Heavenly Honeymoon.

Figuring out where to go on our Honeymoon was proving to be the most challenging and stressful part of the wedding planning process. Everything else we had a fairly good idea of which direction we were going, and what to expect along the way. Like, after ordering the dress it would take 5 - 6 months to arrive at the store, then I would do some fittings and that would be it. And when we meet with Tracey, who is making our cake, we will taste different kinds and decide on a style and that would be it. All of the little things seem not only completely stress-free by now, but they also are fun!

Choosing where to go and what to do on the Honeymoon, potentially our last real vacation for a loooong time, was freaking me out.

At first we were thinking we'd love to go to Europe. Somewhere unique, with a culture we hadn't yet experienced...with a layover in London on the way there and back, of course. Croatia popped into my mind! During my time in the U.K., it's one of the few places I really wanted to get to but couldn't. I'd heard about their beaches and how everything was relatively cheap still since they weren't yet a part of the EU. So I thew that on the table and Nat loved it! We also thought of maybe traveling south to Montenegro, since it was there! I'd read about the history and the lifestyle, and it all seemed pretty interesting. We thought about hiring a boat with a Captain to take us down the Adriatic Sea, stopping along the way at different ports, eating at different seaside villages. Maybe stopping over for a few nights and taking casual, lazy bike tours through the hills.

But after some thought, that seemed like a lot of effort. Not only to plan, but to execute. It sounded like a fabulous trip, and it still does....on paper. But in practice, it felt like something forced. Like...we'd have to keep moving from place to place to place...when really all we wanted to do was plunk ourselves somewhere, and just STAY. After what will no doubt we a week if not more of craziness leading up to the wedding, we decided all we wanted to do afterward was RELAX.

Nat has never been on a week-long beach vacation. He's never been anywhere hot where he can lay around in his bathing suit and read and soak up the sun while sipping on cocktails all day long. I get the feeling that has never really appealed to him, laying around potentially being BORED, being at a resort somewhere south of the border filled with loud, obnoxious Americans complaining that "no one here speaks AMERICAN!" and "we don't get any AMERICAN channels on our TV!!" Blech, who can blame him for not wanting to experience that. I have, and it's not fun.

So the pressure was on for us to find somewhere a) warm; b) interesting; c) with activities; and d) not too expensive. Seems like an easy criteria, right? Well as it turns out, it was pretty hard finding a place that satisfied all of those points. Most places we found online that peaked our interest were waaaaay over our budget. From Tahiti to the beaches of Mozambique....all of the romantic places we found were just too damn expensive. I was starting to get even more frustrated, and beginning to think that we were going to miss out on going anywhere if we kept striking out.

Then by twist of fate, we found it.

Mark Belknap was my first real boyfriend, we were together for 3 great years and then, as it happens when you are young, you part ways. There was never any ill-will between us, and I consider him to be one of the greatest people I've ever known. I am still very good friends with his sister, and occasionally bump into him near my office. He got married in the spring, and it wasn't until a month or two later I remembered I hadn't yet congratulated him. So I sent him a nice, short email congratulating him, saying how happy I am for him and his new wife...then went on to ask if they had taken a honeymoon yet, explaining that we were in the middle of planning ours and how stressful we found it to be. He wrote back a day or two later saying that yes, they had. And it was somewhere that Nat and I should most definitely look into.

So we did. And immediately knew that it was the place we were dreaming about. The place we had been searching for:

Petit St. Vincent.

A paradise resort taking up an entire island in the Grenadines. Softly rolling hills and white sandy beaches, there are only 22 "discreet" cottages on the property, carved out of the cliffs overlooking the sea. There is no internet, no televisions, and no telephones in any of the cottages. Everything is run on a "flag" system. You have to take 2 planes and a boat to get there, and once you arrive you can be totally, completely alone. It is quiet. It is private. And according to every review I've read, it is sheer bliss.

You have the option to socialize, the island has a communal dining/bar area. And there are tons of activities, like water kayaking, deep-sea fishing, and wind-surfing. So you have alternatives to isolation.

The price tag is also pretty reasonable, considering the whole package. So we decided to really splurge and maximize our trip by staying a night in Bridgetown, Barbados on either end of our time at Petit St. Vincent. In Bridgetown we're staying at Sweetfield Manor Historic B&B, which also has some of the best reviews of any accommodation I've ever read. I mean you get a home-cooked 3-course breakfast made by the owner! I've seen pictures of this breakfast, and I'm almost more excited for that than anything else!

The wedding is on Saturday the 23rd, we'll have a "Thank You & Goodbye" brunch at our favourite pub on Sunday, to be weepy and wistful with our out-of-town guests who will be leaving us. Then we depart for this amazingly exciting adventure on Monday, April 25, 2011.

PLUS, Nat just received Elite Status on the airline we booked with, so fingers crossed we get upgraded on the way down! Entering into married life IN STYLE. Now THAT would be icing on the already super sweet cake :)

But for now, I get back to concentrating on all of the other things, the little things that will make the actual wedding (hopefully be) the best party I've ever thrown to in my life.

On with the show, everyone! 6 more months to go......

This is Nat and me exactly 6 months from now.
Don't we look happy?
:)