We always wanted to do a cross-country roadtrip as our honeymoon. It's the same as my parents did actually, & my husband loved the idea just as quickly as I always had. He excitedly asked if I would want to do that ourselves, before I ever got to finish explaining that yes, I did! So great and easy to be on the same page.
But my parents proved to be absolutely neglectful about so much of our engagement alone, that I have never even spoken with either of them about any of our honeymoon thoughts. Now, after 11 years of marriage, & even 3 years of official legal paperwork later... It's mostly me & my mom still fighting about all things wedding. The odd thing is, we otherwise have a great relationship in almost all other areas I can think of.
At no point have we been able afford the money or time to do anything for a honeymoon, let alone a cross-country roadtrip.
Even after we finally got the legal documents taken care of, our "honeymoon" was just spending the next day all alone together, hanging out at home, sleeping, & eating lots of leftover cake. (That my mom wanted to "save" for the following year, so my husband & I promised each other to eat all of it before she could get any to do such a thing with. Gross!) While my feelings have persisted all this time, I do remember having a conversation with my husband that day, that I felt bad I couldn't provide for us to "do more" & "have a real honeymoon," "so, this is our honeymoon." We are at least both big homebodies, and obviously love spending time together, so it was nice to (tentatively) rely on not having any interruptions, & we didn't. So it was just us at home, but we were just happy to be legally done with it all & left alone. So we accepted that.
...but ever since then, anytime we go anywhere important, my mom keeps playing it up, getting super excited, trying to celebrate everything "it'll be a honeymoon!" (We live in NJ for distance reference.)
- A weekend trip to Otakon, an anime convention in Washington D.C., via MegaBus. It was only the 2 of us because 2 other friends backed out due to cost.
- A Game Grumps Live Show on the boardwalk, squeezed in right before he had to go to work.
- A Broadway play that was closing soon. Which is only a 45-minute $12 bus ride, 20mi away. Not *that* special around here. IMAX theatres are rarer.
- A long day drive to the other end of the state because it was the soonest DMV appointment for an emergency.
That last one was a year ago. I thought maybe she would stop, as they were getting farther & farther away from any kind of "special vacation" even. But...
Last month, I got accepted to go to Vancouver for the SIGGRAPH conference in August. The ticket is normally $1000, but since I was accepted for free, even though I have to pay for my own travel & accommodations, we're also paying for a ticket for my husband to come with me, for all the reasons: He's flown several times before; I have never. He's been to Canada at least once; I've never left the US at all. & luckily, his field of expertise is adjacent to mine, so it's also relevant to him. But this is a business trip. Sorry, but I would have never picked Vancouver for a honeymoon, let alone Canada. It does look beautiful, we're staying at the 2nd top luxury hotel, & we are counting on it being a very cool vacation! But this isn't a honeymoon by any means. I will also be with other colleagues, & literally have hours I have to report to work at the conference.
And now my mom won't stop calling it a honeymoon, even though I have told her to. She told her aunt and sister and a couple brothers and I don't even know what other extended family yesterday, that we're finally taking a honeymoon to Vancouver. To which, of course, they were confused but happily surprised and trying to tell me that's nice & all, when I have no idea how to answer that!
tl;dr: After 11 years of marriage - Why would a business trip be a honeymoon??? How can I ever get my mom to stop calling this business trip a honeymoon???