Sunday, September 25, 2011

honeymooning

i spent some time with my sister this weekend, hanging out, shopping, having lunch. she's getting married next year so we talked a little about wedding plans. one of the things that makes me love sarah even more than i already did is that she's not a wedding person. she's one of the few females i know who joins me in not wanting to have all the fluff and frills and fanciness of a wedding. we've always kind of thought that one day sarah would come back from a vacation married. no muss, no fuss. just boom - hitched.

but as it turns out, there will probably be a wedding. and that's cool. we'll muddle our way (we, meaning, she and her fiance and perhaps my mom and i if sarah wants some old female help) through the plans & surely end up with something really beautiful & memorable. but the part that almost everyone can enjoy, bride or groom, regardless of what kind of wedding they have, is the honeymoon.

i'm not talking about the bow-chicka-wow-wow of the bedroom hours (which better be enjoyable or =( sadface for you!) but the part after all the wedding shenanigans are finished. no more stress or pressure of getting things ready & making sure it all comes together perfectly. no people calling or asking questions or discussing their stresses with you. it's just the couple getting to calm the heck down, forget all the other stuff, just relax and rest and have fun. alone.

when chris & i got married 13 years ago, i wanted to do something outside of our scope of experience for our honeymoon, so i booked us into a bed and breakfast. we only had 3 days to spend honeymooning, and we didn't have a lot of money, but we wanted it to be memorable and that seemed like a good way to change things up.

when we arrived at the B&B a few hours after our wedding, we didn't really know what to expect. we walked into the gorgeous victorian house & i felt like we must be in the wrong place. it seemed as though we'd just walked into someone living room. there were a few people sitting around watching tv & another couple ladies sitting around the dining room table chatting and laughing. when we opened the door, they all turned to look at us. we stammered something about needing to check in for a couple days & a couple emerged from the group and introduced themselves as the owners.


we got through "check-in" and went going back out to the car to carry in all our luggage, along with the still-wrapped wedding gifts we'd received. since we were moving immediately following the honeymoon, we'd had to bring all the gifts with us. a couple of the men offered to help us carry our things in and up to our room. i thought that was odd, but friendly, so i walked back into the house with my arms most empty except for my gorgeous rose bouquet and a couple small gift boxes.

the ladies stared at what i was carrying and one asked me why i had such lovely flowers. i told her that we'd just gotten married a few hours earlier that day and it was like someone set the room ablaze with firecrackers of excitement. they all crowded around us, oo-ing & ah-ing over my flowers and asking a myriad of questions. we were completely overwhelmed by the invasion of personal space on what we'd thought was going to be a time when we could finally relax and be just the two of us.

but these people were persistent and jubilant on our behalf and it was hard to resist the pull of excitement coming from them. there were about 6 other couples there, all in their 40's in town for some annual seminar and thrilled to have some young newbies to play with. they broke out a bottle of champagne, poured glasses for everyone and piled all our gifts onto the dining room table & told us to open them, then and there.

chris and i kept looking at each other, not sure what to do, but we decided to just go with the flow. one lady took pictures as we opened everything. another got out a pad & paper and wrote down what each gift was and who gave it to us. they cheered over the great gifts and scoffed at the stupid ones. there was much laughing and squawking and hollering as we tore open every gift.

when we were done, a toast was made to the newlyweds before they helped us carry everything up to our room. many little jokes were made about keeping the noise down and not banging the headboard into the wall all night. back slapping and winks abounded while we half smiled and blushed, knowing all these people our parents age were thinking about us getting busy on our wedding night.

then the lady of the house informed us that breakfast would be served at 7am and they would see us then. we laughed. she didn't. she bristled. she said that she was well known for the fantastic breakfasts she serves and all of her guest were expected to attend and to be prompt about it. we aren't really morning people and the idea of having to get up the morning after our wedding and making ourselves presentable before 7 was not a pleasant thought.

however, the next morning, we arrived promptly at the breakfast table at 7am and we were not disappointed. the food was amazing and clearly a work of art, which at least made the early trip downstairs worth it.

our honeymoon didn't turn out to be what we'd expected, but it makes for a fun story and a great memory now when we look back.

i'd love to hear your favorite honeymoon story. write it in the comments or post it on your own blog.

and sarah, i can't wait to hear your honeymoon story after this whole stupid wedding business is finished. i love you!

18 comments:

  1. We planned to honeymoon for a week in the Mayan Riviera. However, the money we had saved would go toward $3500 in car repairs (on both of our cars within 2 weeks of each other) so we made other plans. We rented a little one bedroom cottage in the Smokey Mountains. We made the long drive there and back. It wasn't exactly what we had in mind either, but we had some beautiful memories. I'm still hoping one day I can make it to that Mexican beach!

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  2. The whole wedding part felt like a dreadful exam that we were relieved we passed. We honeymooned in Kauai, Hawaii and it was everything we could have dreamed of. Quiet, private, beautiful...perfect.

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  3. My first honeymoon was in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania at a honeymoon resort. I should have known there was a problems when my husband couldn't believe I wanted to have sex again on the third night of the honeymoon. (We had waited until the honeymoon to have sex.) His exact words were, "You want to do it, AGAIN?
    It took a while, but 12 years and 2 kids later, we got divorced.

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  4. So. We got married at a courthouse in a small town near ours, on a freezing day in December (well, freezing for Northern California). We were supposed to have a "real" wedding the following year. It's been nearly 10 years. We've never had that "real" wedding.

    And you know, it's funny. I didn't think (at the time) that I wanted a real wedding. I honestly didn't think I cared. But the thing is, as the years have gone on and we've had kids, I realize I do care. I totally care. And I wish I would have done something differently. We have no pictures of us at our wedding. There's nothing to put on the mantle - my kids won't have a photo of their parents on their wedding day. That annoys me.

    But alas, such is life. I was only 22. I thought I was alternative. I also, always, made the wrong decision if there was one to make. That's how I roll, yo.

    Sometimes I entertain the idea of a renewal of our vows. You know, next year. Ha.

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  5. We had a simple easy peasy wedding. stand up reception with finger food....all told I think the whole wedding wrapped up in like 4 hours.

    off to the honeymoon. nice ritzy hotel and then off to a quiet island cabin...the gulf islands....a couple of hours out of vancouver.....all that were there were deer....and a visit from the Jw's of all things!!!

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  6. We had a stressful wedding so we opted to stay home for our honeymoon. It was nice although now I kind of regret not going anywhere. But we went out for dinner and a movie one night and I puked up dinner and the movie we saw (million dollar baby) made me sob uncontrollably. Random strangers were telling me it was just a movie.

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  7. We didn't have a honeymoon since we were so young. We hope to go to Hawaii someday.

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  8. No honeymoon for me yet. I did write about going to Vegas to get married once, thank God we came to our senses and didn't do it, we broke up not too long after that.

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  9. We still haven't had our honeymoon, because we're poor. And frankly, we'd rather save up for something we want, than take a cheap honeymoon vacation just to say we did.

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  10. We went to the Poconos for our honeymoon, as cliche was that was.
    Niagara Falls was closed for renovation (at least that's what the nice man at the Poconos Tourist Bureau told us).
    We ate breakfast in bed, watched St. Elmo's Fire, I played "Marital-Aid-of-the-Night" (nobody told me the bumps are supposed to go on the OUTside), used the heart-shaped tub (Mrs. Penwasser refused to take a picture of me in the heart-shaped tub because she was sans clothes and there "were damn mirrors EVERYwhere". Hmm, wish I noticed that when I took HER picture. Needless to say, Grandma almost had a heart attack when she looked at the honeymoon pictures and saw me and Little Al in the mirror), and shot a round of golf in blue jeans with my shirt off , thus frightening off the wildlife (yeah, is it any wonder she married a classy fella like me?).
    25 years later.....
    I keep my shirt on.
    And watch out for mirrors.

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  11. My husband and I went to Ocracoke Island for our honeymoon and it was beautiful. The only thing I would change was I wish we would have been better prepared to leave as soon as we woke up the day after the wedding. We weren't even packed and missed the ferry we booked and had to take a later one, but it all worked out. :)

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  12. I can't bear to talk about honeymoons yet but I have always wanted to go to a B&B but I don't like being told what to do or when to do it...so who knows.

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  13. that was a good story, Sherilin. I think yours was a very unique honeymoon, but my god--I was soooooo tired after getting married, I think I would have been crying if I'd had to get up at 7 the day after!

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  14. Having spent the year before we got married working stupid hours (Big project) and only being allowed one day of holiday (These were the days when I got paid overtime). We were in a great position for the Honeymoon – 1 month in the far east – Mrs B did not know where we were going so it was interesting giving her hints of what she should pack. At the airport before every destination I gave her a book to read about where we were going –

    Hong Kong
    China (The great wall and the Terracotta warriors)
    - Beijing
    - Xian
    - Shanghai
    Thailand
    - Bangkok
    - Koh Samui (before it got ruined by tourism)
    Singapore (Singapore sling in raffles)
    Bali (recovering after a rather hectic time)

    Mrs B almost forgave me for keeping her waiting 9 years before getting married

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  15. bow-chick-a wow,wow...that is hysterical.
    actually, it sounds quite lovely, all those people doting over you and so excited for you
    (except for the 7 a.m. thing)
    actually, I think it all sounded quite quaint and romantic.
    lets seeeee....I've been married 3 times
    #1...we went camping
    #2....we were in Vegas (were married there)
    #3....we went to British Columbia

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  16. Our honeymoon was so gloriously relaxing. We stayed at a resort in San Diego, didn't leave the hotel too often ;) but when we did we went to Sea World w. A & N C and out to eat at some really yummy restaurants. Geez, we were exhausted after our wedding so much we napped for a few hours as soon as we got to the hotel. We really, really did.

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  17. I got nothin', as far as my own honeymoon. Your standard awesome trip to Hawaii. Loved your story, though. You went with the flow better than I would have. All those people woud have annoyed the shizznit outta me.

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  18. I got my story up.
    Here's the link
    http://ruth-welcometome.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-cheap-honeymoon.html

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