Dreams Coming True

I just realized that with only about five months until the wedding, I need to hurry up and figure out where my fiancé and I will spend our first days as newlyweds. So I'm finally getting serious about planning my honeymoon.

Some little girls dream about their wedding day, but I never did. I only dreamed about the honeymoon, and I always imagined I would fly off to some faraway place and spend a week or two in unimaginable luxury. I had visions of Tahiti or the Caribbean, and recently I looked online and found places like this Canadian lodge.

In an unexpected turn of events, though, I don't have just one trip to plan for, I have two: our honeymoon and a journey to Perth.

My parents are returning to work in Australia for another year. Last time they were there, my fiancé and I visited them in Brisbane. It was incredible. The city was great, within a couple of hours drive from both beaches and rainforest; the people were friendly; the lifestyle in the area where my parents were fortunate enough to live was enviable — outdoor restaurants along the river where you could sip a cold beer at sunset, for example, and botanical gardens at the edge of downtown, and lovely little restaurants everywhere.

My fiancé and I could have never made the trip to Australia if my parents had not been there to provide us with a place to stay. Even without the cost of accommodation, it was very expensive. So, now that my parents are going back for another year, this time to the other side of the country, I want to take the opportunity to go back to Australia. But that means we'll have to save every extra penny in order to pay for the airfare and any other costs. Which means that I have to choose between Australia and my long-awaited luxury honeymoon.

Why don't we make Australia our honeymoon? My dad suggested the same thing. But there are a couple of reasons why I don't want to do that.

First, I feel that a honeymoon should truly be about the newlyweds spending some precious time together away from the stress and demands of work, home, other people, etc. I love my family, and I want to see them in Australia, but I don't want to see them on my honeymoon. (We're not even bringing our dog on our honyemoon, which, for those who know me, gives you an idea of how special the honeymoon is to me.)

Second, I've always felt it was important to take your honeymoon directly after the wedding. I don't know why exactly — perhaps it's one of the few ways in which I want to stick to tradition in this whole wedding business. So I don't want to postpone my honeymoon until 2011, which is when we plan to go to Australia.

There's just one solution that I can see, then. Cut back dramatically on the cost of the honeymoon, and save our money for Australia instead. That's as close as I can get to having my cake and eating it too. In addition, I'm thinking about buying simple silver rings as "interim" wedding rings and using the money we would have spent on more expensive rings for Australia instead. Then, we can buy each other our "permanent" wedding rings for one of our anniversaries. I'd rather travel than have a chunk of costly metal on my finger. I'll still be married to Bernard no matter what my ring is made of, and that's what counts.

We have $1,000 available for the honeymoon, a generous gift from my parents. Anything above that comes out of the money that we could be saving for Australia. So, I did some research today and found some all-inclusive resorts in Mexico. There are also hotels in Texas and nearby New Mexico and Arizona that we could look into. That would mean a short flight and a few nights in a nice hotel. As long as I can truly relax, have fun, and enjoy Bernard's company for a few days, I'll be happy.

I'm calling the travel agent tomorrow.