Featured Bride Ashley- The Honeymoon

Ashley and Brad are one of those lucky couples who actually get to take a honeymoon. Sometimes after the cost of the wedding or even without it you just cannot find the funds. It is totally fine to take a break later (my husband and I finally managed a trip two years later!)too. Ashley however has long dreamed of visiting their post-wedding destination- Atlantis! Here's what she had to say.


Vicky- How did you decide on the place?

Ashley- I actually found out about Atlantis from a television show (and it is featured in the recent motion picture Casino Royale). I did some online browsing and fell in love with the place. I’ve talked to a few people who have been there and they loved Atlantis. Brad and I wanted to go to a tropical/beach place for our honeymoon and this was perfect! It has it all, beach, pools, casino, shopping, food, history, etc.

V- Sounds wonderful! Are you going right after the wedding and for how long?

A- We leave on the Monday right after the wedding and come back on the following Saturday.

V- That is a nice little trip and enough time to refresh yourself after all the wedding hullabaloo. Did you have to compromise on anything regarding the location or any other part of the trip?

A- We didn’t really have to compromise on anything. It looked like we would have to compromise on the meal plans at first, but Atlantis did away with them so now it is not an issue. We can eat anywhere we choose.

V- That's good. I looked at those for my family and they were a tad on the expensive side and limiting. Any special things you will do while there?

A- Well I’m looking into swimming with the dolphins. Brad doesn’t really care if he does it but I’m just extremely excited about swimming with the dolphins. He bought me a camcorder for Christmas to take on our honeymoon so he says he will videotape me while I’m playing with the dolphins. It’s expensive but what a once in a lifetime opportunity. Other than that we plan to do the normal vacation stuff, sleep, eat, drink, sunbathe, relax, drink, eat, gamble, shop, did I mention eat and drink? I’m excited!

V- That sounds incredibly fun! Can't wait to see pictures! With three months left to go Ashley will be really busy and this trip will surely be a way to ease her and Brad's wedding tensions. We'll check back with her soon to see how the rest of the wedding planning is faring. I hear the invitations are less than traditional...




For more information on planning your honeymoon visit these great sites.

The Wedding Channel guide
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Helpful Tips

Planning a Wedding in CA's Gold Country

You watched me plan my East Bay wedding. Now a fellow San Francisco-area blogger is planning a wedding and sharing her research with you. Check out Travel Betty and read her research on venues in her series Planning a Wedding in California's Gold Country. She's got lots of photos up, which give an honest view of what these venues really look like (because of course the websites show only their best images!) and is asking for feedback from others who've had weddings in some of her choices. And maybe you'll find your dream venue or some honeymoon ideas while you're there.

Good luck Travel Betty! I'm partial to a wedding with breath-taking views, inconveniences be damned, so I like the Forest House Lodge.

9/19/07 Update: Travel Betty is now considering a destination wedding in Bali!

Honeymoon's Over

Literally. We got home on Thursday night, exhausted and with minor colds. We've spent the weekend going over the photos and regaling everyone we talk to with tales of our trip. (In between all the naps.)
Here we are in Salzburg:

Our full album is here.

We ate too much cheese and sausage and drank a little too much beer and wine. We actually managed to lose a few pounds due to all the walking. We spent some long nights in bad sleeping quarters, but some romantic nights on nice walks and in good restaurants.

In Poland, we saw several countryside weddings happening on a Saturday as we were walking and bussing around. In Zakopane, at a historic old church near my cousin's guesthouse, we happened upon one of these weddings. When you have your wedding at a public historic landmark I guess you have to expect a few tourists to drop in. We of course did not go inside the church, but many people outside were milling around in their traditional highland clothes. Weddings are an event for the whole town here. My cousins told us of their neighbor's daughter's wedding, a 3-day event. The church ceremony was one day. The next was a party for the family. Then a party for the whole neighborhood. Now, that's a way to celebrate!

Wedding at the old wooden church in Zakopane.

In Krakow, we saw some hilarious examples of a photographer's wedding photos. A couple photoshopped to be standing in a gigantic champagne glass.

In Edinburgh, custom-made kilt suits seem to fuel the bridal industry craziness. I also saw some gorgeous Caroline Castiglione wedding gowns there when we came across her showroom on one of the few uncrowded streets.

Back to reality now. One more day of lounging around the house before returning to work tomorrow. Summer's over, and the fall wedding season is upon us!

(Clicking on any photo will take you to larger versions on flickr.)

Honeymoon! Update

Well, we are finally leaving for our honeymoon in 2 days. (See previous post.) We have a weekend of packing ahead of us.

My new backpack. We decided to go with backpacks instead of suitcases. We'll be getting on and off a lot of busses and trains, and I'm not good at running for trains dragging a wheeled suitcase. Also, in some cities we'll only have a couple hours to explore and backpacks are easier to shove in a locker at the bus station than a big suitcase. Both our backpacks come with detachable day packs, so we have convenient smaller packs for our hiking days.

Clothes. Backpacks plus a 50-pound weight limit for luggage make for some creative packing. (Although if my backpack weighs anywhere near 50 pounds I won't be able to carry it.) Which shoes do I wear and which do I pack? Do I really need all these toiletries or can I buy some along the way? I am not a light packer and this is becoming quite a puzzle for me. We had to decide on the style of clothing we'd be wearing ahead of time, even before I bought my backpack, since dressy clothes need more space than casual clothes. (Comfortable walking clothes plus one or two decent outfits for the occasional nice dinner. Nothing that requires a garment bag.) We are one of those couples that matches, albeit unintentionally. It's disgusting, I know, but bound to happen when your casual wardrobes consist of jeans, cargo shorts, and the same spectrum of t-shirt colors.

Books. We have guidebooks for 5 different countries. Plus we need books for regular reading on all those planes and trains. Yes, we can buy some along the way but we'll each need at least one for the first 11-hour plane ride. My book of choice is Altared, a paperback long enough to read for a couple days but not so big it won't fit comfortably in my carry-on.

Passports. We planned an entire European vacation without valid passports in hand during this passport drought. We figured the expedited fee into our travel budget, and once we got around to applying for them (mine was lost, Mike's needed to be renewed) we had them within 4 days. It's still taking several months to get a passport in the regular way, and in October you'll need them for flying from Mexico and Canada. If you're planning an international trip next year, apply for your passport today!

Snacks. I have a food allergy so I'm bringing my own hot cereal and breakfast bars. Lunch and dinner is usually easier than breakfast, and I have little cards printed out in German and Polish that explain the food allergy to waiters. I showed the Polish card to my Polish cousin (we're staying with him in Zakopane!) and he said it's an excellent translation that makes the problem very clear. I was relieved to hear that. He gave me the words for some foods I can definitely eat and some I definitely cannot. But he also said bringing my own cereal is a good idea for breakfast.

Gifts for my cousins in Poland! Dropping everything to make houseguests feel welcome is a big tradition in the town they live. But it's also expected that those houseguests bring gifts in return for the hospitality. (Just in case they read this I don't want to mention what the gifts are!)

That's a lot to cram into a backpack that I'll be lugging around for 3 weeks. Luckily the Polish cousins are the first stop on the trip, so we can unload the gifts to make room for souvenirs.

Vicky's going on vacation too at the end of August, so it will get quiet around here. But I'll be taking notes on anything wedding related I see. Keep planning!

Auf wiedersehen!

Honeymoon!

Every couple deserves one, whether it's a quiet long weekend at an inn in Vermont or lounging around on a tropical beach for a week. You need some relaxing time alone together after all the wedding planning stress is behind you and all the family members have gone home.

You may have noticed that Mike and I didn't take off for ours right away. That is because as much as we talked to each other about what we want to do, we didn't actually get around to talking to a travel agent about it until after the wedding. Many people will tell you this is a big mistake. I'd say it is if you are on an extremely tight budget and are trying to take a trip you really can't afford. But if you are procrastinators like we are who have decent-to-good travel luck, it's not so bad. Yes, the prices are a bit higher since it's short notice during a busy travel season. But we have a limited amount of vacation time and this is what we really want to do. (And we were realistic with our estimates so the prices haven't been a surprise.)

For 3 weeks in August we'll be dirty backpackers in Europe! Not completely traveling off the cuff like real dirty backpackers should, since at this time of year planes and trains need to be booked in advance or else you get stranded. I like to know each night where my bed will be. (That's not too much to ask, is it?) We gave a travel agent a somewhat wonky itinerary ranging from Zakopane, Poland, to Salzburg to Edinburgh and she's working her magic. We're staying at a guest house in Zakopane, where we'll hike in the Carpathian Mountains. We're taking an overnight train ride, in a sleeper car, from Krakow to Vienna. Bussing through Bavaria. Sleeping at a hostel in Edinburgh. We like hiking in mountains and seeing old buildings, and we'll get to do a lot of it.

Hmmm, I see some travel tips posts in our future... :)