Aloha!

In the midst of all this wedding planning, D and I have been very focused the past few months on getting all the big things booked for our wedding.  We have our venue, catering, flowers, reception music, cake, invitations, and accommodations.  I think we've done a great job at getting it all organized and it will be great come our wedding day {7 months from tomorrow!} when everything falls into place.  For awhile I kind of forgot about another big thing we have to plan... our HONEYMOON!

I feel very strongly about needing to take a proper honeymoon.  I think that the wedding stuff is wonderful and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I think the wedding is generally all about celebrating with families and friends.  I probably won't get to spend much time with my husband that day! ;)  The honeymoon is more about the couple.  A lot of people postpone their honeymoon for financial or work related reasons, but D and I both wanted to have a honeymoon immediately following our wedding so that we could really get away, relax, and celebrate! 

D and I have never gotten to take a really big trip together {besides Glacier national park last summer, but that was a bit different than an actual trip} and we both haven't traveled a whole lot separately, so we really wanted something special for our honeymoon.  We definitely wanted a balance of resort/laying on the beach, but also some fun outdoorsy activities.  We started asking around for people's advice about where we should look into going, and we got a wide variety of input.  A lot of people said to go the Mexico or Caribbean route and do all-inclusive so we don't have to worry about a thing.  Other people suggested going to Costa Rica or Belize for a real adventure with lots of outdoor activities to do.  While each of those options sounded amazingly awesome, we never really got excited about any of those destinations for a honeymoon.  Mexico and the Caribbean are very popular places and are great if you want the all inclusive resort/golf/spa/nightlife kind of honeymoon, and while that would be fun for a day or two, D and I would get bored easily.  On the flip side, going somewhere like Costa Rica or Belize is a bit *too* adventurous for us for a honeymoon, with having to worry about currency exchange, language barriers, passport/international travel, and culture shock.  If we were to go to a place like Belize {which I would LOVE to do some day}, it would take a lot more planning for me to feel comfortable going down there, and honestly we're too busy with wedding planning stuff to really devote the proper amount of time that would make me feel comfortable traveling in Central America.

So that left us with islands in the Pacific.  I've always wanted to go to Tahiti/Fiji, but it is incredibly expensive just to fly there, let alone stay there for an entire week.  Then it dawned on us, why not Hawaii?  I think we didn't consider Hawaii at first because it's still the United States so it isn't really somewhere "exotic", but all things considered it is pretty perfect for us!  We met with a travel agent who talked to us about going to the island of Kauai and we pretty much fell in love.  Our plan as of now is to fly there the Monday after our wedding, and stay for a week.  3 days we'll stay in a resort on the southern part of the island which has amazing food and beaches, and then we'll move further northeast to stay in a condo for the remainder of the trip near more of the hiking, biking, and kayaking.  We were expecting it to cost a lot more than what we could afford, but by going through a travel agent it looks like we'll be able to do it!  And even though we'll be staying in the states {which is actually quite convenient} it is exotic enough to really feel like a very special getaway!

We'll be spending the next several months doing more research about Kauai and all the good places to eat, things to do, and places to see.  Everyone that we've talked to that has been there has absolutely loved it, and I feel very blessed that we'll be able to have such a life changing and memorable experience together!  Aloha!

<3 PW