DC NearlyWeds: Not Bad, Not Bad At All

The unfortunate thing about a long engagement is that after an initial flurry of wedding planning, there's a long lull where there's no need to plan much of anything. After booking the venue (which for us included catering), the florist, the band, and the photographer, there just isn't that much else to do at the moment, except for drooling over wedding magazines and blogs.

And then there's the honeymoon. Many people have said that honeymoon planning is the best part of wedding planning, and I have to say they've got a strong case. Who wouldn't want to look at travel brochures depicting palm trees swaying in the wind all day?

The nice thing about marrying a Brit is that they travel everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. British papers are constantly carrying travel supplements that say things like "See Roman ruins in Libya!" or "Why not try Bhutan for this year's holiday!" I had been thinking that we'd go to the Caribbean or Mexico, but Mr. C-Ville suggested the Maldives, which is a country made up of a series of coral atolls in the Indian Ocean. Since our wedding date falls smack in the middle of hurricane season, and because it would be a schlep for us to get from Mexico back to London, where we're headed after the wedding, I thought it was an excellent idea. Check out the picture up above--can you beat that for a beach paradise?

We got a pretty good deal from a British tour operator (the one good thing about the credit crunch is there are deals available). We'll be able to sit on the beach and do nothing for a week.