being engaged for 13 months wasn't exactly our preference, but it was our choice. it was long, believe me, but i've never regretted our decision. there were lots of great things about a long engagement, but i'll stick to one for this post. we were able to pay cash for our awesome honeymoon.
elizabeth point lodge, amelia island, fl
so how'd we do it?
a couple months after we got engaged, after some of the initial wedding planning craziness was behind us, we started thinking about the honeymoon. we looked at some different options: cruises, resorts, hotels, airfare. we talked about what the ideal honeymoon for us looked like. i knew that i wanted a beach, a comfortable room, and no planned activities. bryan agreed so that ruled out a disney honeymoon or a cruise. we wanted something remote, but not so remote that there was nothing to do.
our view of the beach
after we had an idea of what we wanted, we discussed how much we'd be able to save before the wedding. bryan's parents were so generous to give us a sum of money for our honeymoon as a wedding gift. thanks again mom & dad! they were even more generous to give us our gift early, and we used it to book our flights early and pay for the deposit on our lodging.
we searched through many options and decided that while an all-inclusive resort might be nice, it was likely going to be more expensive than booking our own lodging and eating out. in the end, we spent about 2/3rds of our budget on lodging and travel expenses and saved the rest for food and fun.
yummy room service!
we put a monthly amount into a savings account over the course of the next year and had all the money we needed for tons of food, fun and all those unexpected travel expenses. and we didn't have any credit card debt after we got home! in this, we were able to truly start fresh financially as a newly married couple. God is so good to us!
i'm sure you're wondering, what was the most fun thing about our honeymoon?
click here to start at the beginning of this series!
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