The Honeymooners

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The honeymoon... as traditional and America as Apple Pie. And something that was very important to me when figuring out the wedding budget. Our budget had to include our honeymoon because there was no way I was going to delay it. As you can guess, the honeymoon has been a subject of much discussion and strategy as Mr. Yankee and I tried to decide what we could afford and where we really wanted to go. My bucket list includes places all over Europe, United States and Canada; Mr. Yankee- well, lets just say that I am the travel planner in this partnership. Mr. Yankee and I set up some basic ground rules for our honeymoon:

1. Within our measely budget
2. A place that we both had never been before
3. No beaches! (getting married in October pretty much took care of no beaches with everywhere being in the middle of hurricane season and Mr. Y and I having already been to Hawaii)

Originally the idea was to go to Disneyworld; it's within the United States, would be a great, fun, giddy vacation and would be away from a beach- perfect! I also liked that Disneyworld had a great number of different activities. We could horseback riding or parasailing if we truly desired. Plus, me and disney?! Sign me up! I got to work pricing the trip and was a little shocked at how much a 10 day trip to Disneyworld was going to cost.

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While I was okay with going over our budget for our honeymoon, I wanted to make sure I did it for the right vacation. So it was back to the drawing board- if I was going to pay almost 5000 for a Disneyworld vacation, could I do the same for a European honeymoon too?!

I started asking around at work for anyone who knew a European travel agent. After a couple of days, I was given a name of a travel agent who specialized in European vacations. At this point, I let Mr. Yankee take point. I tend to get really excited when it comes to planning a vacation and I wanted to keep my game face on to get the best deal possible; this is where Mr. Y comes in. He is very even tempered and doesn't get excited over much outside of new video games, so I knew he would do fine. Shortly after Mr. Yankee shot off an email, we had shiny brochures in the mail from Brendan Vacations that described both guided and independent vacations. I would be lying if I said I didn't immediately swoon; I'm such a sucker for a shiny brochure.

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Mr. Yankee proceeded to set up a time to meet and discuss details for our desired vacation and, after a small delay due to unforseen circumstances, we met with Irma (our new travel agent) to map things out. And so where, you might ask, did we decide to go?!

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ITALY!!! Or to be more specific, we'll be seeing the magnificent cities of Venice, Florence and Rome. It will be 9 days of history, food and pictures and I am so beyond excited about it!!! Our travel agent is so awesome that she was able to get our air, hotels (which all come with a free continental breakfast every morning) and airport transfers for under $5,000!!!! The only thing left to purchase is train tickets (to get from city to city) which she will purchase for us the month before the wedding. And the best part?! It's EUROPE! I have dreamed of going to Europe my entire life and now I will get to see these amazing historical cities as I start my new life with my husband.

How did you decide on your honeymoon?! How do you prepare and plan your vacations?!