Weddingbee boards

My future in-laws are paying for our honeymoon as a gift to us.  Don't get me wrong I am soooo thankful for it, but I'm a little bummed, because we are using their Marriott timeshare exchange for our honeymoon in Aruba.  Aruba wasn't my first choice, in fact it wasn't one of my top 3, which were (Tahiti, Turks and Caicos, or Bahamas), but there were no vacancies for the period right after our wedding.

After doing more research I'm happy with Aruba, though not my dream locale.  What I'm really bummed about is that since it is a timeshare I don't feel like we'll get the getaway we would if we were to go with a resort/hotel since it's like renting.  Ya know, like the pampering and stuff.

Please someone tell me I'm wrong.  I know ultimately once I'm there I'm going to have a blast with my new hubby, but for now I'm I've got the blues about it.

we're doing the same thing- a timeshare honeymoon, which was a gift from my aunt and uncle. we're staying at a condo at a resort near san diego. we're on the east coast, so this is a treat, but it's not my top pick- in fact, it's a lawrence welk resort, geared at families and the senior set!

i was a little bummed about the timeshare process as well (clearly not our top choice resort, limitations on location and availability, etc), but we look at it this way:
we're not paying for accomodations, so while they may not be at the resort of our dreams, we can afford to splurge elsewhere- we're going a few days early to stay at a nice hotel (with a SPA), we'll go out for nice dinners, we'll treat ourselves well! if we were paying for a hotel for a week we would certainly not have much money to splurge. 

while it feels weird to complain about such a gift, i understand your woes! but seriously, use the money you'll save on the hotel for fun stuff you wouldn't be able to do otherwise. and hey- you'll be in aruba! not too shabby! 

thanks gals!  I think another reason why i'm ho-hum about the whole thing is that my fiance and I were instructed to pick locations, so we picked our top three.  So the day that my finace went over to his folks house to make the arrangements the 3 places we picked were unavailable the week after our wedding, but since his dad was on the phone with the agent already he wanted to make a decision then and there.  My finace called me and said they're all booked and it basically felt like his dad picked a back-up choice for us.  I guess that's a big reason.  I didn't feel like it was our decision.  Then he told us that if we wanted to change anything it would be an additional fee.  I was put on the spot and did feel like any of it was in my control.

I do know that as long as I'm with my huney it doesn't really matter where we go.  I know we'll have fun and have a fabulous time.

All your tips are great.  Thanks!

When my fiance proposed, he wanted to do it surrounded by Christmas lights in the swanky part of town....but, even though he had the ring, had bought a FLASHLIGHT so I could see the ring in the dark, and flown my two best friends in from out of town to surprise me in celebration afterwards, he didn't think to find out exactly where in the swanky part of town the cool lights were. So he ended up getting down on one knee in front of some random person's house in the middle of a fairly dark street and telling me about how my eyes lit up his life. :-)

My point is, it didn't go quite according to plan and he was a little bummed, but I told him that life isn't always going to go the way we plan, but we'll go through it together and always make the best of it, knowing we're so lucky to have found each other. You might try reminding yourself of this...

Also, I've found that some of my most fun trips and experiences happen when my expectations are lowest and I'm pleasantly surprised instead of having super-high expectations and ending up disappointed. Maybe that'll happen here. Plus, you'll have the rest of your life to go on an extravagant trip, and it might be even more fun when you can comfortably afford it instead of adding on several thousand dollars to an ALREADY very expensive wedding. Good luck and have fun!