A part of me wishes we went on our honeymoon right away. That we had woken up the morning after our wedding, rushed to the airport and flew to a relaxing vacation away from all the stress of life and wedding planning. But after going through it all, I am so glad we waited. Brian and I got married in September 2017, and we are just now on our honeymoon nine months later!

Thinking of your honeymoon plans? Here are the reasons why we’re happy we waited…

You Get Time To Enjoy Your Wedding
When planning our wedding, one of the things I was excited for the most was when we were going to start planning our honeymoon. When we decided we were going to wait until the following summer to go, I’m not going to lie, I was a little bummed. I wanted to jet off as a newly married couple and celebrate being husband and wife.

But, the week of our wedding came around, and I remember thinking, “I can’t imagine packing for Iceland right now!!” We were so busy with last minute to-dos and just packing for the wedding weekend, that I couldn’t even begin to think about planning for a week-long adventure or preparing to take an international flight the day after we tied the knot. For that reason alone, I am glad we had a little extra time in between. It was great to be able to relax a bit and not run through an airport when we were exhausted from our reception.

Less Stress
Another major reason why we waited to take our honeymoon, was because we wanted to be able to celebrate our marriage with no added stressors. When we got married in September, Brian had just started his school year (he’s a high school teacher) and couldn’t take too many vacation days. He also was starting his final year of grad school and was busy with assignments and writing papers. It was a very busy time for us, and we didn’t want to go on a relaxing vacation, and spend our time worrying about what we had to do when we got home, or have Brian grading tests or doing homework.

Because of this, we decided to go once Brian had graduated, was finished with his students for the year and I had been at my new job long enough to take a long vacation. This allowed us to really take the time to enjoy what a honeymoon is really all about; being together and celebrating each other as a couple and a new family.

You Have Something to Look Forward to
Not that your life ends after you get married, but some brides get sad that this even that they have been planning for has come to a close. To quote Friends, ” I’m no longer a bride… Now I’m just someone’s wife” (haha). I, of course, don’t ACTUALLY feel that way, but once the magic of your wedding day is over, you might think, “ok, what’s next?!” Waiting a while to take your honeymoon can help combat that feeling, and really give you (and your new hubby) something to look forward to as a married couple (other than a house and kids)!

Time to Plan
This is honestly a combination of “less stress” and “enjoying our wedding.” Because we didn’t plan our honeymoon until after our wedding, it gave us so much more time to enjoying being an engaged couple and plan our wedding. And then devote time to planning an amazing trip together. It was a lot easier to plan the wedding first, then plan our honeymoon. It also gave us time to save money! We would not have been able to afford a trip to Iceland after paying off all of our vendors just three weeks prior.

We enjoy traveling, so we wanted our honeymoon to be an adventure. (Not that there is anything wrong with a relaxing honeymoon on the beach!) If you want to plan a big trip for your honeymoon, I would definitely recommend taking a little more time to plan. You don’t necessarily wait 9 months like we did! That’s just worked for us! But, even pushing your honeymoon back a month or two can be well worth the wait.

Did you wait to take your honeymoon? Were you happy you waited?

Be sure to check in on Instagram for photos while we’re here in Iceland! We can’t wait to share our adventure with you!

Wedding Photo Credit: Better Together Photography