How did I win a free honeymoon you might ask? I attended a Bridal Expo yesterday at the Pasadena Hilton. Sure, about 90% of what you see and who you talk to are pretty much overpriced generic crap. But ocassionally you might find a golden nugget among all the BS, and often times finding that right vendor or product is worth the day spent among the wedding madness. Besides there are loads of giveaways and contests that you might, just might, win.
That's how I won the trip to St. Thomas, by entering my name in the Door Prize raffle. For this particular raffle, the winner had to be present to win. Luckily, the fiance and I sat through to the end of the fashion show (excruciating to watch, really) and listened to them announce the winners. Our patience paid off because after the announcer pulled about 50 absentee names, I heard mine. I let out an ecstatic "Woohoo!" and claimed our free trip.
But the fine print burst our bubble, as it always does. Sure our certificate entitles us to 7 nights accommodations in their resort, but we must pay a $249 redemption fee. Bleh.
We still have have to pay our own airfare, food, excursions and tips. *sigh*
OK, so it wasn't exactly an entirely free honeymoon, but still much less than what we'd pay without the certificate. It cuts the cost down of what we would have paid by at least $1000. We were thinking of signing up for a honeymoon registery such as Honeyluna to help pay for some of the costs.
Not bad...Definitely better than nothing, and hey, it's the fricken Caribbean!
So, I'd say this expo trip was worth the chaos (my thoughts on this on later blog.) Sure, you can attend dozens of bridal shows and enter your name in countless raffles and not win a thing. It's all statistics and, well, good fortune.
Oh...and I also bought a gown at the expo...more on this later....
2 comments:
Congrats on getting engaged! Planning a wedding on a budget is not an easy task, but it sounds like you're doing well so far. My husband & I also asked for money instead of gifts for our wedding. We considered Honeyluna, but quickly changed our minds when we found out they take a portion of your gifts! You basically pay them for the convenience. Instead, we printed little pieces of paper that we included with the RSVP cards explaining that we were blessed enough to have everything we needed for our home, but could use a little help paying for our honeymoon if our guests felt the need to give us a gift at all. Our friends & family loved the idea & we actually received enough money to pay for our entire honeymoon...plane tickets, hotel, food, everything! So basically all I'm trying to say is steer clear of websites that charge you for their service & just keep it simple & personal.
Thanks for the tip! Yeah, after rereading the fine print of some of these honeymoon registries, the fiance and I decided to nix the idea. They're not taking our money!
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