Thursday, April 3, 2008

Ah, the honeymoon!

I've been looking at some ideas for our honeymoon tonight, and I realized that I haven't written about our honeymoon possibilities. So, here I go. :]

Our wedding is beginning at 5pm, so after the reception, we plan to just stay in our little hometown for the night. Luckily, a brand new hotel was built there recently, and after looking at some photos of the rooms, I was sold. It's a Howard Johnson hotel, and at less than $100 a night, I think it's perfect. Plus, I've stayed in a HoJo before, and the beds are quite comfy! What makes them so comfy? They have Serta mattresses with down comforters! Not only that, but the hotel has it's own mini-theater and the rooms come equipped with a La-Z-Boy recliner, flat screen television, and a DVD player. From a review, I read that the bathrooms are large and stocked with Bath & Body soaps and lotions for the guests to take advantage of. Who could pass this up?


[the standard king room- travelpost]

Of course, we still had some more planning to do. We have the night of the wedding down, but what about the rest? At first, we (well, I) couldn't decide where to spend our once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon. I wanted to go to London, the beach, Italy, Ireland--I still wouldn't mind going to any of those places--but in the end, I decided that those places wouldn't be private enough. I want our honeymoon to be just us, and I don't even care about sight-seeing; we can do that sort of thing on an anniversary! So, I finally listened to Josh's suggestion: getting a private cabin in the Smokies. I don't know why I didn't think of it so much before! Our hometown is only about 3-4 hours from the beautiful Smoky Mountains, and a cabin would be so excluded--definitely the private feel that we both want during our first nights as a married couple.

I immediately became excited, of course, and I began some research. I found and called about some honeymoon packages that I found, and this particular one was only about $1200 (which included a three-night stay in the cabin). Not bad at all, but after some thought, I realized that we didn't really care much about the package--and most of it seemed kind of cheesy. I started looking at some other cabins, first at the one-bedrooms (which seemed nice but a little on the smaller side, and Josh said he'd prefer a bigger cabin); I then looked at some two-bedrooms, and I found one that I absolutely love! I checked the availability (our dates are still available!), and though it doesn't have the ultra-cheesy package along with it, it would be only $20 more if we stayed an extra fourth night! I showed the pictures to Josh, and he seems to like it as well, and how could he not?

[the view from the porch]

[the beautiful kitchen and bar]

[the first bedroom-love that bed!]

[the second bedroom]

[the living room]

There are also two-and-a-half bathrooms, a fireplace, flat-screen televisions equipped with satellite, a jacuzzi, a hot tub (on the deck), a pool table, and highspeed wireless internet access. Ten minutes away from this beautiful cabin is beautiful Pigeon Forge, Tennessee where Josh and I would be able to enjoy nice dinners together or little walks and maybe even a day-trip to Dollywood. Another great aspect of this trip: we will be able to go for vacations in the future--either as time to ourselves, or we could even take our future children (since the cabin has two bedrooms).

Hopefully, we are able to book this cabin in time! I'm absolutely in love with it, and I'm becoming even more excited about our honeymoon than I am about the wedding, haha!

P.S. The Howard Johnson hotel would also be perfect for any of my out-of-state guests. Some may be staying with my parents, but it might be a bit more comfortable (and less crowded) to stay at the HoJo. They also have cozy-looking double rooms:
[image from travelpost]

*all images of the cabin are courtesy of yourcabin.com (take a look to see more beautiful cabins!)*

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So i think this sounds absolutely wonderful... i kinda like the whole quite deserted area rather than an extreme trip to the hustle and bustle of other countries and areas! I think you guys are really going to enjoy this!! I'm so happy for you!!!

Anonymous said...

By the way that was from Whitney i couldn't figure out how to put my name on there!! haha

Anonymous said...

OH my goodness... I LOVE it!!!

Anonymous said...

i know you're currently on teh fence abotu your honeymoon plans (spotted you on WB) buuut, i just had to pipe in that my FI and I spent a wonderful 3 days there with some friends of ours.

We got a 2 bedroom cabin up in the Smokies and it was really nice. we got snowed in and had a blast watching dvds and playing Taboo.

lol...you brought back some lovely memories. that trips was one of our favorites.

i'm considering then as a minimoon option but I wonder if our wedding date (11/01/08) isn't peak season for them?

btw: can't remember the name of the resort we went to, but each cabin had a cutesy name. ours was Miss Bee Haven. say it fast. lol....