At last! THE HONEYMOON

The purpose of a honeymoon is to relax after the build up, excitement and pressure of the wedding.

Relax can take many forms from simply a quiet evening or two at a local hotel to a several weeks long,  very exotic South Pacific island.

Vicki and I married in 1982 in Melbourne, Australia.  When we walked down the aisle, we later worked out that we had spent a grand total of five days together prior to saying  'I Do'.  So our honeymoon was really about getting to know each other.

Actually, by the time we got to our honeymoon beachside spot on Kauai, Hawaii, we were barely speaking to each other.  We had left Melbourne Sunday  mid day on the day after our wedding and arrived in Honolulu after the ten hour flight.  I breezed through customs and in that era there was only a red line tape on the floor which separated the newly arrived from those going through the foreign visitors line, where my new wife was positioned. 

So I was within ear range when the officer said, 'And how long will you be visiting?'  She responded.  'For life, I married one of you yesterday.'  Wrong answer.  What we later found out she was supposed to say was just for a couple of weeks.  (The plan was to complete formalities once she was IN the US.)    It was a simpler time and return tickets were not required, customs just relied on the answers from the newly arrived, especially from Australia.  So instead of being welcomed, we were sent to the penalty box to face a field officer, a beautiful Hawaiian lady who sat in judgement in a booth looking down at us, all the better to intimidate I guess.  She held Vicki's Australian passport, looked me squarely in the eye and ask if this marriage was something I really wanted to happen.  She suggested she could just put Vicki on the next flight back to Australia and none of the events would be recorded.

Surprised I said of course I wanted to marry her.  We just didn't understand the paperwork.**  Some days or maybe it was weeks later we finally laughed that she must have thought I married this lady from some distant land in a drunken evening.

The Customs Officer suggested we needed to be in Los Angeles by the following  Wednesday for a court hearing before a judge. I pleaded we were here for our Honeymoon.   After further discussion, the Officer relented, winked at me and with a warm Aloha, she packed up our folder and placed it on a shelf, saying, "I suppose I could lose your paperwork for a week.  Appear in ten days."

Vicki was released to 'my custody', no passport and off we went for a week at the beachside cottage.  On arrival, she went to the beach and I went to the pool and after several hours of alone time and rest, we showered and dressed for drinks and dinner and began our Honeymoon.

The idea of a honeymoon actually can be traced to the Bible:  Deuteronomy 24:5 “When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him. He shall be exempt for one year for the sake of his family, to bring joy to the wife he has married.”

Wow those were the days.

The term "honeymoon" originally referred to the days just after the wedding when things were at their sweetest.

The custom of newly married couples going on a trip together dates back to the early 19th century when the Indian elite would take a 'bridal tour' accompanied by family and friends for the purpose of visiting relatives that could not attend the wedding.  The practice soon spread to Europe and then America.  In the last century, it was very common for couples to change from their wedding attire during the reception and leave to a fond farewell from their guests to begin their trip.   Nowadays, it is most common for couples to plan a trip for a day or two after the wedding so that they can enjoy a wedding weekend visiting family and friends.

In today's world, anyone traveling by air and/or out of the country, remember to reserve all  travel under your original names.  Passports and name changing won't happen for months, so to keep all documents matching, use original names.

**Just a note.  We have spent thousands of dollars in legal and administrative fees obtaining 'green cards' on two different occasions as we have moved back and forth to Australia.  All of us in the family now carry Australian and US passports.   Marrying an overseas citizen also now requires months of paperwork to be completed PRIOR to a wedding for a spouse to remain in the US legally.