Manolo for the Brides

This is what leaving a wedding looked like fifty years and change ago. In fact, it’s a shot of a lady named Billie Mercer leaving her wedding reception with her new husband, Ned, in 1956. You can read about her wedding and how weddings have changed here, if you like.

One thing that was a given back then that isn’t as much of one now is that the happy couple would change their clothes and set straight off on their honeymoon.

These days it’s rare to have a getaway outfit. I believe the last one I personally witnessed was in 1978.

And while it’s still most common to head out on the honeymoon right away, it’s no longer an absolute given. Some couples hold destination weddings where the wedding and honeymoon are one and the same. Some plan to wait anywhere from a day to a year for the big trip. I still think one of the best decisions Mr. Twistie and I made was to spend our wedding night in a charming little B&B in the town where we were married. We ate at one of our favorite restaurants, relaxed with each other, had a bang up delicious breakfast, and dropped by my father’s house to spend a little time with family and open up gifts people had brought to the reception before we started our long drive up the coast to Canada.

Had we started driving right after we left the reception, I think we would have been more tired and less relaxed before we started our serious travels. We wouldn’t have gotten very far, and we probably would have been doing it in our wedding finery since there wasn’t a place on site to change.

In short, we found a way of doing things that made us feel comfortable and did it just that way.

So what about you? Are you heading straight from the reception to the airport/boat dock/open road? Do you plan to spend the week after your wedding lazing on the beach where you tied the knot? Are you planning to finish paying for the wedding and then worry about a honeymoon? Will you spend the night in a hotel or your own home and then head off?

And for those of you who have already done the deed, what did you do in this regard? Is it something you would do again, or a regret?

We haven’t talked much about honeymoons for a while around here. But they are a part of the getting married process for the vast majority of couples, and they’re fun (if you do them right!).

Of course there are dreams and there’s reality. Mr. Twistie and I dreamed of London for our honeymoon, but that wasn’t in the budget. Instead we headed for the Great White North. We drove up the West Coast from our headquarters in California to spend a couple days in Vancouver and one on Victoria Island before meandering our way back to California again. We had a blast. Most of our time was spent exploring quaint or odd or even deliciously tacky stuff we happened across on our journey. We stopped when we were tired or saw a likely spot to spend the night, and we must have visited a hundred tiny antique shops on the road. The one hotel we booked in advance turned out to be a bust, but we found some delightful places to stay on other nights.

London it wasn’t, but it was a great trip. Besides, we got to London a few years later, too. That was amazing. I want to go back.

But enough about me. I know that for a lot of people the ultimate honeymoon looks a lot like the picture at the top of this article: white sands, blue water, lazy days in the sun, and rum-based drinks with tiny umbrellas. Is that your dream honeymoon? Or does yours look quite different? For those of you who have already gotten married or planned your honeymoons, did you get what you dreamed of?

Tell us all about it!

The honeymoon is one of my favorite bridal traditions. It’s a chance to get away, get used to your new relationship, bask in the glow of each other… it’s both fun and practical.

But of course there are honeymoons and there are honeymoons. Not all of us get the honeymoon of our dreams.

Mr. Twistie and I dreamed of London. We couldn’t afford it at the time we got married. Instead, we drove up the California coast to Vancouver and spent a couple lovely days there before turning around and driving home again. It may not have been our ultimate dream, but it was a heck of a great trip. We had lovely adventures along the road both ways. And five years later, we did get our dream trip to London. It was every bit as great as we’d hoped.

So what about all of you? Did you/will you get your dream honeymoon? What is it? If you’re doing something else, what is it? If you did something other than your dream, how did you enjoy it?