Travel trends in recent years have focused more on connecting with the people who matter most to you, says Mitchell Fawcett of Goway Travel.bernard bodo/Getty Images
Alex Weston and her husband spent their honeymoon earlier this year like many other couples do – on a beach in Mexico, escaping the January cold and soaking up the sun. Their trip differed from a traditional honeymoon in only one small way: Weston’s best friend and her husband were right there next to them.
This kind of postnuptial trip, in which friends and family are invited to tag along for part or all of the vacation, is called a friendmoon.
The friendmoon trend is picking up steam, according to Mitchell Fawcett, vice-president of marketing at Goway Travel, an agency that offers customized trips.
Goway planned five friendmoons last year and 10 this year, for groups ranging from six to 13 people.
“Over the past five years, travel trends have very much been reshaped to focus more on experiences and connection with people who matter to you,” he said. “This feels like it has a lot of potential and I could see it really catching on.”
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Weston said she remembers visiting Playa Del Carmen with her friend, who was maid of honour at her wedding, back when they both were single.
“It was a fun full-circle moment to come back with our husbands now, on my honeymoon,” she said.
The newlyweds prioritized time alone together by arriving a few days earlier than their friends. After four days of one-on-one time, the other couple joined them for a week-long vacation.
“Once they came down, we got to go on excursions together, go into town and do dinners,” Weston said. “It made it more of a fun experience, having friends there.”
The pandemic led to a shift in values and priorities around weddings, just as it did for travel. Many couples are rejecting the concept of a big, traditional celebration, choosing instead to focus on what will create lasting memories with their closest loved ones.
In some cases, that looks like having a smaller wedding and putting money toward a more elaborate honeymoon.
“A group honeymoon is a pretty new concept, there’s not a strict set of rules that need to be followed or a strict set of expectations about who’s invited,” Fawcett said.
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After witnessing the amount of stress, work, time and money that went into their friends’ weddings, Elaisha Green and her husband decided to forgo a traditional celebration and get married on their Vancouver balcony, with only an officiant and two witnesses present.
They had their balcony ceremony in January and went on a week-long “minimoon” to Taipei shortly after. Then, in October, they embarked on what they considered to be their official honeymoon: a 10-day luxury cruise in Greece. They invited a total of 12 friends to tag along. But budgets, weddings and babies prevented most people from joining, Green said.
In the end, only two people joined the couple: one of Green’s close friends, who lives in Barcelona, along with her fiancé. Green said the trip was a great way to catch up and get to know her friend’s new partner, all while celebrating her own honeymoon.
“It still felt romantic and like a honeymoon because my husband and I were on a cruise, looking out at the ocean, getting little glasses of hot chocolate together and watching the water at night,” she said. “At the same time, it was also an extended hangout with a good friend.”
In addition to a shift in values, the friendmoon trend is likely being driven by the growing expense of travel.
“It’s an expensive world we live in right now,” Weston said. “If you can’t really afford to take the honeymoon and go on a friend trip in the same year, you get the best of both worlds in one trip.”
Travelling with a group, especially if you’re splitting accommodation costs by staying in an apartment or villa together, can be more affordable than paying for hotel rooms.
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While both Weston and Green made sure to have some alone time with their spouse, some newlyweds spend the entirety of their honeymoon among pals.
That includes Edmonton Oilers player Leon Draisaitl and his wife, Celeste Desjardins, who were joined by teammate Connor McDavid and wife Lauren Kyle McDavid on their honeymoon this past summer, according to photos posted on Instagram.
Of the friendmoons planned by Goway Travel, Fawcett said about half had allotted alone time for the couple at the beginning or end, while the other half included friends the entire time.
“Those are enthusiastic, tight friend groups that wouldn’t even need that extra time apart,” he said.
Ultimately, both brides said having friends join their honeymoon didn’t take away from the special time with their partner.
“Being able to be in a vacation bubble with friends, while also celebrating my marriage to my husband, was really nice,” Green said. “As much as spending that much time alone with my husband would’ve been great, we’re social creatures, so it was really fun to do it with friends.”