Extensive Travelers, Come In Please!!

[Ms.Goggles]

My fiance and I have decided to have a weddingmoon (elope and honeymoon) next July and I need some help deciding on some locations to consider. I know many of you have traveled a LOT and have stayed at some pretty amazing hotels, so I would love it if you could share your gems with us!

Here''s what''s important to us:

* Getting married there has to be legally recognized in the US. We don''t want to get married in a courthouse before we go.
* Beautiful scenery - we''d prefer tropical (think swaying palms, gorgeous sunsets, crystal clear water), but open to other ideas
* Resort that''s very private and quiet - preferably one that doesn''t allow kids (I''m a teacher, so my vacations are a break) & the fewer the guests at the hotel, the better!
* The more amenities the hotel offers the better - I''m imagining the kind of place where you don''t have to/want to leave your room. Love outdoor showers, plunge pools, romantic romantic romantic.
* We are content to be pretty lazy on our vacations, but wouldn''t mind partaking in the occasional activity (hiking, snorkeling, exploring, horseback riding, adventure-type activities)

* Somewhere we haven''t been before - this knocks out Hawaii, Mexico and much of the Caribbean (Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Antigua, Barbados, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, St. John).

We have about 10-14 days and a good budget to play with! Our top contender right now is Fiji, but it seems that they may or may not have us covered in the spectacular scenery department so I want to cover all my bases and check out other good ideas.

I''ve been looking at all the travel eye-candy threads

, so I''m confident someone will have a good lead!

Thank you!

 

[katamari]

Resort traveling isn''t my thing, so I can''t help you there. But, having extensively researched the whole weddingmoon thing, I can tell you that it varies by location, so you will want to pick your location first. The most common practice, though, is to have the "marriage" conducted at a Consulate (no ceremony, just filing of paperwork). You are often responsible for having the necessary legal documents translated into the business language of the country, as well as having them authenticated by an official there. We contacted numerous places in Asia, Africa, and Europe. It seemed to take 1 full business day to get everything in order and another to get the marriage legalized (with a range of 1 - 4 days). You will also be responsible for making all the appointments and arrangements. And, you should probably read your state''s laws, because you may still have to get a marriage license in your state.

It is definitely something to think about and why we will not have a legal marriage in South America. We didn''t want to spend 2 days of our honeymoon filling out paper in a Consulate''s office, nor pay all the necessary fees, given that we could just stop by the courthouse in our home state and get it done for $50. We also didn''t want to be married before our symbolic ceremony, so we are going to the courthouse the day we get back.

The other option we considered is to have one of our guests ordained online. That way they could officiate and then legally file the paperwork in the U.S. when we returned. I am not sure this was wholly legal, but it would certainly work.