Congratulations on your engagement! Take your engagement photos and plan your honeymoon. You must be super excited about your road ahead with your significant other. It is an incredible moment and I am sure that both of you want to make it as memorable as possible and not be tied down by your budget. As you think about the wedding planning though, you realize the endless preparation amounting to the big day. On top of that, there is the big honeymoon - the most important part! It will be the first vacation you two spend together as newlyweds. But how can you even dream about relaxing on a beach in Bali when all your funds are going towards your wedding, knowing that an average wedding in the U.S. costs $30,000USD1?
Moreover, when you find out that an average U.S. honeymoon costs $3,000-$5,000USD2, the chances of enjoying a remotely luxurious honeymoon for the frugal seems impossible, doesn't it? Evidently, these major expenses add up and there are only so many ways to cut down cost before your vision becomes completely compromised. Even if you set aside a few thousand dollars for your honeymoon, unforeseeable events can happen, such as last-minute guests or changes to the venue. These surprises can dip into your honeymoon funds.
For these and similar reasons, many people opt to delay their honeymoon, sacrifice the location and/or duration of the trip as a result of unforeseeable wedding expenses. However, you don’t have to compromise your dream honeymoon! While most wedding expenses are inevitable, you should take full advantage of them and use these expenses to get a 5-star, $15,000+ USD worth honeymoon by accruing hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer miles and hotel reward points through credit card sign ups. Imagine that instead of going to a domestic location such as Lake Tahoe and Key West, you can think bigger and travel to multiple South American countries including Peru, Colombia and Brazil. Instead of staying at 3-star hotels, you can try out the 5-star brands such as Intercontinental and Waldorf Astoria! That is exactly what we are going to cover in this book, as I introduce the pathway to attain the ultimate honeymoon vacation for the budget-conscious.
Questions must be swimming around your head now. How do I do it? What do I need to learn? How do I accrue enough points and miles? You can find the answers to these questions in this book. As long as you incorporate honeymoon planning into the early stages of your wedding planning and follow the steps outlined below, you and your fiancé can begin to look forward to an experience of a lifetime on your first vacation together as a married couple.
I will begin to explain the process of using rewards miles and points towards your honeymoon by telling you one of the success stories involving my friends, Cedric and Cecilia, who just got married not long ago. Their honeymoon included 2 round trip business class tickets from New York to South America, 14 nights of 4 and 5 star hotels, and $1,000 travel credit, by paying only $300 out of their wallets. Without redeeming miles and points, their trip would have costed over $15,000! They were able to achieve such an amazing deal by utilizing their wedding expenses on appropriate credit card deals that accrue massive frequent flyer miles and hotel reward points.
As we go through Cedric and Cecilia’s story together, you will have a comprehensive understanding of what needs to be done during the wedding planning process in order to attain your dream honeymoon for a fraction of your budgeted amount, along with an upgrade in flights and lodging. Then I will follow up with a simple outline of the whole process from start to finish to review and guide you through the process more clearly.
When Cedric and Cecilia got engaged 2 years ago, they had set out a budget of $35,000USD for the wedding. Understanding that the wedding could cost large amount of money, Cedric and Cecilia came to me for budget solutions for their honeymoon. During our discussion, we tackled the questions below:
1. Where do you want to go for your honeymoon? Do you want to go to multiple destinations?
Decision: They decided on going to three countries: Peru, Brazil and Argentina.
2. How many days do you want to spend on your honeymoon?
Decision: With the number of countries and cities they wanted to visit, they decided to travel for 2 weeks.
3. What class of travel do you want to be in?
Decision: They wanted to travel in business class for their roundtrip flight from New York to South America. All flights within South America could be in economy class.
At first glance, their itinerary could cost anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000 based on travel agencies search results. However, with the help of miles and points, we were able to knock down some zeros on the estimated cost! Here is the plan and steps they took, taking full advantage of their wedding expenses: