31

Jan

2014

Diary of a Boho Bride – Kirra and Tim, Entry 4: The Honeymoon

diary of a boho bride

Yay it’s Friday afternoon, which means it’s nearly time to clock off and head home for the weekend!  Before you go we have one more instalment from Kirra and Tim. Last time Kirra talked to us about finding the right suppliers. Today it’s onto the subject of Honeymoons and what a big subject it is, after all there is so much choice! Kirra and Tim are seasoned travelers, so they have already visited a large part of the world, however where to choose for that all important post wedding trip is a hard one! Today Kirra talks about their choices and also about asking their guests to contribute to the honeymoon fund!

main photo

I’ll pass the blog over to Kirra…………..

Well hello again! Hope you’re all having a lovely January… We came back from our Australia trip feeling nice and relaxed and are adjusting to being back in the, ahem, slightly greyer light of English winter. Whilst in Melbourne we were staying at one point in Brunswick and discovered whilst wandering down Sydney Rd on the first night that we were staying in the middle of an area that was a little epicentre of wedding related shops and I mean they were EVERYWHERE!  It had already felt like we had weddings on the brain with all the talk about it and suddenly we were surrounded! Very odd moment. Didn’t buy anything there, but I do (drumroll please) think that I now have my wedding dress, hooray!!! Will tell you all about that next time, but today I need your help with something… Choosing where to go for our honeymoon!

Having a good dose of sunshine over Christmas has got us thinking about our honeymoon. It’s definitely something we want to do, not only is it a kind of once in a lifetime type holiday but we have also had a pretty full on year of newbie parenthood so the idea of sleeping in and lounging around somewhere for a couple of weeks is oh so appealing right now. We have done loads of traveling over the course of our relationship and spent a lot of time geeking out with a Lonely Planet guide in foreign cities, so kind of feel like as we do get to do that with our work quite often our honeymoon should be the ultimate in relaxation.
Being able to afford a honeymoon is far from our world right now (especially after this month of tax returns, the joy of being self-employed!), so we have decided that instead of having a gift registry we are going to ask for help with our honeymoon. Trailfinders and Destinology both have the option to have a honeymoon gift fund so we will probably go with that and send out details with the invitations. In one sense I worry whether people will feel affronted at the idea of giving money instead of a more traditional gift, but it is a lot more common now and we will perhaps give the option of also going for a gift for our house and/or donations to an Endometriosis research fund, something that affects so many women around the world and is very close to my heart as without treatment for my Grade IV endometriosis we would not have been able to become parents.

If we are being given gifts into a honeymoon fund then it probably won’t be possible to take our honeymoon straight after the wedding as we will have to book it once we know how much we have, so what we are thinking of doing is having a little ‘mini-moon’ in the UK for a few days after the wedding in a little romantic spot somewhere. Maybe glamping, a cosy Romany caravan, or lovely cottage somewhere scenic, with lots of sleep and a chance to recover from the wedding buildup.

As for the main honeymoon though, from the first moment we discussed honeymoons our absolute top choice was the Maldives. We were lucky enough to take a week long holiday there in 2011 before I had my operation for endometriosis and it was the closest I can imagine to heaven on earth.

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We took a seaplane flight from Male and stayed on an island called Medhafushi in a water villa on stilts, snorkelling, fishing and floating around in turquoise water. A week wasn’t nearly long enough and we left vowing that we would come back there if we ever got  married. There are so many islands in the Maldives and something for every budget really so the choice of resort and type of room would be dependent on how much money we end up being able to spend. My absolute dream holiday is to one day go to an island there called Soneva Gili for part of the time and Six Sense Laamu  for a few days of total luxury. I mean seriously, a hammock over the water, dolphins swimming past your dinner table?! I cannot imagine anything being able to top that. That is a pretty costly holiday though, so there are loads of cheaper honeymoon options both in Maldives and elsewhere and all are amazing.

Maldives honeymoon

(Photo source)

If we find that we don’t end up with enough funds to head back to the Maldives, another possibility would definitely be Thailand. Phuket and Koh Samui are full of amazing places to stay, but some of the other islands can be cheaper and also beautiful. Having lots of beach time but also having the chance to go and ride an elephant or have a Buddhist blessing sounds totally amazing.

elephant ride in Koh samui

(Photo source)

Borneo sounds incredible (have always wanted to go there and visit the orangutan sanctuaries) and a friend of ours recently went there for their honeymoon, but it feels like it might be a bit too far away for our little boy, whether he comes with us or stays in England having a holiday with his grandparents. Perhaps that is one romantic destination that will have to wait a little while for us to visit.

Other options we thought of were the Whitsundays and/or the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, incorporating a trip to Australia into it as well… Sri Lanka… Disneyworld (I LOVE that idea, but to be honest we will probably wait on that one and go as a family in a few years)… In one moment of indulgence we even googled Bora Bora after watching the most recent Two People One Life wedding . That would probably be beyond our budget but crikey WOW!!!

It’s all pretty exciting to think about and is definitely brightening up our chilly London flat. I’m still a bit nervous about asking our guests for help with our honeymoon, but really honestly all we really want is to have our loved ones there to celebrate our wedding with us, no gifts are expected, anything we get will be the icing on the jammy wedding cake!

 

If any of you have any tips or ideas please let me know, I’d love to hear about your honeymoons or plans.
Until next time, happy planning everyone!

Lots of love

Kirra xxx

 

 

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Comments

    Amy

    Our wedding is in September and we have been thinking about our honeymoon too.
    We have decided not to have one straight after our wedding as we have so many family coming over from Japan, Canada, USA, and New Zealand to celebrate. We have decided we would like to spend some more time with them.
    We can’t decide where to go yet either for our big honeymoon as we have already done a lot of travelling. However for yours The Gili Islands and Lombok are amazing and cheaper than the Maldives. We also adore South America so we would highly recommend that too.
    xx

    Reply
      Kirra

      Hi Amy, can’t believe I haven’t known about the Gili Islands before, they look fantastic! Thanks for the tip, happy honeymoon hunting to you too!

      Reply
    Samantha

    Hi Kirra, glad you had a lovely holiday!
    We have booked our honeymoon to Florida – doing Disney World and a trip to Miami, cannot wait! Simon’s parents have kindly given us our honeymoon as our wedding gift, but we are asking for money to go away with instead of presents. We’ve lived together a long time now, we don’t really need anything and as you’ve said having our guests there with us is what is most important.
    I think these days it is a popular request and I really don’t think people will be put out so don’t worry. Maybe put together a nice poem or a little note to say how much it’d mean to be on your honeymoon and know that it was because they helped that you were able to go?
    And my goodness I really couldn’t help with the destination – they all sound fabulous!! Isn’t it a shame you can’t do them all?! ;) xx

    Reply
      Kirra

      Hi Samantha! Disneyworkd does sound soooo much fun, am sure you’ll have an amazing time. We will definitely be taking Jamie there in a year or two :) what a lovely wedding present! Xx

      Reply
    Carly

    Hi Kirra, all your honeymoon ideas sound awesome. We are having an outdoor tipi/festival style wedding in Cornwall in June (we too have been raiding charity shops / car boots & recycling centers for DIY decor, and am loving every minute of it). We have both traveled a fair amount, and similar to you, initially fancied a ‘once in a lifetime’ trip for honeymoon, somewhere tropical. However we soon realised that even a DIY budget wedding had used most of our spare cash. We wanted a honeymoon somewhere affordable, quiet, warm and beautiful, somewhere to relax together, but with the opportunity for some exploring too. We found the ideal holiday at http://www.yurtholidayportugal.com/ an idyllic retreat in the Portuguese mountains. Quiet, pretty, eco-friendly, non-commercial and VERY relaxing, with bike rides, hammocks, walks and wild river swimming, as well as chilled cocktails and home-cooked meals. You can book for any amount of time, on any days of the week. We have paid our deposit and I cannot wait. Good luck with all the planning and honeymoon hunting.

    Reply
      Kirra

      Hi Carly, thanks so much for that link, that looks fantastic, will definitely be checking that out! Hope all is going well with your wedding planning, love Cornwall! Xx

      Reply
    Gabbie A

    Hi there!

    My sister and her wife recently got married, so I’ve been looking into placing to honeymoon a lot with her to figure out some ideas. I think it would be awesome to go anywhere with some beautiful scenery, which I can see you have from the awesome pictures you’ve shared! Travel safe. :)

    Reply

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