A Honeymoon That's Perfect For Us

Hive, I've talked about my honeymoon way waaay more than I ever intended. It's like a bar joke that won't ever die. "Two newlyweds walk into a bar on their honeymoon..." Or, you know, something more clever and memorable than that.

I have good news to share and then I won't speak of the honeymoon again until recaps. Our honeymoon is booked! Woot!

It's not at all the honeymoon I imagined and wrote about before. There were just too many obstacles in our way. Mr. Kettle has taught me so much about compromise since we've been together and that really came in handy when we were sorting out the details of our honeymoon.

To refresh your memory: I saw our honeymoon as a wonderful holiday triple threat. We were going to do Carnival, Valentine's Day, and Mardi Gras. We were going to Panama and New Orleans and it was going to be wonderful.

The price ended up being more than I expected, so we waited to re-assess our funds before we booked. The day I was going to book the trip (to make sure the New Orleans hotel wasn't full), something major changed. Mr. Kettle got word of a great opportunity for his music. He's a musician and a teacher and he's damn good at both.

The only thing about this opportunity it is was the week after our wedding, when we were supposed to be in Panama. Being the awesome almost-wife that I am, I reasoned that we could go to Carnival another year. And maybe with more advance planning, we could actually go to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Trading in a warm beach hotel for a hotel in the city of Chicago in February isn't what I was thinking, but it will allow us to be in the city the week after our wedding.

We are going to stay in a hotel in the city, so we'll still be honeymooning, we'll just also be working on Mr. Kettle's music opportunities. And we'll be going to New Orleans still for Mardi Gras. Searching for hotels in Chicago was a lot of fun. I compared options and found an amazing deal on a wonderful hotel and spa right smack in the middle of downtown.

Image via hotels.com / Dana Hotel and Spa

Image via QuikBook / Do you see that view?

Image via concierge.com / I could see having dinner there!

They also have in-room couples' massages. I'm thinking a relaxing week followed by a big party in New Orleans will be perfect for us. It makes sense for the Kettles that a big part of honeymoon includes Mr. Kettle's music. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Are you going/Have you gone on a honeymoon? How long did it take to secure your plans?

How To Over-Complicate Decisions: Honeymoon Edition

I wrote a post about our thoughts on our honeymoon way back in September. Why is it that when you're planning a wedding, anything more than two weeks ago feels like it was way back when?

We were thinking Mardi Gras and we were thinking Hawaii. Well, after checking some prices online, we were re-thinking everything. Mardi Gras was do-able, but Hawaii was out. This being the one part of the wedding Mr. Kettle and I were footing the bill for, we couldn't spend up all our money or we'd be living off of wedding gift cards and love for a few months post-wedding.

I don't exactly remember how the idea started, but it was inspired by my idea to spend part of my honeymoon celebrating Mardi Gras. There are Carnival celebrations all around the globe at different points of the year.

What's Carnival you say? Glad you asked.



Image via Brazil Carnival



Image via Monsters and Critics




Image via Encyclopedia Britannica Online



Image via Senyawa-Kimia Blog

Carnival, like Mardi Gras, is more about Jesus than the outfits and methods of celebration would suggest. Mardi Gras kicks off Lent literally the day before Ash Wednesday. Carnival kicks it off usually right before that, though some places don't celebrate until July or even August. Parades, costumes, and general merriment ensue.

I'm a Christian and a bit of a hedonist, so celebrating both Carnival and Mardi Gras before I observe Lent is right up my alley.

I did some research and it turns out there are a couple of places that hold their Carnival celebrations right smack in the middle of our honeymoon. The biggest and best celebration, in Rio de Janeiro, was also during this time.

A quick search revealed every hotel in the city is already sold out. Losing. Aruba is too expensive. On and on until we were almost out of options. Then my grandfather came to town to renew his driver's license and hear Mr. Kettle play his saxophone for one of his gigs. He mentioned Panama.

I did some research. Panama was relatively affordable. Panama was fun. Panama fit the idea of us on a beach being all romantic. It's not an island, but being this small country at the southern tip of Central America was pretty close.

So here's where it gets complicated. Trying to fly to Panama on the 13th, stay in a hotel there, fly to New Orleans on the 20th, stay in a hotel there, and fly back to Chicago on the 22nd is no small task. If we go through Expedia, it will be thousands of dollars. Thousands. No thank you.

Trying to book the trip through American Express is no easy option either. Being a cardholder means we get a much cheaper trip, but it also means we have to navigate their planning services. they don't have a way to book a trip that covers a multi-destination flight plus a hotel in each location.

But they do have travel agents. I found one in Chicago who specializes in Central America trips. I'm hoping to contact the office next week and pray they can help us. If we can book through American Express, we'll save around $1000. For us Kettles, that's no small drop in the bucket. That's pretty much the entirety of what it will cost us the next time we move. Or it's the cost to fully repair Mr. Kettle's saxophone. Basically, there's a lot we could do with that money.

Cross your fingers for me hive that this works out. Because we finally sorted out our dream honeymoon. We just have to untangle how to make the reservations work.

Honeymoon Musings

Alternate Title: Be Still My Beating Heart

Mr. Kettle and I have been discussing on and off plans for our honeymoon. It's been a pretty big deal in our house because our choice to go on a week-long honeymoon right after our wedding affected lots of other decisions in the rest of our life.

We want to do this honeymoon right. We want romance, relaxation, and a trip to somewhere that will be warm in February while also some place neither of us have visited. We've come up with Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

Seeing as how Mardi Gras is such an important day in the course of our relationship, I thought it would be fun to extend the honeymoon to include a stopover in New Orleans for the holiday.

That would mean a flight to an island the Monday after our wedding. Staying there til Sunday (6 nights, woot!), and then flying to New Orleans and staying there until Wednesday, when we would fly back to Chicago and officially start our married lives.

For both of us, that's not too much travelling. It could prove to be too much money. Also Mr. Kettle isn't sure if he wants to use up almost all his days off just for our honeymoon. We're still discussing it, but I've realized what I want. And that is a honeymoon on an island followed by keeping our promise to each other to spend Mardi Gras 2012 together as a newly married couple.

I didn't even realize at first that Mardi Gras was so close after our wedding. I think it's perfect and I wish I could go back in time to tell Mardi Gras 2011 me that it would all turn out just as Mr. Kettle drunkenly promised.

With this idea now firmly planted in my head, I went online to begin checking out hotel prices in Hawaii. I figured I'd start with the most expensive option and work down from there til we found something that could work for our projected budget.

But then, I had the most unexpected moment I've experienced since getting a beautiful pink sapphire ring put on my finger. My heart skipped a beat. I've been trying like the Dickens to avoid any connection between our wedding and Valentine's Day.

But our honeymoon and Valentine's Day? Oh hell yes. I went to check rates at all three Hawaii Hyatts and my pulse quickened when I selected the start date the day before Valentine's Day. As a woman who loves her some holidays, I would be over the moon to have my honeymoon include both Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras. Those are two of the year's biggest holiday celebrations that don't require you to love and dine with family.

I could spend those newlywedding it up with my new husband. Lounging on the beaches in Maui, sipping hurricanes in New Orleans. Him having a great opportunity to play his sax and sit in with a band. I've demanded he bring his horn to our honeymoon because I'm clairvoyant and I know it will be used. How awesome is that? Oh please oh please God, make this happen for us!

Image via Honeymooners Review

Image via Destination 360