Honeymoons, or lack thereof

Before I launch into an explanation of our honeymoon plans, let's first review the literature on why people go on honeymoons. Trusted resources like Wikipedia, a random religious Google site, and a "answer my questions" web page of dubious credibility say that a honeymoon is for:

• Celebrating your marriage
• Getting to know each other as a couple
• Getting to know each other, period, in the case of an arranged marriage
• Visiting family abroad who couldn't come to the wedding
• Getting pregnant (the name "honeymoon" may be due to honey once being thought to increase fertility. Maybe it's all the botulism.)

Since Vader and I have known each other for thirteen years, and lived together for three and a half, there is very little new information about the other we expect to find out magically after the wedding. As a result, I think we can cross off the "getting to know each other" items from the list above. As our families haven't strayed too far to the ends of the Earth, most will be in attendance at the wedding, so we won't be making any lengthy voyages to visit foreign family members. Finally, while babies are in our future someday, not yet! 

That leaves celebrating our marriage as a honeymoon goal, and it's a darn good one. After the wedding we will take some time together to enjoy being married and to revel in the love from our friends and family.

A trip to enjoy our marriage and plan our lives, however, is not in the cards for the summer of 2013. While I will be on summer vacation from school, I hope to continue to work at least part time during the summer to generate income. Vader will be working, and we'll both take a week off before the wedding to spend time with our friends from all over the country in Maine and to coordinate last minute details. That time will likely be all that he can get off with pay, and we love the idea of our time spent together around the wedding filled with friends we rarely see all together.

Next July will also be the culmination of years' worth of planning and saving money, and the idea of adding another thing to plan and earmark the contents of the savings account for is not particularly appealing with the wedding date creeping closer. On July 14th of next summer I like the idea of sleeping for a couple of days, seeing our savings increase, and enjoying some quiet time. None of these will happen if we jet off on an adventure immediately! 

Our solution is a delayed honeymoon. We will go on a multi-day (or multi-week?) European adventure sometime during the summer of 2014 after enjoying our marriage quietly for a year. Not particularly beach-y folks, we knew we were interested in heading to Europe together, and I wanted to go to a place where I could use my quickly-fading French that neither of us had ever been before. Add our appreciation for beer and delicious, delicious waffles (here is how you make them) and our delayed honeymoon will be a trip to Belgium! I'll plan the details in my post-wedding-planning void, but right now I think it will be a mix of relaxation, exploration, and stuffing our faces around the country. If you have any Belgian travel advice, please feel free to send it along!

We aren't completely willing to give up some post-wedding togetherness luxury, and as such have booked a fancy night in a honeymoon suite at a boutique Portland hotel for the night of the wedding. After that we'll head back to Boston, enjoy each other's company for a year, and start planning our next adventure!