Why You Should Wait to go on Your Honeymoon

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Guys. This is not at all what happened. 

The reality of it is, Ben and I waited almost a month after our wedding to take our honeymoon – an 8 day, 7 night cruise that visited Haiti, Jamaica, and Cozumel. After we booked it, I was thoroughly annoyed that we would have to wait so long before we could set sail. I huffed and puffed, but we still had so much going on with the wedding that I couldn’t let it hinder me too much. 

The wedding came just as fast as it went. The weeks after were similar given that Ben and I were jam packed with post-wedding to-dos; clean-up, thank you cards, etc. etc. The constant busyness made me realize there was no way we could have just up and left on our honeymoon the day after. Not with the to-dos we still had, and the shape that our condo was in.

*By “shape”, I mean our condo was filled with gifts, wedding decor, notes and cards sprawled everywhere. It was a wreck.

What I found was that waiting to go on our honeymoon was actually the best decision we could have made. I wish I could go back in time to tell myself that we would actually WELCOME the buffer time that we had between the two events. 

I would recommend waiting to go on your honeymoon to anyone. Here’s why:

1. No worries about packing while also planning a wedding. I don’t know about you, but packing for an 8 day, 7 night cruise is no easy feat for me. Your girl needs options when it comes to clothes. Your girl also needed new bathing suits, and new cover ups for all of the insta-worthy pictures we’d be taking. Worrying about shopping and packing all of that, while simultaneously deciding mini cupcake flavors for our dessert table was not going to make for a happy Kahla.
2. Time to settle in. Ben and I have lived together for a few years now, but for any couple that is going to be moving in post-marriage: you will welcome the time to get settled in to your new place together. This also ties in with:
3. Time to purge/organize.  Our condo was in disarray as it got closer to the wedding and for a period of time after because we had received so many wedding gifts from our friends and family. I immediately wanted to get items unpacked and setup in our place. This obviously came with purging what we already had to make room for the new. I couldn’t imagine leaving for our honeymoon with our place in the shape that it was in pre-purge and then having to come back from vacay to that mess. 
4. Time to sort through gifts/cards – this was a process in itself. Going through gifts from your wedding takes some time. When you sit down to do it, make sure to enlist someone to write down what gifts are from who (shoutout to my MOH, Kaci!). Also to those waiting, I promise the thank you cards are coming. Soon.
5. Don’t settle. Part of the reason that Ben and I waited a month after our wedding to set sail on our cruise was because the specific suite room that we wanted wasn’t available until that time. We had a sky loft (two floors!) with floor to ceiling windows, a balcony and an ocean view. It was absolutely gorgeous. Completely worth the wait to make sure that we were getting the room we wanted instead of settling for an OK-ish room to sail off sooner. It was our honeymoon after all. 
6. More time to plan/prepare/save. Waiting to go on your honeymoon gives you the ability to really plan it out with all of the focus needed. You won’t be rushing to book it just to check it off of your list. For us, this meant researching and choosing excursions to do in each port that we visited. So many experiences were had and so many memories were made because we took the time to really plan out what we wanted to do.