I am the eternal optimist and decided to jump right into blogging back in April without thinking about the fact that I was heading into my busy season (tax season has NOTHING on wedding season) and for that matter, we were also getting ready to leave for our delayed honeymoon. Because we had a destination wedding and decided to forgo a big traditional wedding at home, Brad and I decided to wait for a while to go on our honeymoon and go all out on a trip to Europe. We spent six days in Paris and 4 days in London, and it was the trip of a lifetime. I had never been to Europe before, and while Brad had been to Europe, he had never visited a non-English speaking country. While we were nervous about making the trip to France and wondering how we would "survive," with a little planning and preparation ahead of time, I can say that we made the most out of our honeymoon abroad! Today I thought I'd leave you all with some advice if you decide to go on a big trip abroad for your honeymoon:

A little heads up: Most of these tips are aimed at Paris. Not that our visit to London wasn't great, but being from a big city like Chicago, I was pretty prepared for what it would be like in London. If you're not from a big city, make sure you do even more research.

Pack Light
If Brad reads this, he'll probably laugh out loud, because I did the very opposite of this... oops! I always get nervous about not having what we need on hand and hate the idea of spending money on something we have at home. But just try your best to pack light. If you'll be taking public transportation (like one my upcoming tips), you'll have to carry your bags on and off trains and buses. Just pack light. You'll thank yourself later for doing this!

Use public transportation
Cabs are very expensive in Europe and really aren't as frequent as they are in big cities like Chicago. Buy a public transportation pass and use it as much as you can. It may take some extra planning ahead of time but you'll save a LOT of money if you choose public transportation over cabs and car services.

Dress up
I hate that I have to even give this tip, but you wouldn't believe how many people (cough, Americans, cough) we saw wearing sports t-shirts, beat up athletic shoes, and ratty jeans. I'm not saying you need to spend a lot of money and buy a whole new wardrobe, but try to dress nicely. Think business casual. Parisians really put a lot of thought into what they wear every day, and one of their biggest complaints about Americans are how we always look frumpy when we travel. I know you want to be comfortable but you will feel more welcome and like a real Parisian if you dress up. Plus it's your honeymoon! These pictures will live on forever! Make sure you look great!

Learn the language
By this, I don't mean you need to be fluent in French. But try to speak the language a bit. You will botch it and chances are that they know a good amount of English. But the French are very proud of their language, and they should be--it's beautiful! They will greatly appreciate your effort if you try to speak a bit of their language. Also, do not assume that all French people know English. Many of the young adults do because they took it as a second language in school. But there are still a lot of older Parisians who do not speak English, so you may need to point and smile. That's okay! I took French in high school and college, and I still wasn't very good at it. Just have fun and give it a try!

Plan ahead but be flexible
It is a very good idea to plan ahead and know what you want to do each day in order to make the most of your time. However, there will be instances when you need to be flexible because of rainy weather, confusing museum hours, and more. If something goes awry, just have fun and make a change of plans. You're in Paris! Some of our most memorable moments of our trip were when we did nothing but just walk around the city with no set plans and just took in the sights of Paris.

Yeah, so these tips were mainly for Paris... oops! But I hope it helped a little bit! We had such a wonderful time and I hope that these few tips will help you make the most of your honeymoon abroad!

Brad and I had talked for a long time before even getting engaged about the possibility of doing a destination wedding. I had already done some initial research because we both have big families and were a bit nervous about how they would respond. We knew that by making the decision to have a destination wedding, we would be upsetting, disappointing, and (sadly) even offending some of our family and friends. But that is going to happen with every wedding.

Whether you decide to have a big traditional ceremony back at home or a small, intimate destination wedding, you will offend people along the way. Don't let this bother you. There will always be something to complain about. Maybe they'll be upset that your wedding date falls during a time when they normally take a family vacation. If you're doing a destination wedding, maybe they will be upset because of the cost or time of year. Just try your hardest to not let this get to you. It's so hard to please everyone, and at the end of the day, that is not what your wedding day is about.

Your wedding day is about the two of you making the decision to spend the rest of your lives together. That's a pretty big deal, if you ask me! We had many friends and family members that were hurt that they couldn't make it down to Mexico for our wedding. And while we deeply missed them all there, we tried to stress to them that it's not about the actual day we said our vows. It's about all of those other days we get to be with them (holidays, birthdays, fun outings, etc.). Those are the days that are most important together... all of the meaningful days that follow that first one.

At the end of the day, we knew that a destination wedding was right for us. We wanted it to be a fun and memorable experience for everyone, and yet be as least expensive as possible, as we paid for it on our own. My best suggestion to you at this point in your wedding planning is to get you to think about what is most important to the both of you. Think about whether having a grand, formal wedding is what you've always dreamed about.  Or do you envision your wedding being about spending more time with your closest family and friends? Either way, your wedding will be beautiful and meaningful because you have put thought into what is most important to you today as well as in your future as husband and wife.

I’ll leave you with this piece of advice that Brad’s mom told us once and that helped to keep us focused on what we wanted the most:

“A wedding is one day. Marriage is a lifetime. What’s more important?”

We have been tossing around the idea of starting a blog for quite some time. Brad and I got married in the Riviera Maya in Mexico and being that we work with a lot of destination wedding brides through our wedding shop Second City Stationery, we often get asked to give helpful hints and tips on how to plan and be as prepared as possible for the big day…especially when it’s abroad.

Now I won’t say that we are the “experts” in destination weddings, but we definitely learned a lot along the way and are here to help as much as possible. Whether you’re getting married in a different country, a traditional church, or your parent’s backyard, we love being a small part of your big day and want to help make your wedding planning fun and seamless.

Looking back, we wish we had the time to have documented our journey while we were IN wedding planning mode. But hindsight is better than foresight anyways, right?! So we hope that you’ll enjoy reading this blog as much as we love reliving our wedding. It goes by SO fast, so make sure to take moments here and there to let it all sink in and remember why you’re getting married: you finally found your great love!

Below is a slideshow of our wedding day pictures. We hope you enjoy them and will keep checking back for blog posts and updates. In the meantime, feel free to stop by our Etsy shop, Second City Stationery, for any paper goods you need to help celebrate.