Luxury Weddings And Honeymoons Abroad
Luxury Weddings And Honeymoons Abroad
When the time came (15 years ago) to plan my wedding and honeymoon I, of course wanted the whole event both wedding and honeymoon to be absolutely luxurious in every way. You know the story, designer dress, Jimmy Choo shoes, the very finest venue, food and wine….and then there was the honeymoon…which had to be simply out of this world. After all I would need at least a three week luxury break to recover from all of that event planning…wouldn’t I?
The issue was that my husband also wanted a memorable wedding but he had different ideas about how the event would pan out. His vision was for us to have a romantic, intimate wedding abroad followed by a luxury honeymoon vacation. Being a Yorkshire man (and quite frugal with his money) I guess he thought that we could save some money by combining the two?
At first I was not keen on the idea of holding my wedding abroad however, after researching some amazing overseas wedding venues I was smitten and no venue or location in the UK seemed to match up to the stunning, romantic, luxury worldwide wedding and honeymoon destinations that I had sourced.
After more research my mind was running wild with some of the amazing, unusual and exhilerating activities that we could incorporate into both our wedding ceremony and our honeymoon. I was also pleasently surprised how easy it was to obtain the legal documents.
So where did we finally opt for? Would it be a romantic Hawaii wedding and honeymoon or would it be somewhere closer to home such as Provence or Tuscany?
Well to be honest you may be surprised, as 14 years ago this coming July I was married at the Phoenician, a luxury resort hotel in Arizona, USA.
Nestled at the base of the Camelback Mountains and surrounded by the stunning Sonoran Desert the Phoenician remains one of America’s most luxurious resorts. At the time of its inception this grand and stylish resort which sits within 250 acres of beautifully manicured grounds was one of the most expensive hotels ever built.
Although there is no doubt that the Phoenician is a stunning hotel, so many people have asked me why exactly, did we chose to marry in the dusty desert of Arizona when we could have opted for a picture perfect beach location or a romantic hideaway in Italy?
The answer to that question is…we never intended to get married in Arizona, it just kind of happened that way and we feel that for us it was fate of some kind that guided us to our Arizona wedding location.
The reason that I say fate guided us to Arizona is because we had our hearts totally set on getting married and honeymooning on one of the Hawaiian Islands but after I visited Scottsdale on a business trip I totally fell in love with the dramatic and enchanting state of Arizona and the rest, as they say… is history.
Deep down I had always had a yearning to travel to the American South West, the reason being is that in my youth I had spent many afternoons watching Western movies with my grandfather…you know the ones, High Chaparral, Bonanza and a mélange of other John Wayne style movies.
I loved them all, especially because I adored my grandfather and loved the stories he told me about how he fought in the desert alongside, Geronimo and Crazy Horse. I’m not sure how I actually bought these stories but his tales fascinated me and I was mesmerised with images of red rock scenery, native Americans and riding bareback across the wilderness.
To cut a long story short I decided to get married at sunset in the most romantic (and slightly unusual by other peoples standard) of settings, the Sonoran desert. It was a magical evening especially because my 84 year old grandmother had travelled to Arizona to see me get married. My grandfather could not be with me but I knew he would be watching down on me and he would have been so very proud of my choices.
A few days after our intimate ceremony(we even wrote our own vows) we travelled up to Sedona (birth place of the Apache nation ) where the red rock scenery is totally breathtaking, we watched eagles sawing high above us and looked on in bewilderment as cayote walked the streets alongside cowboys on horseback. On day three we had our fortunes told (Sedona is a new age spiritual mecca and global power spot) over breakfast and then headed off for to the Grand Canyon National Park (http://www.nps.gov/grca/) where my husband would take his first glimpse of the Canyon…and he was totally awe struck at its splendor and beauty.
After our stay at the Canyon we travelled across Arizona and California on a three week vacation that surpassed all of our expectations and desires…it was magical. Even more so because we went off the beaten track and really experienced our destinations and did not just pass through them.
The question is its our anniversary on the 22nd of July 2010 and I want to do something amazing…should we go back to Arizona and re-live our memories or should we go somewhere completely different??
The World is like a great big sweet shop… don’t you agree?