After the Wedding Comes The Honeymoon

Summer is the height of wedding season. Luckily for me, I have no weddings this year. However, next year is a different story.

Photo Credit: http://www.onscreenweddings.com

As a traveler, I am excited about where the couple is headed for their honeymoon more than the wedding. For many couples, their honeymoon is the first time they travel outside the United States. Its an exciting time for the new couple. Add in a foreign location and the experiences to be had a numerous.

A survey by Hipmunk and Yahoo, revels that Fiji, Italy, Hawaii, New Zealand and Greece are the top Honeymoon Destinations. No real surprises there.

(Graphic: Jinah Kim)

What I like about the survey is that Disneyland, Mexico and California are the "least ideal honeymoon destinations." I had a college friend have here honeymoon at Disneyland, but the couple were major "Disney geeks." There description of themselves, not mine.

The survey reveled that 70% of men were more excited about the honeymoon than the actual wedding compared to 36% of women.

(Graphic: Jinah Kim)

Almost all couples would spend less on the wedding for a fancier honeymoon.

(Graphic: Jinah Kim)

This is where points and miles can help. Typically, weddings/honeymoons are planned a year or more in advance. A few strategic credit card applications by your fiance and you, can result in a significant portion of your honeymoon being paid for.

For instance, the Hyatt credit card offers 2 free nights worldwide. If both your fiance and you apply for the Hyatt credit cards separately, you can earn 4 free nights. For many couples, 4 nights is almost the entire honeymoon. Add in an airline credit card or 2, you could help reduce or eliminate the cost of the airfare to the honeymoon destination.

How will you hit the minimum spend on the credit card to earn the bonus miles?

Don't you have expenses for the wedding. Probably lots of expenses!

Parents paying for the wedding?

Ask them to allow you to put the charges on your credit card and give you a check. If you tell them its to help pay for the honeymoon, they might be more willing to help out twice!

A small amount of planning can result in significant savings on your honeymoon.

If you are married, do you wish you could have taken a fancier honeymoon?

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Weddings: Just Say No

The Spring time bring warmer weather, but also, the start of the wedding season. In our twenties, weddings seem to happen nonstop. Your close family members, childhood and college friends, and co-workers all seem to be tying the knot. Of course, its never just one a year. They always seem to occur in groups.

Invitations to weddings = money out of your pocket. At the vary least, there is the obligatory gift. However, if you decided to go to the wedding there is the added cost of something to wear, drinks, and gas and that's if you are local. If the wedding is not near where you live, add in the cost of airfare, hotels and meals. The costs start to add up.

American Express conducted a survey of 1,500 adults which determined that the expected cost to attend a wedding in 2013 at $539 after adding in travel, attire and gifts. That's up more than 50% of last year's expected expense of $339. The increase in the amount of spending could be attributed to the approving economy and people's wiliness to spend more to attend a wedding. However, $500 per wedding can add up. 

Melanie Hicken, on CNN Money, wrote an article this week entitled, "My Friend's Weddings Are Putting Me Deep in Debt." The article details, PR Account Executive, Christopher Sledzik, who has racked up $10,000 in debt by attending 12 different weddings and being apart of 3 different wedding parities over an 18 month period. 

"For me, vacation time has been devoted to (weddings) for the past couple of years," said the 27-year-old public relations account executive. "I'm at that age where everybody's getting married, or at least it seems that way."

$10,000 in debt caused by attending weddings. Thats a little ridiculous. He goes on to say that the bill "is now accumulating $130 in interest each month." Assuming he makes the minimum payments, it will take 12+ years to pay off this debit. 12 years of his life chained to debt from attending other people's weddings.

Christopher needs to learn the phrase, "I'm sorry I can't attend." He is $10,000 in debt and what did he get? A few laughs, a rubber chicken dinner and some free booze. If you can't afford to pay to attend a wedding without credit than you probably shouldn't go. The bride and groom won't be upset, because its one less person/couple they have to pay for. No wedding is worth chaining yourself to debt for years to come. 

Here are some simple tips to reduce the costs associated with attending weddings:

1) Obviously, use points and miles to pay for airplane tickets or hotels.

2) Check to see if the "group" hotel is actually the lowest available rate at the hotel, sometimes its not.

3) Find other single people or couples to share hotel rooms or rental cars.

4) Buy gifts online and have them shipped to the Bride or Groom, saving you money on baggage fees.

5) Buy a Tuxedo. Spending $300 or $400 upfront will save you from renting multiple tuxedos later. One
     can always rent vest, cummerbund, or bow ties to match the wedding party, if necessary   

6) Extend the trip by a day or two and make it a vacation

Do you have any tips to save money while traveling to weddings?

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Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com

Welcome to Do It For The Points!

Hello everyone! 

Welcome to our new blog, "Do It For the Points!" This blog is a little brainchild that we have been kicking around for awhile as we deal with our addiction to points and miles. We know that there are tons of points and miles blogs out there who provide amazing advice and have pushed us to where we are with our points and trips, so you might be asking yourself...why another blog? 

Well the answer is....we wanted to share our awesome travels with people and start a discussion of points and miles from the newbie side of things. We (JD and Chris) are both newly into the points game, JD is more of a veteran than Chris, but we are both still feeling our way into the miles and points world.  Overall, we wanted to share our perspective, trips, and just general questions we may have about points and miles that you might have but were too shy to ask. Don't worry....we don't mind embarrassing ourselves for you.

Now for a little bit about ourselves. We are both residents of the Washington, D.C. area and have lived here for a combined 16 years! We met in college where our motto was, "Do It For the Story" (thus the name for our blog) and we are always trying to live by that motto.

Chris graduated in May with his MA in public communication and now works in media and public relations for a non-profit organization. His goal in the next 7 years (before he turns 30) is to hit all 7 continents. He has already has 3 (North America, Europe and Australia) under his belt but needs to get going on the next four. 

Chris will be traveling with his girlfriend (a newly made points addict) Kelsey to London and Amsterdam in October on their first ever fully funded points and miles trip. The trip features UA Business Class, an overnight ferry to Amsterdam and a Lufthansa Business Class trip back home.

JD came to DC in pursuit of a degree in his passion, politics. As time went on, his love of politics diminished and he went to work in the mortgage industry. In his spare time, his hobby is points; collecting, hoarding, and spending. Like Chris, his goal is to travel to all 7 continents before he is 30 (in less than 3 years - eck!)

The goal of our blog is to bring you the tips and tricks along the way as we find them, and to also share our trip reports so we can hear your experiences on similar trips and start planning the next one. We also want this to be a place where we can all ask the questions we have as newbies to try and understand the points and miles world. We will then ask them to the people who are much smarter and well-versed in the points and miles world.

We hope you will tune in and have a chat with us on a regular basis so we can help grow this blog and tell all about our favorite trips and dream places we want to go. As always....Do It For the Points!