Inviting Friends on Your Honeymoon? A Celeb Wedding Planner — and a Bride Who Did It — Break Down the Trend
“It’s basically an extension of the party but with everyone paying their own way and no real schedule to adhere to,” says A-list wedding planner Marcy Blum
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Honeymoons aren’t just for two anymore.
More and more newlyweds are celebrating post wedding by inviting friends and family to continue to post wedding festivities.
"There is always a bit of a letdown for the couple after a wedding,” says celebrity planner Marcy Blum, whose VIP client list includes Kevin Love and Kate Bock, LeBron James, Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent, and Bill Gates' daughter Jennifer Gates and Nayel Nassar.
“After a long planning process and so much anticipation and bonding with friends and family, the aftermath can feel a little lonesome. For couples who have been living together for a while, vacationing alone is not a unique experience and taking friends along for the journey makes reentry into the non-wedding planning world a lot less jarring.”
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Blum and her longtime love Destin Coleman recently surprised 20 friend and family members who gathered in St. Barths for a weekend-long celebration in honor of Blum's birthday.
Instead she and Coleman said “I do” in an intimate wedding surrounded by their loved ones. The couple and their guests then celebrated the joyous occasion with sunset cocktails and a quiet dinner at Eden Rock.
The wedding weekend wrapped up on Sunday with a day party at Nikki Beach, which included dinner bites on the wraparound balcony at the Howard Hughes suite at the Eden Rock.
When New York City based bride Korie Miranda wed her fiancé Sa'ar Yaniv in an intimate three-day celebration in Tuscany, Italy in July, 2022, they kept the party going with a fun post-wedding trip with close friends. Following their Italian "I do's" — which included a chic welcome dinner set against scenic Tuscan hills, plus a farewell pool party bash — the newlyweds invited a group of guests to join them for a portion of their honeymoon in Sardinia.
Francesca Del Perugia Photography
Korie Miranda and Sa'ar Yaniv“We decided to kick off our honeymoon with a matemoon because why limit the celebration to just one day?” the couple tells PEOPLE. “Would absolutely do it again, it’s a rush of energy going straight from the wedding to a fun-filled honeymoon with friends."
The couple rented a large villa overlooking the coast and a yacht to celebrate with friends during the festivities, before jetting off for a few quiet days together as husband and wife in Capri.
“Our fave memory is reliving the wedding highlights with our closest friends over long dinners and late night drinks,” says Miranda.
Francesca Del Perugia Photography
Korie Miranda and Sa'ar Yaniv's wedding in Tuscany in July, 2022.The trend is quickly becoming popular across the wedding industry. Blum adds that she’s seeing group honeymoons more often and adds that one of her clients who recently married in Marbella opted to have her mother, sisters and friends join for the first leg of the honeymoon and then ended the trip with a few days alone together.
“It’s basically an extension of the party but with everyone paying their own way and no real schedule to adhere to,” she says.
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“It’s becoming popular for lots of our clients, particularly if the wedding is in Europe where guests are likely to extend their stay anyway.”
As for any potential downside, Blum says some guests may feel left out of the festivities.
“If you are including some friends and family on your honeymoon, it can become difficult to explain to others why they weren’t invited. And you definitely don’t want a traveling wedding caravan.”
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