****2017 Brides****Currently 166 Brides and 1 Groom****

Honeymoon planning is driving me up the wall!

We don't think we're going to cruise now, as it would involve 5 days of solid sailing and I just don't think I could enjoy that! There are no alternative cruises for our date, so it would have to be this one.

We got a quote from Kuoni, but h2b thinks it's a lot of money (it is) and doesn't think he wants to spend that much. I'm not really sure how 3 nights in LA, 7 nights in Maui and 3 nights in San Fran would come out much cheaper though!

I've sent enquiries to about 5 other holiday companies to see if they can compete on price. I'm hoping that either they can, and we get our dream honeymoon for a better price, or they can't and h2b can suck it up haha

sorry for the pointless post, it's just driving me mad today!

You sound like me Stephisaur! I'm a woman possessed when it comes to honeymoon planning at the moment haha. I think we've managed to exhaust all options & are now back where we started with a NYC trip and west coast USA tour... Just waiting on flights to be released for our dates.

Ive had quotes from several agents and am finding most would cost me £1k for the pleasure of using them so think going to brave it and do DIY - would rather have the extra spending money!

Hahaha DIY is definitely one to look at! Once the flights are released in a couple of weeks, we're going to look at DIY

Our problem is that FMIL has offered us X amount and the honeymoon is looking at being just under that.

However, h2b thinks that's a lot of money for a holiday (it's about twice what we could have afforded) whereas I'm trying to explain that we might as well USE the opportunity we've been given!

Just had a call from a lovely travel agent though - they're going to see what they can do to beat the price so fingers crossed

Ah how lovely! It's a fine balance isn't it between using what's being offered and feeling like it's just too much.

Which agents have you spoken to?

Ive found some unbelievably pushy! Puts me off straight away haha.

We've spoken to Kuoni who have given us our initial price.

Today I have emailed:

Bon Voyage

Hayes & Jarvis

Kenwood Travel

Honeymoon Dreams

Tailormade Hawaii

Bon Voyage called me at lunch to 'get to know' me. We had about a 10 minute chat and she's going to go away and price some stuff up. She said she'll email me various options, and she was lovely on the phone.

Hayes & Jarvis emailed to ask if it was ok for them to call me in a couple of weeks when the flights are actually released, and I said yeah sure so we'll see what they come up with

Haven't had responses from anyone else yet, but nobody has been pushy (although there's still time!)

Notice given ? I've sent a few emails out about possibly having some fireworks as well. Just waiting til Friday for our meeting with the honeymoon agent now to decide whether we can afford to add fireworks into the budget or whether we'd rather spend the money on the honeymoon. So excited - planning the honeymoon is definitely my favourite part of wedding planning so far.

Yay

Sod the fireworks and spend more on the Honeymoon

What actually happened when you went to give notice?

I found the pushyness started immediately after sending the quote! One even tried to say we needed to pay just shy of £1k the following day - needless to say not booking with them haha.

Honeymoon planning, as stressful as it is, is my favourite wedding task as well!!

I love seeing the posts about everyone's honeymoon, we've just booked our honeymoon and the wedding has definitely taken a back step!

We are DIY'ing our honeymoon and booked the flights last week! We are also doing a west coast trip, flying into San Francisco and then hiring a mustang to travel through California then on to Las Vegas!! I cannot wait!!

All this talk about West Coast USA trips is very tempting - we keep changing our minds by the week about what we want to do - I've done a 3 week tour round that area before & would love to do it again with H2B. Just not sure whether we should try somewhere else instead that neither of us have been to!

Love the mustang too - got to be done!

That sounds AMAZING!

Yeah, at this rate the honeymoon will be substantially more than the wedding lol. Don't regret it one bit - it's going to be incredible!

Giving notice was really easy. We went into an office with all of our paperwork etc (passports, proof of address, and then a copy of my decree absolute and Deed Poll for me as I've been married before and reverted back to my maiden name). We each had to answer a couple of questions - d.o.b, how long we've lived at our current address etc - and then she just went through and filled out the details in the computer. Once that was done, she printed out a copy of the notice and we each had to sign it. The information and confirmation that we've given notice will all be passed over to the District where we're getting married, and they will handle everything else.

I was going to ask everyone when they plan to look into their honeymoon, I'm thinking of trying to get a few quotes in as we need to decide how much we can spend!

We are looking at some kind of multi trip including city break in USA somewhere and then maybe Caribbean for some relaxing but so many places were struggling to find the right places!

When do the flights get released for next year? Is there any point me contacting any of the agents until after that?

So much to do now it's less than a year!

Ooo thank you.

Looks like I can start having a look into this now then! Love reading everyone else's ideas as it might give me a few ideas!

Everyone seems very organised I've just booked my first dress shopping appointment and also time to give notice but feel a bit left behind!

You've just described my h2b ideal honeymoon!! I've done a west coast trip before and was hoping to do somewhere totally new for us both for honeymoon but he's twisted my arm as they are amazing places

When are you going/ how long for?

Yay! Tell us more

It's so exciting I can't wait! Where did you visit on your last west coast trip?

We are flying in to San Francisco on 2 April 2017 (2 days after the wedding!!! I'm freaking out a little about that but I'm going to try my best to be organised), spending 4 nights in San Francisco, then collecting the hire car, travelling down highway 1, one night in Monterey, one night in Cambria, one night in Santa Barbara and then to Los Angeles for 4 nights, we plan on visiting Santa Monica, long beach, Laguna beach before heading to San Diego for 2 nights then last stop Las Vegas for 4 nights before returning on 19 April! I did want to visit Palm Springs but I don't think we can fit it in... What are you planning?

I went to LA, San Francisco, Yosemite, Sequoia, Grand Canyon, Vegas & San Diego!

Youll be there exactly the month before us we're hoping to go for 3 weeks in May - very similar itinerary but we're heading to NYC first so will probably have a day less in each place! We can book flights from June 20th so just trying to be patient & hoping we don't change our minds yet again!!!

We're planning a states road trip for our honey moon Thomas Cook fly to vegas now and quite reasonable. Waiting for everyone else to release their schedules! Exciting times xx

Ok, so this is what we've been quoted:

- London to LA, flying BA premium economy

- 3 nights at the Shangri La in Santa Monica

- Fly from LA to Maui

- 7 nights at the Hyatt in Maui (h2b not keen on this so asked for alternatives)

- Fly to San Francisco

- 3 nights at the Fairmont SF

- Return flight to UK (BA premium economy)

This comes in at £7995 and she's trying to organise us to be met off the plane with Leis in Hawaii (the flower garlands)

Sounds amazing Stephisaur! We're going for Premium Economy flights as well we were lucky & got a free upgrade on our last trip and loved it.

Fingers crossed!!

We're both pretty tall so the extra leg room appealed, and last time we flew to the US (with Thomson) we were treated quite poorly in comparison to the premium economy people so we thought what the hell.

All these lovely honeymoons sound fabulous... I had a brief pang of jealousy reading all your plans and was momentarily tempted to blow our budget massively and book something equally fabulous!

Then I remembered how much we love the English Riviera and decided to stick with our holiday park lodge with a hot tub in Dawlish Warren ?☂️

Having said that we are counting that as our 'Mini Moon' and will be planning our own version of an awesome trip for our first anniversary- I think it will be fun having a year to save, argue and make a final decision about where to go... in the mix at the moment are a Northern Lights trip- Iceland probably- a cruise, a tour of European military 'sights' or a 'Luxury' road trip to Scotland in a campervan with our dogs (and quite possibly, my Mother!) ]

I think that sounds lovely!!

Saving for a year for your anniversary sounds like a wonderful idea too like you say, it'll be fun deciding where to go!

Oooh honeymoon chat is my favourite and I am very jealous of some of you!

We are big skiiers (we are getting married in February purely so we can have a skiing honeymoon...) so we are doing 5 nights in Vancouver, 6 nights in Whistler, and then 5 nights in Seattle. Managed to get some dirt cheap flights and, as I work in the travel industry, I am (fingers crossed) going to get some good rates on hotels.

Trying to save for a house too so can't really afford such a big trip, but you only have one honeymoon, hey?!

In other wedding planning news, I am having a massive invitation mental block and I don't know why! Done loads of other planning and have (for the most part) enjoyed it, but every time my fiance or mum suggests that I might want to start looking at invitations, I keep putting it off! Even cleaned the bathroom grouting the other day so I didn't have to sit and look at invitations...

Wow skiing honeymoon sounds amazing!! Would love to ski in Canada. Look forward to hearing all about it!

Skiing sounds amazing! Never tried it myself. Vancouver was a maybe for us, but it hiked the cost up too much to justify.

Why do you keep putting the invites off?

xx

All these honeymoon's sound amazing! I wish I had more of a definitive idea of what we wanted to do rather than being indecisive!

Going to contact some of the travel agents now I think get the ideas flowing!

You should definitely give it a go, it is so much fun (although I live, breathe, work skiing so I am biased!). Heard Vancouver is amazing so are just taking the opportunity while we are there really but if we were getting married in summer I think our honeymoon would be pretty much a carbon copy of yours!

Honestly no idea re the invites! Just think I have put it off so many times that it's become a mental thing! Off work for 5 days now though so am going to challenge myself to get something in place by the time I go back!

Hopefully one day we'll be able to have a go at skiing

Take a look at etsy and not on the high street for invites. There's some lovely ones on there

I've designed ours and it's caused a LOT of stress haha

Haha I can imagine - my boss is getting married in December and his fiancée has done the invitations. They look amazing but sadly I don't have a creative bone in my body!

My fiancé is Indian and although we are having an Indian do the week before the wedding, we don't have much of his culture in our proper wedding so I am thinking I am going to order some from India - they are really cheap but then once you add the postage on, they are still extortionate!

My friend married into an Indian family and they had gorgeous invitations. They weren't too Indian, but they were something a bit different.

I'll hunt the invite out later and send you some pics xx