Photo: Jack Frog (Shutterstock)
When you’re getting married, you have quite a few decisions to make. You have to decide whether or not you want to get high at your own ceremony. You have to decide which groomsmen would be least likely to commit one of the 7 deadly sins of a best man’s speech. And you have to decide when you want to go on a honeymoon.
The custom of the “honeymoon” dates back to 19th century Britain. It began as a means for the newlyweds to go and visit friends or family who could not attend the wedding, and has since evolved to an opportunity to go zip-lining in the Caribbean. While tradition dictates that the happy couple take this trip immediately following their wedding, more and more couples are eschewing this standard and instead opting for a delayed honeymoon. Personally, I find this to be a fantastic decision, for a litany of reasons. In fact, here’s five of them.
You’re going to be exhausted
While your wedding should be an objectively good time, it’d be a lie to say it won’t be emotionally draining. After all, you’ve essentially just run a psychological marathon of sorts. You’ve made one of the biggest decisions of your life and committed to it in front of all of your family and friends; it’s not crazy to think you’d want some time to recover before jumping on a plane to travel thousands of miles around the world.
Reddit user u/weddingelly vouches for the delayed honeymoon, explaining, “the delayed honeymoon was wonderful in that it gave us something to look forward to in the months after the wedding. In addition to normal life taking its toll, coming down from the ‘wedding high’ can be kind of a bummer, but it wasn’t so bad with the trip to look forward to.” If you’re going to put down a hefty sum of money on this trip, you should take it when you’re in the best possible headspace to enjoy it to its fullest extent.
You can save money on travel
In a cruel twist of fate, peak wedding season just so happens to overlap with peak travel season. According to The Knot’s 2021 Real Wedding Study, 80% of weddings happen between May and October, a direct overlap of the most popular time for vacations and travel. With an increase in travelers comes an increase in costs for both flights and hotels.
Honeymoon’s aren’t cheap as is; the average couple spent $4,600 on their post-wedding vacation in 2021. If you’re trying to get the most bang for your buck, it makes sense to delay your honeymoon until a time of year when travel isn’t as expensive. You’re setting yourself up to have the best possible trip you can without breaking the bank as much to do it.
You can schedule around your destination’s best weather
For some couples, their honeymoon might be the only opportunity they’ll have to go on a luxury vacation. For this reason, a delayed honeymoon might be the best choice for the sake of not having to compromise on what you want. Imagine you’re getting married in January and your dream honeymoon is Australia. A quick Google search will let you know that going Down Under anytime from October to March is advised against (those are considered Australia’s summer months where it can get too darn hot). So what are you going to do? Visit a different country instead? Nah, just delay your honeymoon if you’re resolved on a particular destination. Otherwise how else will you get yourself a picture with a kangaroo that you’ll frame above your headboard for as long as your marriage lasts?
You can plan around your work schedule
It’s not uncommon for people to take a few days off before their wedding to get everything situated.With the average honeymoon lasting from seven to twelve days, it might make more sense to split up your time off. It may also be the case that your wedding falls during your industry’s busy season, and heading out of town for a while might not be the best move for you, career-wise. Waiting for a cool-down period or for your PTO to reset might be the best move to have a honeymoon where you don’t need to compromise on the vacation’s length, nor compromise on going completely offline.
You can spend more time with everyone in from out of town
Perhaps the most important (and also least obvious reason) to delay your honeymoon is that all of your friends and family are in town for your wedding. They traveled from far and wide to see your nuptials; those beaches will still be there in a few months, but Aunt Brenda is headed back to Boca Raton on Tuesday.
