Bodies in the sand
Tropical drink melting in your hand
Well be falling in love
To the rhythm of a steel drum band
Okay, really, just Aruba. And while I like you, no, really! I do! But I don’t want you to come with me to Aruba on my HONEYMOON!
That’s right friends, the honeymoon is planed! And we’re going to ARUBA for seven glorious days!
Originally when we began discussing our honeymoon, I wanted to follow in the footsteps of some of the amazing bloggers and friends I have and take a Mediterranean cruise and visit Greece and Turkey and have a whirlwind trip to parts of the world I’ve only dreamed of visiting with the man I had only dreamed of marrying (until he proposed of course, then dreams became reality!). But then a few other factors came into play, such as budget, time away from work, oh and, where does H want to go?
We have already established that we are spending a very large part of our budget on our venue. From there, we are trying to keep the costs down. A long two-week trip to Europe wasn’t exactly in the budget-friendly category for us. Additionally, H really wanted to relax and spend time together, and not run all over ports of call in multiple cities and countries.
As if my parents weren’t already doing enough, my mom volunteered to exchange her timeshare for us so we could use it for our honeymoon. For around $150, she can choose any resort in her network. H and I looked over the map of the Caribbean and Mexico and decided that Aruba would be a nice place to visit during that time of year and would provide the relaxation that we will need and yet offer opportunities for lots of island activities (should we decide to leave the beach or pool!).
My mom called us while we were in Dallas for Thanksgiving and asked if we trusted her. Generally the answer is yes, I mean she is my best friend, so we said sure we trust her. A great timeshare that she thought was perfect had just become available and she wanted to book it for us. As a dedicated and borderline obsessive planner, you would think that letting someone else choose our honeymoon resort would not be so easy. Surprisingly, it was. We told her to go for it. And she did well! We will be spending our honeymoon at The Mill Resort Aruba!
And then, as if it could get any better, my parents gifted us our honeymoon flights for Christmas! They are seriously the best!
It is a really wonderful feeling knowing that this is all taken care of. It was honestly freeing! And when we get there, we will just have to cover our activities and food. I’ll call that budget friendly! And I can plan or not plan as much as we want while researching the island and what we want to do on our honeymoon.
How did you choose your honeymoon location? Did you have help planning the details? Or are honeymoons best left plan-less?
So exciting Gwen – I’ve never been there, but have friends who return there yearly. Supposed to be just gorgeous!
We got married in a castle in Wales (yes, I love saying that!!!) so we were fortunate enough that honeymooning in Europe was the most affordable option for us. We actually spent some time before our wedding touring around Wales, then after it we spent a few days in the Netherlands, and a week touring the Algarve region of Portugal – with a ‘villa’ as our home base. Villa in quotes, because in reality – not so much. That’s an entire blog post in itself.
I’m sure you guys will have a fabulous time in Aruba!
That looks perfect! How sweet of your parents to offer their timeshare and the plane tickets!
We actually chose a honeymoon locale that I used to vacation at when I was a kid. It was about a 6 hour drive from home and it was on a lake with literally not much to do but relax at the lake or pool! It was perfect! I wanted to go somewhere where we didn’t feel like we had to do everything because we might never go back!
My parents did buy us two nights at the resort as a shower gift. We could have gone somewhere else, but we were both really happy with our choice (my husband had never been). We even went back a year later for our anniversary and we’ll probably continue to go for our anniversary because it’s a pretty easy drive!
That sounds awesome, Gwen! You both will have the best time, I’m sure.
My honeymoon situation was similar – my FIL gave us a certificate that allowed us to get free flights to Hawaii when we booked 7 nights at one of the participating hotels. It was awesome and made it affordable for us.
That looks perfect. I want to lie by the pool right now. Of course, I was just up all night with sick kids, so I would like by the side of the road if it meant I could catch a few hours of sleep… So jealous – what a wonderful vacation to look forward to!