Does planning your dream honeymoon sound more overwhelming than fun? Join the club. Lucky for us – Caila, from Ben Higgins’ season of The Bachelor, is here to share her tips for a stress-free honeymoon you’ll want to keep close. Take inspiration from her and her hubs’ Santorini escape, where they commemorated their newlywed chapter with a drop-dead gorgeous destination photoshoot, captured by Kostis Mouselimis. With cliffside views, volcanic beaches, and the island’s iconic white-washed buildings and blue domes, this mesmerizing island creates a magical setting to celebrate love and a new life together!
Travelers at heart, my husband and I booked a three-week-long honeymoon to Croatia and throughout Greece. We try to visit one new country a year as a couple and these bucket-list destinations had the ideal balance of romantic old city charm and breathtaking ocean views for us!
WEEK 1: We started our first week in Dubrovnik and spent our day’s hand and hand getting lost within its picturesque medieval limestone walls. After acclimating to the European time change & catching our breath after our 200 guest wedding, we were ready for adventure and headed to Athens for 5 days!
WEEK 2: Rich in culture, we loved staying in the heart of Athens with a view of the Acropolis from our balcony. Spending most days exploring by foot, Athens truly mesmerized us with its Greek pride and history. But the most impactful day in Athen was actually an excursion we booked outside of the city. Truly a bucket list item for us, we took a day trip to Meteora to see the monks that live in the sky. It still brings me to tears thinking about this honeymoon memory that imprinted on both of our hearts as a couple. You need to visit Meteora once in your life to see these mountain top monasteries! They will leave your soul in awe of their ability to live on a cliff overlooking the world, but never needing to be a part of it.
WEEK 3: Once we had our fill of history, my husband and I were ready to be romanced by the Greek islands! We spend our final 10 days in both Santorini and Mykonos. This is where we had the pleasure of meeting Konstantinos and capturing these breathtaking memories from our honeymoon to remember for decades to come!
I could not agree more, planning a honeymoon can be dreadful at times, especially while juggling planning a wedding! I would say, start by taking a deep breath. My biggest tip when planning a honeymoon would be to think about what kind of experience are you hoping to have? When you close your eyes, do you envision yourself… relaxing by the beach, adventuring in the jungle, restaurant hopping to try local foods, or romantically never leaving your hotel room? Let this be the seed of inspiration for your trip.
For Nick and I, we always envisioned our honeymoon being a jet-setting love affair with culture where we tried to check off as many bucket list items as we could. So from there, we wrote down some of our bucket list countries, and within those countries our bucket list activities. Croatia and Greece were the overlapping destinations calling us. And bucket list activities included: A Game of Thrones tour in Dubrovnik, Staying overnight in a Windmill on the cliffs Santorini, visiting the monks in the Meteora mountain-top monasteries near Athens, and lounging on the beaches of Mykonos with a local cocktail in hand. From there, the honeymoon kind of planned itself as we made these bucket list items the pillar days of our honeymoon with every travel day in between being relaxed & unplanned.
One of the most memorable moments from our honeymoon was waking up in our own private windmill that we booked on Airbnb for 2 nights. Located on the cliffs of Santorini, our two-floor 200-year-old windmill faced the inner ocean crater with views of tip to toe of the entire island. The pink cloudy sunset sky lulled us to sleep as we relished in the romantic views with a full glass of wine in hand. It felt like it was only us in the world & heaven was under our feet – here, in the country of Greece. (All of the photos Konstantinos took are of this windmill and this feeling.)
Yes, I would 100% recommend booking a honeymoon session when you travel. For us, we may never be able to visit Greece again, and what better way to frame our travels in our home than with professional photos of this dream destination. If you do book a session I would recommend only booking an hour and bringing 2 dresses/outfits. The benefit of booking a local photographer is they know the best locations & the best time to shoot for lighting, so you can make the most of your time. And if your partner isn’t convinced this is a good idea, tell them the shoot is a date activity that will be romantic. And if that doesn’t work bribe them with a special dinner after to make it worth their while, if you know what I mean.
If I could do my honeymoon again, there is not a single thing I would change. Well… maybe one thing. I wish we were a little bit more organized with understanding the Covid Regulations of each country. We went on our honeymoon in June of 2021 and the regulations in Europe were changing on the daily, so I think having a document with a list of the Country Travel Forms we needed to fill out would have helped relieve a little travel stress. The only reason I say that is because we were stuck in Croatia an extra day on our way to Athens, Greece. The paperwork to enter Greece at the time was emailed to you 24 hours after you fill out their travel form. We thought we could fill out the form at the airport, which was our mistake. Not a big deal, but now we know for next time we travel in between countries in Europe.
Photography: Kostis Mouselimis | Event Planning: Think Happy Events | Florist: Marias' Flower Wedding Decoration | Film Lab: 645lab | Location: Remezzo Villas Santorini | Rentals: Spicy Bites