Packing for Our Honeymoon – Part 1

We leave for our honeymoon in less than 2 weeks!! I can't believe it. I kind of want time to slow down a bit so I can fully wrap my head around this trip before it happens. I want to be sure to savor every moment.

We are taking our honeymoon in Turkey. Our good friends, Mine and Colin, are getting married there in July, so we extended our stay to make a nice, long vacation out of it. We'll be staying at an all-inclusive resort on the beach in Antalya for the first half and then soaking in the culture and big city life of Istanbul during the second half. It's the best of both worlds, if you ask me.

I don't know if I've ever gone on a two-week vacation before. Packing has me pretty baffled. To be honest, I haven't given it a lot of thought yet, but I promised myself that I would be packed at least one day early, to limit stress, so the wheels have started turning.

First things first: Buy a bigger suitcase. I realized that all of the luggage we have is fairly small, aside from one rolling duffle. That was just not going to do. One "perk" of international flights is that you still get to check a bag for free. And by "free", I clearly mean it's included somewhere in those 4 digit ticket prices...shudder.

But I used my best penny-saving skills and waited until I received a 30% off coupon from Kohl's. Combined with their 40% off sale, I got this bad boy for $85. Not too shabby.

(Stella might think she's coming with us.)

Next Up: Online research. I love articles about different ways to mix and match clothing to make various outfits. I especially like when it's geared towards traveling, so things like wrinkle-ability and comfort are considered. I stumbled upon this great example of things to pack and how to wear them. It's actually built as 2 examples, but one is for a week at the beach and the other is for a week of city travel - the perfect combo for me!

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Find What You Like: Pin, Pin, Pin Away! I used my style board on Pinterest before shopping for our vacation to Santa Fe last fall, and it worked really well. I decided to create a new board solely for style ideas for our Turkey trip. (It's here if you'd like to see it.) I just browsed around and pinned things that caught my eye. There ended up being a lot of common themes in what I chose, both in style and color. I've heard that packing in one main color scheme is useful for traveling, because it makes mixing and matching easier. Plus, reusability is key when you don't have access to laundry facilities. Or unlimited luggage.

I tagged a lot of turquoise/mint/coral, as well as blue/orange, and bit of coral/black. Denim shorts in various colors, maxi skirts, and sheer tops made many appearances. Stacks of varying gold bracelets and large, colorful stones popped up as accessories of choice. And peachy-pink sandals were pinned more than once. Here are some of my favorites.

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Next I need to assess what I already have, decide what I'd like to add, make a shopping list, and hit the stores. Sounds like a good time to me!