'Earlymoons' are the latest wedding trend
Nick and Christina Hymer said their Paris trip gave them time to "just relax."
— -- While honeymoons give newlyweds a chance to relax after their wedding, more and more engaged couples are taking a vacation even before their wedding festivities begin.
Couples say the pre-wedding vacation, dubbed an “earlymoon,” gives them a chance to de-stress and reconnect before tying the knot.
“We were met with champagne and macaroons at the hotel [and] enjoyed some really nice dinners,” said Nick Hymer, 27, who took an earlymoon with his now-wife, Christina Hymer, also 27, to Paris before their wedding last year.
“It was just us being able to enjoy each other’s company and just relax with no burden of kind of anything else weighing us down especially all the pre-wedding planning,” Christina Hymer, of Columbia, South Carolina, said of the trip.
Seventy-one percent of engaged and newlywed couples said planning their wedding was more stressful than buying a home or finding a job, according to a survey by Zola, a wedding planning company.
Pippa Middleton and her husband, James Matthews, reportedly vacationed in St. Barts before their lavish London wedding celebration in May.
Amy Shey Jacobs, a New York City-based wedding planner, said earlymoon getaways do not have to break the bank.
“Earlymoons can be as simple as a staycation, driving to the beach, renting out a cabin, the point is to reconnect,” she said. “It does not have to be extravagant or expensive.”
Jacobs does advise couples to pay attention to the timing of their earlymoon as it relates to their wedding planning.
“I would recommend taking one after you’ve booked all of your important vendors like photographer, band, florist, and venue but before you send out your wedding invitations,” she said.
The Hymers, who honeymooned in Spain, said their earlymoon to Paris allowed them the time and space to gain perspective on their October 2016 wedding.
“It’s a great time for you to get away and connect and just kind of think about the wedding that’s ahead,” said Nick Hymer. “And what your lives are going to be like together and how great everything’s going to be.”