Honeymoon Story: Kasi & Chuck
“Just go with it” may sound like a simple ism to some, but could serve as vacation saving advice to others when traveling abroad in 2022. We recently spoke with Honeymoon Wishes couple Kasi and Chuck and learned this short but moving phrase after their 10 day honeymoon vacation covering England, Ireland, and Scotland. Read along to discover more about their amazing experiences and how Honeymoon Wishes helped make a few of their dreams come true…
So first off, if you’d like to share a little bit of your love story with us, we’d love to know more about you two.
Photo Credit: Kasi
Kasi: So out here in Texas, barbecue is a big thing and we met at a barbecue cook off. I’m a volunteer for a small committee of a livestock show and rodeo, and as part of that committee we host a barbecue cook off. Chuck was one of the cooks a year I was pit bossing. I actually got talking to Chuck here through some mutual friends of ours and funny enough he proposed at the same barbecue cook off five years later to the day.
That is so sweet, bonding over barbecue. So how long have you been together and married?
Kasi: We got married in November 2021 and have been together seven years.
Congratulations and many blessings to you both. We wish you many more years together. So, what honeymoon destination did you both decide on and why?
Kasi: We decided on London, England; Dublin, Ireland; Kilkenny, Ireland; and Edinburgh, Scotland. We really wanted to do the UK and Ireland because neither of us had been there and it was somewhere we both wanted to see together.
Chuck: My family is from Scotland, so the idea for me was to kind of go to the Motherland of where my name came from. So I got my fill there.
That’s awesome, we can only imagine what that would feel like for you, and are glad that you both were able to share that experience together. How long was your stay since you did go to a few places? How did you map that out?
Kasi: So we worked with Bliss Honeymoons and a travel agent there. We had an idea of what we wanted to do and she helped us hone down the locations. She helped us pick cities and where to stay. We talked about what fit our budget and what we could realistically do, so we ended up being there a total of 10 days and spent about 2 to 3 days in each city.
That’s awesome. What was it like working with a travel agent to help you plan a honeymoon?
Kasi: They were amazing to work with. Cally is my personal hero, especially with all the Covid stuff going on. Our honeymoon was amazing, but in the times we’re living in, things were looking great when we booked it… but the day we landed, the Omicron variant was announced.
Chuck: So It was like, boom. We were being “chased by Omicron,” is what we kept saying.
Kasi: Yup, all of the rules changed right before we got to the next city. So we had to keep up with constantly changing requirements. Cally was great to help us through that and told us who to get in contact with if we had any questions, it was lovely. As far as booking everything, she was great at giving us sample hotels. We had about an hour long phone call with her to get started about our likes, dislikes, interests, and what we wanted out of the trip. Based on that, she kind of built our whole honeymoon for us. Which was very, very nice as a bride going from all of the wedding planning. I am not a planner, it drives me nuts, so for somebody to give me three options and to just pick one, was great.
“…she kind of built our whole honeymoon for us. Which was very, very nice as a bride going from all of the wedding planning. I am not a planner… so for somebody to give me three options and to just pick one, was great.”
That’s great to hear. We’re so glad you had that support and mentioned something we’d like to ask a bit more about. Traveling, especially with Covid… given the safety protocols that have been in place, did you as a couple or individually feel safe traveling and were there any extra measures that you took just to keep peace of mind?
Kasi: We felt pretty safe the whole time, wore masks, and ended up being booked where we had an entire three seat row to ourselves most of the flight. We didn’t really do anything extra other than what was expected from the airline and places we visited during our trip.
Chuck: They didn’t have a problem with people being unmasked outside. When we went inside somewhere we would be masked, unless we were eating or drinking.
Kasi: Everywhere we went, whether we were running into a coffee shop, we had to put our names and a phone number down so they could contact us in case somebody had tested positive that day.
Chuck: We didn’t get called, but we did test a lot.
Kasi: The testing requirements were strict and got stricter as our honeymoon went on. When our plane left the US, the requirements were that we would have to test day two in London and then get a PCR before we flew back to the states. But when we landed, our tests all had to be PCR. By the time we had gotten to the last stop on our trip, there was a quarantine rule. So we had to change everything we planned in Scotland at the very last minute because we didn’t know if we were going to be out of quarantine or not. We had some tours booked that we ended up having to cancel, but it ended up working out for the best because we got to see a lot of Edinburgh that we wouldn’t have gotten to see otherwise.
Photo Credit: Kasi
And we’re glad to hear that everyone stayed safe and healthy while traveling. So travel restrictions and safety precautions aside, let’s get into some of the fun stuff! Could you tell us what were some favorite activities that you both took part in during the trip? We saw some really cool items on your registry.
Kasi: Our registry was set up for things we wanted to do and I’d say we got to do about half. But because of Covid, for example, our bus tour of London ended up getting canceled. But we were able to use those funds to do The Harry Potter Studio Tour instead. My heart, oh my gosh, I died! I was in pure Heaven!
Chuck: She is all about Harry Potter and castles… She wanted to stay in a castle, and we did that. It’s funny, I was actually joking about the fact that what got canceled for us would’ve been kind of stuffy. So it seemed like that getting canceled and getting to go do the Harry Potter Tour, I think I like that more than what we had planned in the first place.
Kasi: I was a little sad about the London In A Day tour getting canceled just because it’s so many of the London highlights that you’re supposed to see when you’re there. Harry Potter was a thing we didn’t think we were going to get to do, but we really wanted to, so it really worked out for the best! That was my favorite thing. And then getting to see a castle in every place that we stayed at was wonderful.
Chuck: Of the things we planned, I would have to say, it was the Edinburgh Castle. Being able to touch it. They made their own mortar, so there was like seashells and stuff in it. The stones weren’t all the same size. One of the experiences that I thought was really awesome was in Edinburgh as well, we had gone up towards the castle and were doing some shopping. Everything kind of stopped, we walked out of this little shop at dusk and all of a sudden, it’s snowing. There’s a place in Edinburgh…
Kasi: It’s what Diagon Alley is said to have been based off of. Like where she (J.K. Rowling) kind of got the idea for it.
Chuck: Like the winding shops. It was funny because it wasn’t enough to be “a pain” snow, but enough to where it was like, “Hey it’s snowing!” And everyone was kind of just looking up. It was starting to get dusk and all of a sudden it started snowing. And everyone kind of just stopped. That right there was just awesome to me.
Truly a royal experience, castles everywhere sound amazing. And as Harry Potter fans, we’re a little jealous you got to do that in London too! How would you both say the registry improved your wedding gifting experience?
Kasi: Oh it was very nice. We’ve been together for so long, we knew we didn’t want to do a traditional registry because we have our house, we have things set up the way we like. We don’t need a random mixer or pots and pans. We wanted to do something different, we wanted to do a honeymoon that we would remember.
Chuck: We wanted experiences over things, and this made it a lot easier to do those experiences.
Kasi: Yes, it was very nice to be able to send people a link to pick whatever they want. And it was really nice that we were able to break up the prices. It was nice for me to be able to tell everybody, “Hey go to this link, you could pick out what you want to gift us” instead of them donating to a general crowd fund.
Chuck: Yeah, they got to see what we were planning on doing. So it was more interactive for them.
Kasi: They were able to gift us an experience. And they had something to ask about when we got back from the Honeymoon.
_“We wanted experiences over things, and this made it a lot easier to do those experiences.” _
So great to hear, and that’s part of what makes these kinds of registry so special is that people still feel like they’re contributing to something instead of just giving you cash.
Kasi & Chuck: Exactly.
Photo Credit: Kasi
Beautiful moments you both shared. Do you have any advice or pointers that you would like to share with couples visiting or planning a honeymoon to a similar or the same destination?
Kasi: I guess just since it wasn’t part of our initial plan, the Harry Potter Studio Tour is definitely worth it if you’re going to London. And definitely make time for the two of you without having to rush off to your next scheduled activity.
Chuck: That is actually the part of some stuff being canceled that I liked. We had kind of jam packed it, and with stuff getting canceled and shifted around - we ended up having more free time. If we had done everything, we would’ve been running the whole time. It ended up being perfect for us. So, I’d say, be flexible. If something doesn’t happen the way you planned, just go with it.
Good advice to give, for honeymooning and life.
Kasi: So don’t be afraid to step out of your box and do something you never thought you were gonna do. And, don’t be afraid to drive.
Chuck: It’s not as hard as you’d think, but get an automatic. Because the stuff is on the other side for that too. A friend of a friend recommended we get an automatic because it would take a lot of stress off of driving on the other side of the road. And it did, oh it absolutely did.
From what it sounds like, you made it your own and you were able to do things that interested both of you in the locations that you went; which is awesome and makes us so happy too.
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