A woman has reflected on her decision to bring her and her husband’s families with them on their honeymoon – but now has some advice for those considering to do the same
One newly-wed couple thought it’d be a great idea to try a new and unique approach to their honeymoon idea, but it quickly turned into an idea they regret and now, they wish they’d had some downtime before they started their new life together.
Rachel Varina revealed how her and her new husband thought it’d be a “different, sentimental and brave” idea to bring their families on their honeymoon to Italy with them.
Although group honeymoons are on the rise, Rachel and her husband, who got married over a decade ago, were one of the first couples to have tried it recently – and now she has a warning for those considering to do it too.
She recalled how their honeymoon was over the festive period, and said she didn’t want to miss out on family traditions of spending the holiday’s with her family. In turn, they decided to have it both ways and bring everyone along for the honeymoon and Christmas.
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The couple planned their trip in two halves, with the start of the honeymoon just being the two of them enjoying their newlywed bliss, followed a few days after by Christmas, when their siblings arrived and the group all stayed in an Airbnb together.
“We laughed, wandered, and bonded. And honestly? It was beautiful. We created core memories that we still talk about to this day. But now, with distance – and maybe a little more life under my belt – it doesn’t take a psychology degree to see the truth behind it all: I wasn’t just afraid of missing Christmas. I was afraid of letting go,” she confessed to Betches.
Now looking back on her decision Rachel said she doesn’t “totally regret it” as it meant a lot to her and their families at the time, but now she has a “a calendar full of family obligations” and has only just started to realise “just how sacred that alone time is.”
“We spent a big chunk of our wedding gift money flying our siblings out and hosting them,” Rachel says. “We didn’t explore new cities or squeeze in more romance, we literally circled back to Rome and replayed the same itinerary, just with more people, more opinions, and way less sleep.”
Rachel reflected at the time she thought it was a generous and emotionally mature choice, but now accepts at the time she was unable to talk about her true feelings and instead booked her siblings a flight to Rome to avoid it.
She realises that she was worried about transitioning her old life to her new one – but now said she understands sometimes you have to sit in an “unfamiliar space” with your person and let yourself “feel it all” including the joy, the grief and the life shift.
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