Financial Planning
A honeymoon is a great way to start a marriage and destress after the hectic wedding planning and festivities. You no longer have to worry about seating charts and speeches. All you have to focus on is relaxing and enjoying the trip. We’re here to help with tips and tricks for honeymooning on a budget. Whether a relaxing beach getaway or a busy city excursion, your honeymoon is a vacation you will remember for the rest of your life.
But as with your wedding, your honeymoon does require some planning and budgeting. There may not be as many details to consider as your wedding, but it’s just as possible to go over budget if you’re not careful.
Follow this process to carefully budget for your honeymoon so you don’t have to worry about how much you’re spending during your time away.
Prioritize Must-Have Experiences Versus Additional Add-Ons
Communication and compromises are essential parts of both travel and marriage. Without the two, you could easily go over budget on your honeymoon or end up missing out on amazing experiences that would mean a lot to you.
The Knot recommends starting to plan for your honeymoon at least six months in advance. This includes basic activities like getting an understanding of airfare costs, and determining the timeline.
As you plan your honeymoon, make a list of dream experiences that you hope to get out of the trip. For example, if you plan to honeymoon in Hawaii: going deep sea fishing, driving a rental car on Hana Highway and flying first class are activities you may want to plan for.
After you and your significant other research everything you want to do and create a list of options, read through what you made and pick the top activities that mean the most to you. You might decide that deep sea fishing is an essential part of your Hawaii honeymoon but decide against renting a car for the road to Hana.
When you have your ideas prioritized, you can plan your activities based on what each of you wants to do the most. Set aside enough of your money for these core plans and then return to your list if you have extra funds for additional activities.
Creating your essentials list is also where you should compromise. You might decide that it’s more important to spend money on a luxury honeymoon suite than on first-class tickets, moving a significant part of the budgetary weight from the transportation column to the accommodation section.
It’s almost impossible to do everything you want on a trip, even if money is no object. If you prioritize what you want to do, you won’t leave your honeymoon wishing you had done certain activities instead of others.
Consider a Honeymoon Registry
Some couples are ditching the traditional registry and opting to ask guests to donate to their honeymoon instead. This option is ideal for couples who already live together and might not need items like bed sets or kitchenware to help merge their lives.
There are multiple honeymoon registry sites to choose from depending on your type of wedding or relationship with your guests. Some are basic websites where guests can send money that the couple can apply to anything they want. For example, a couple might take cash gifts and apply it to the honeymoon, or they could use it to pay off wedding expenses and put a down payment on a house.
Other honeymoon websites are more specific, allowing guests to pick experiences or parts of a vacation off of a registry in a similar manner as they would select gifts. For example, one of your guests might pay for train tickets from London to Edinburgh, while another guest selects tickets to a West End show or a Scotland whiskey distillery tasting tour. People can even give partial donations to cover major expenses like the cost of airfare. Some honeymoon registries even provide blogs for the couple to share their experiences with guests as they travel around the world.
More hotels and resorts are also starting to offer honeymoon planning tools, too. Couples can register with a hotel chain like Hilton or Marriott and ask guests to contribute to their suite costs, regardless of where they decide to travel.
Brides.com has a helpful list of top honeymoon registries to choose from. Check them out to see what might be the best fit for you.
Don’t Let a Honeymoon Add to Your Wedding Stress
Your honeymoon isn’t supposed to leave you stressed out about money. You don’t want to remember spending your first major trip as a married couple worrying about whether you’re staying on budget. Careful planning takes the surprises out of travel expenses, allowing you to focus on connecting as newlyweds and enjoying the world around you.