeymoon? ...Besides the obvious bomb-chick-a-bow-wow.

I've talked to different couples who postponed honeymoon plans until the "off" season of their jobs or until after completing their residency programs, and then there are couples who left the day after their wedding--- some even departed for Honeymoon Or Bust the very same day as the wedding. Brian and I haven't made any plans yet. But one thing is for sure: the advice I'm taking to heart is to take time to honeymoon, even for just a few days, and do it sooner than later. This is the time for newly-weds to enjoy each other and to decompress from the 12+ months of planning, from the onslaught of family/friends/traditions/when-are-you-two-having-kids?, etc., and from the demands of Daily Life that can wait until resurfacing.

In fact, the word "honeymoon" comes from the legend that after the wedding, the bride and groom were supposed to retreat to their private chambers for the "honeyed moon," which meant they would be drinking lots of mead, a wine made from honey, for the duration of a complete moon cycle, and thus, covering all the bases in a woman's menstrual cycle... Fun Fact for you to share at next year's Anchorage Beer and Barley Festival!

Whether we honeymoon someplace far far away and warm, or somewhere within driving distance, I heard that the key is to go out of town where you won't be found by relatives. To be fair, I recently heard the other side of the coin from a friend in the meeting planning business. Originally from South Africa, she had a lot of out-of-town guests at her wedding, and she wishes she and her fiancé spent more time with them following the wedding instead of leaving for their honeymoon the next day.

I don't know, we haven't made plans yet, but I'm leaning towards getting the h** out of Dodge, even if it's only for a few days before returning to the Daily Grind. And anyway, shouldn't couples find ways to keep the honeymoon going throughout their marriage? I say, "Amen! And pass the honey wine!" ...Though I'm partial to pinot noirs and cabernet blends.


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  3     September 28, 2008 - 12:58pm | jasonla

Quality over quantity is

Quality over quantity is exactly how my wife and I choose our vacations, it's all to easy to jump a flight and head down to FL or any other state in the area. But each year if we can we take pretty big trips just last year we took cunard cruise lines to the UK then spent a week abroad. We had an amazing time and it's far from the ordinary vacation being at sea for that long.

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  2     February 1, 2008 - 11:29am | Beth_451

When to take a honeymoon

We married December 31, 2005. Family and a few friends who flew up for the occasion, came for the whole holiday season! We enjoyed them for Christmas and the week of preparation before hand. It was not exactly a long drawn out fairwell to those who would leave before we got back from our 5 day trip, but it was satisfying to have all those memories. Those who weren't there the whole time, were flying out the next day anyway (ALWAYS be sure to make accommodations for out of town guests getting to the airport and such for after you leave town--we've been burned flying all the way from Alaska to go to a wedding and being forgotton the next day by family and missing the plane!).

Anyway, we were glad to get away. My dream honeymoon was some scenic place without lots of distracting "sights". It's kind of embarrassing, but my father-in-law bought us tickets and gave us hotel vouchers to Minniapolis, Mn. It is far from glamorous (I wanted to got to Boston or San Franscisco or something), but it turned out to be really nice. Our time alone, snuggled in our nice hotel room suite, was interspersed with long walks hand-in-hand downtown and through the mall of America (we even rode on a roller coaster). When we told the ticket guy that we were on our honeymoon, he said, "And you came to Camp Snoopy?!"

That summer, we took a huge trip to Russia and Ukraine to visit places and people that we loved and stopped in gorgeous St. Petersburg for a lovely wrap up of our three week tour, but we were really glad that that wasn't our first three weeks as a married couple.

Quality accommodations and something fun to look at while you walk hand-in-hand were all that my husband and I could have wanted. So we suggest that couples just take it easy their first week together: get good accommodations on the beach, in the woods, in a scenic city or mountain area. Probably a week at a good hotel in Alaska would be better than a week in a lousy hotel in Paris (for a honeymoon).

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  February 4, 2008 - 3:17pm | brideblog

Quality vs. Quantity

Thanks for sharing your experience at "Camp Snoopy." That's great. You made Minniapolis sound romantic! I think taking it easy for the first week is very sage advice. And a trip to Russia more than makes up for it.

I will also note the heads up for planning logistics for out-of-town guests. That's an interesting point, because we're having a block of rooms held, we're going to provide options, but aside from Brian's parents, we're being careful not to make any offers to provide "chauffer" services. There are just too many other things to worry about and I'd be afraid that I'd forget someone! Or be late myself to something. Thanks again!!
--Marlena

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  1     January 28, 2008 - 9:43am | bsherwood

We waited...

We waited to take our honeymoon. We got married on the weekend before Thanksgiving and then had our honeymoon over Christmas. This was beneficial for two main reasons. I'm a teacher and had the week of Christmas off and it allowed us to focus on the wedding and not the stress of going overseas right before we got married. (We did a lot of the wedding preparation ourselves.) We went to Rome and Florence, Italy. I planned it and it was wonderful, but a week wasn't quite long enough. If you are taking a beach honeymoon, a week might be fine, but for sightseeing and touring it just wasn't long enough.

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  January 28, 2008 - 2:19pm | brideblog

Molto bene!

How special! I agree that a week in Italy isn't enough. But your strategy makes a lot of sense if the time off is already arranged. I love sight-seeing and exploring, but it can be draining and sometimes you need a vacation after the vacation full of breathtaking sights, relics and cuisine. The break between the wedding and the honeymoon probably gave you renewed energy for the sights that awaited you. It's enough that we're going to be traveling to get to the location of the wedding, but we will have to envoke the super-hero planning gods to coordinate a trip out of the Chicago-land area before we head back home. Thanks for sharing. Sitting on a beach somewhere sounds pretty nice right now. --Marlena

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