Woo hoo!!! Its Saturday!

Its amazing how much I love a weekend! Today especially as I am on my way into London to meet Emma!! I haven’t seen her since she was wearing her Claire Pettibone & Rachel Simpson’s!
I’m dying to hear all about the big day! Especially as she will give me the tell-all-truths version.

So while I have been researching wedding bits n bobs.. more bobs than bits, I came across this possible Honeymoon destination. Its a little different to the others I have seen so I thought I’d share it. Why not hey?

Welcome to St Lucia.

Ok ok, that’s normal…

The Body Holiday.

Yup, different.

Now, the way this works…
“The BodyHoliday in St Lucia, means pleasure, rejuvenation and relaxation and delivers a memorable active beach holiday combined with your favourite sports, great food, exercise programmes and personal service.

And we add one more special ingredient – the wellness centre. It’s the
Caribbean’s most award-winning spa but we’re more than a spa. You can be assured of whatever your mind, body and spirit need, you will find it
here, from non-stop relaxation to non-stop activity and all points in
between.”

Not just something for your body & mind.. they specialise in Honeymoons AND weddings!!
Fabulous!
“The BodyHoliday Brides tell us they choose us for their destination Wedding because they want their nuptials to be as individual as their dreams, in a location that can’t be duplicated.
Dreamy!

We’re not a Wedding factory. We treat each bridal party as we treat each of our guests – with personalised attention and a customised approach to their BodyHoliday experience. Our Wedding planner, Diane guides you through the details of your special day and takes the stress out of planning and puts personal enjoyment back into your important day.

Your Wedding ceremony takes place in the shade of a beautiful, gingerbread sea-front gazebo. A more perfect setting is hard to come by, particularly when it’s enhanced with tropical flowers and generous glasses of champagne. There’s something magical about saying “I do” within the sight and sounds of the azure Caribbean Sea. “

I don’t know about you, but this is on my list of destinations!! Not only that, but I have had a personal recommendation on this one! Bubbles included…

Mmmmm
Charlotte xx

(PS. These are not pics from The Body Holiday! They are just lushious ones from St Lucia! Look on thier site for actual images!)

If I’m honest, I kind of dread the Big Day… you know its just so much pressure! I am excited but I simply can’t wait for the Honeymoon!!
I am enjoying looking at destinations & planning the best holiday we have ever had. Lots of amazing places to stay, romance & plenty of culture. Its so hard to choose just one!

Since we have started blogging about our weddings, we have had contact with some of the nicest & most helpful people from the wedding industry. Each & every one of them has something amazing to offer you & your wedding.

Today I would like you to meet Honeymoons Galore.

“We are global travel experts specializing in planning destination weddings, honeymoons, vacations and romantic getaways. We understand that every couple is unique so each trip is designed from the ground up. Honeymoons Galore staffers work closely with clients to create trips that are perfectly suited to your personalities and lifestyles.”

I asked them to give me 10 of the top honeymoon destinations to help me & you to mull over our options.
I wanted some action for my man as he doesn’t share my love of sunbathing, plus some adventure that we can share.
My ideal destination is Thailand. This would include a few adhoc trips.. Bali, Cambodia & Vietnam… Maybe I need to book a longer stint with work!!

Given the current situation in Thailand, I am looking into other options. Just in case.
A special Thank you to Peggy Knipp at Honeymoons Galore for the following suggestions….

1. Tahiti – offers over the top romance, breath taking views and accommodations, heaven on earth experience
2. Europe – i.e. Italy, Spain, Prague, Paris, Greece. Offers Romance, culture, amazing restaurants, night life – Great value right now
3. St. Lucia – offers romance, activities, adventure, wonderful accommodations
4. Mexico – depending on the side, Rivera Maya would offer great accommodations, night life, culture – Cabot San Lucas is an old fishing village that has become a very hot honeymoon spot – great accommodations, nightlife, golf, spa – Zihuatanejo offers romance and night life not to mention beautiful accommodations
5. Australia and New Zealand – adventure – great cities with night life, great diving
6. Fiji – total romance – great accommodations
7. St. Barths in the Caribbean – it’s the St. Tropez of the Caribbean – great accommodations/ beaches/ night life, food, shopping and the list goes on
8. Africa – East/South/Tanzania – Honeymoon in a luxury tented safari – listen and watch the animals – get back in touch with nature
9. Costa Rica – Great adventure!
10. Pacific Coast in the US —- luxury, breath taking views

Emma’s Costa Rica honeymoon is in there!!

This just a top 10, but it can be very extensive as to what they can offer.
“Our consultants take the time to understand who you are as individuals and as a couple. We ask lots of questions so we can make suggestions, provide helpful advice and build the trip of a lifetime for you. We have built our reputation on providing personal and customized services.”

They take your honeymoon very seriously. Its the beginning of your lives together & needs to be absolutely perfect to what you want. Register your honeymoon here.

Currently their feature desitnation is the French Riveria! Fabulous!

Thanks for the tips guys! I will be back for more & will update you all on how I am getting on!

Was your honeymoon destination in this list?

If you would like to recommend any more locations for our Brides. Drop us a comment below!

Dreaming of the sun…
Charlotte xx

When you are overtaken with wedding planning it is easy to forget that after the wedding you have a whole new fab adventure to look forward to… your honeymoon!

I was so overwhelmed when it came to booking my honeymoon. I got to the point where I was sat in tears (yes I know this sounds ridiculous but I was) at my laptop stressing over it! Now first things first, Honeymoons are a FUN thing. To begin with I almost looked at it as another thing to organise, and then Matt pointed out how silly I was being and then I realised he had a point.

Matt and I are both fairly well travelled people and like nothing more than throwing a few bits in a rucksack, getting a flight and then hoping for the best when we arrive. Neither of us knew how to even go about booking a ‘proper’ holiday or where to start! Now, since starting this blog both Charlotte and I have been lucky enough to find out about a lot of people who can help, our favourites being Honeymoons Galore (more of whom another day but we promise to write about). But at the time I found honeymoon help severely lacking!

I found a lot of places that all looked the same, and I also found that the minute you mention honeymoon the price goes up by about a grand! Top tip, try and not let on its your honeymoon and see if you can get a better price. Very often the ‘honeymoon package’ isn’t much different to the ‘lovely couple on hols package’ so tread carefully here. I saw loads where the price was about 40% more and the only difference I could see was that I got fruit basket thrown in.

We both decided that we were just going to do it the way we knew best, and throw everything in a rucksack and turn up wherever. We decided that as neither of us had been to South America, that we would love to go there. But the problem we had was that South America is so vast we would have had to visit one or two countries only – and we couldn’t decide!

We both wanted a bit of adventure but also to be near the sea. We discovered that Costa Rica would be perfect, as it is one of the most unspoilt ecological areas on earth, plus it has amazing beaches.

We both liked the idea of staying in the rainforest. I had been searching for weeks and weeks and still couldn’t find the perfect destination, so in the end we literally typed into google ‘Rainforest eco lodges’ – and we found our place! We are staying here, at Lapa’s Nest Treehouse in Corcovado National park in the Osa Peninsula in Cost Rica. I cant wait!

Now, we have every material possession we could ever need already. We knew that people would ask if we had a gift list but we couldn’t think of anything we actually wanted. I had seen a couple of honeymoon gift lists advertised in the wedding mags and I loved the idea. I loved the idea of people buying us life long memories (as cheesy as it sounds)!  The problem was, that they were all either affiliated with a travel company (meaning you had to book through them), or they charged a fairly high commison rate.

I didn’t really want to be tied into either of these. All I wanted was a website that people could visit and just choose a gift. And then I found Honeyfund.

Honeyfund is brilliant, because it allows you to have a gift list without having to pay for it or cough up for hefty commison charges. You can create your list exactly how you would like it – and personalise it with photos. So many people have said they love our gift list and how unusual it is… we have everything from night trekking through the jungle to our mini flight into the rainforest on Nature Air (the world’s first carbon neutral airline!).  We had a lot of fun making it as well!

I would love to hear about any other fab honeymoon sites you have found, this is a part of wedding planning that needs a shout out!

Love

Emma xx

Eyjafjallajokull.

Nope, you aren’t reading wrong – I haven’t gone mad and starting hitting random keyboard buttons in a fit of bridal rage! I’m talking about the biggest threat to hundreds of brides (and grooms!) wedding plans (myself included) as we sit with bated breath waiting to see if the Icelandic volcano will EVER stop.

If you are getting married this summer and are anything like me – you will most likely now have the volcanic knowledge of an expert geologist!

I can’t wait for my honeymoon – two weeks of rainforest adventure in a tree house in Cost Rica (more of this later!). I am flying from Heathrow on July 25th, and even if I have to drive myself to Central America in a taxi, I am not going to let a volcano stop me!

Added to this is the constant striking from BA. I again can sympathise with this. I am flying to Amsterdam with BA at the end of May to celebrate my 30th birthday, and found out yesterday that the strike we thought was off is now back on again.  I hope all of the bride’s getting married this weekend managed to get on their honeymoons with little or no stress! Fingers crossed for you all…

So in the spirit of the great summer of flying restrictions, here is a little ode to the great Flying God in the sky… sing it with me as we pray for happy skys…(best sang with a tambourine to the tune of M.IA.’s Paper Planes)…

‘Oh Eyjafjallajokull could you please try
To stop erupting so I can fly
Your volcanic ash has us to ransom
You have halted even Richard Branson

(Chorus)

Eyjafjallajokull (bang bang bang bang)
Please stop, please stop blowing up
Eyjafjallajokull (bang bang bang bang)
Please stop, please stop blowing up

Eyjafiallajokull (bang bang bang bang)
Please stop, please stop blowing up
Eyjafjallajokull (bang bang bang bang)
Please stop, please stop blowing up

The airports are closing which we don’t like
And now BA have gone on strike
Please please please can you stop soon
So we can all go on our honeymoon!

(Repeat Chorus to fade…)

Sing it loud and proud! Failing this, if enough of us club in we could hire a boat (I can take anyone heading west)….

Love

Emma xxx