1) Eighteen months BEFORE the 20th anniversary, the husband should casually say to the wife, "Hmmm, our 20th anniversary is coming up after this year, right? We need to do something special."
a) You get extra points for saying this in the company of others so it can later be verified.
b) It’s perfectly acceptable for that thought to be left dangling for a few months; suggesting this in and of itself is the first 20th anniversary gift.
c) In order for this to remain a gift, it better not be the only gift.
2) Define "something special" to be a trip. A good great NO-EXPENSE-SPARED-FOR-THE-FIRST-&-ONLY-TIME-IN-YOUR-LIFE trip. No
pressure or anything….
a) Begin saving.
b) Train your children to scrounge for loose change…it’s amazing how much "silver money" you can find in the grocery store check-out line and under Coke machines. Just invest in a bucket of Purell.
c) This would be a good time to lift your ban on playing the lottery.
d) And for goodness sakes–send in your Publisher’s Clearing House entry! You may have already won!
3) Begin researching your options.
a) Read travel magazines.
b) Watch travelogues. Sit through mind-numbing exciting slide shows of your friends and family.
c) Solicit suggestions from friends, relatives, neighbors, the Wal-Mart greeter–anyone with lips and a brain. The two of those put together often result in spectacular ideas.
d) If you want extremely diverse ideas, start a blog, make a few bluddies, and ask THEIR opinions…because bloggers NEVER shy away from sharing their opinions, and actually, they’re usually pretty scary entertaining helpful.
4) Plan your date.
5) Secure childcare. Make sure whoever is keeping your children understands they aren’t just "taking the reservation…they’re HOLDING the reservation".
6) Determine the "ingredients" of your trip–the better your recipe, the more delicious its taste. Crowds or seclusion? All-inclusive or a la carte? Nightlife? Shopping? Museums? Theatre? Fine dining? Knowing what you want in advance is crucial in narrowing your focus.
7) Discover tripadvisor.com. It will become an INVALUABLE TOOL in your research…she will become a friend. Not just ANY friend, your BFF. You will use her, seek her opinion often, and as a matter of fact, you will not book a trip without her from your first meeting until the end of time. Or beyond. You will want to give her surcies, write her love letters, and make out with her for HOURS (uh oh, I’m channeling PW)…but then you will remember tripadvisor is just a website. A reeeally GREAT website! And you’ll be embarrassed you said all that gooey stuff (but you won’t take it back because if T.A. was a person, you’d want to do all that and more).
8) Pull the trigger and MAKE YOUR DECISION. No matter how difficult this is…in spite of the self-imposed pressure you’re putting on yourself for this to be the trip of a lifetime…make the flippin’ decision. The rest is downhill from there.
9) Hypothetically speaking, if you’re looking for: private, all-inclusive, beach front, SPECTACULAR UNSURPASSED BEAUTY AND SERVICE, choose a place like Hermitage Bay.
10) Consult luxurylinks.com, and if the moon is in the Seventh House And Jupiter aligns with Mars, you will save money. Enough to pay for a kidney transplant (or at least hair extensions).
a) After you do a little happy dance round-off, back handspring WIN your auction, return to Robin’s Pensieve and thank her profusely for i) providing a GREAT public service with this article; ii) helping you plan the PERFECT anniversary trip; iii) thumping your spouse in the head to get the ball running; iv) suggesting the time and the place to propagate the human race.
Homework–well done–WILL.PAY.OFF.
Juicy details to follow soon ;).
Okay, I’m off to thump a head. Our 20th is in three years. It will take us that long to save for Paris.
What, did you get married when you were 12?
OK, missed the 20th, but it’s 3 years till the 25th. God bless you for arming me!
Good timing Robin! I need to plan for the perfect fifteenth anniversary trip. I will most certainly check out your ideas (but I only have 7 months to do it, I’m a slacker).
waah. i’ve only been married 4 1/2 years. either this gives me LOTS and LOTS of time to plan, or i’m gonna have to do a pre-emptive strike and go for the 5th. oops. better hurry. that’s april!
weird, you’re not showing up in bloglines as updated. but clearly you are.
i love tripadvisor. i love it. i trust it, and i love most of all reading the entries from the really crabby people who expect five-star service at three-star hotels.
our 10th is next year. i suppose we should plan something spectacular… but given that our honeymoon was hiking in the woods (two weeks after the wedding–we had to go back to work in between) someplace fancy would be quite unlike us.
Why do I suddenly hear 70’s porn music playing in the back ground. Juicy details you say? Bow-chicka-bow-bow.
Hulagirl, See? Pensieve is all about public service ;). Now that I’ve got you thinkin’ about it, the ball’s rollin’ :).
Lisa, you are my new BFF :D.
Sandy, 25 is five years bettah!! You go, girl!
Jenn, 15 is a good one, too; we went to The Homestead in Virginia. It was a.m.a.z.i.n.g.!
Janet, DON’T do a trip like this NOW (unless $$$ is no object :/), but DO do something special :). If you do it now, what will you have to look forward to? Then again, if we could…I sure would like to make this a recurring trip!
Laurie, our honeymoon was in the mountains–Asheville and Highlands, NC. Seems like we only had about four nights b/c my husband had to get back to worth.
But, oh, my…those four nights…! 😉
Nikki, keep in mind, I’M an open book; my husband? if you look back a few posts, you’ll see where he reined me in, lol. He likes to keep “stuff” in the vault. Believe me, though…I’ll creep up to the “line” and stick my pinky toe over ;).
Does it work for the 10th too?
I love tripadvisor.com – LOVE. And funny, at first I thought that said “luxurydrinks!” Must have been the power of suggestion!
So what do I do next year for 30th?!
Kar ~ s u r e :).
Tiggerlane, hehe, well, I guess that picture was messin’ with ya.
Chris ~ if this works for a ten-year, it should work three times as well for a 30th!!!
lol robin…. we’re already so geriatric, the question really remains if we will MAKE it to 20….. so 5 (or maybe 10) might have to do 😉
I’m going to start standing on the freeway offramp and ask for money.. ha ha ha
LOVE it !
Hmm, I have 18 months to plan for 10…
fantastic idea 🙂
Great advice! I will be bookmarking this for my 20th in 4 1/2 years.
Hey, we went to Asheville on our honeymoon, too! Just for a couple of days on our way from MD to TX, and it would have only been one day if the van we were driving hadn’t broken down. Hmm, I must share our honeymoon story some day on my blog.