Honeymoon in Portugal

Alfama - Lisboa

Have you heard about Portuguese traditional music, the `fados´. These are lovely songs and music that talk about Portuguese peoples´love for their land and traditions. No wonder this is so, as Portugal is a fascinating country and the `pousadas´they have all over the country are a wonderful choice, if you want to stay a night or two in an idilic place, with beautiful scenery and exquisite traditional food.

There is a pousada for every taste : historical, with natural beauties or simply charming. They where built in the early 40´s using old building such as castles, convents, palace homes… They are located in ideal spots that will allow you to not only visit pintoresque towns and main cities like Lisbon and Porto, but also to enjoy outdoor activities such as trecking, golf or sea sports.

The ideal thing is to choose two or three `pousadas´per region, and stay one or two nights in each to get the feeling of the place. Moving around Portugal with a car is easy and probably the best way to visit this fascinating country.
To make life easier for you we have chosen a few pousadas you can stay but you must bear in mind there is over thirty of them, all beautiful and charming.

For lovers of nature, in the North region we have Säo Bento pousada, inside the national park of Pereda Geves, with incredible views over the Cavado river and Caniçada lagoon. In the city of Viana do Castelo there is the pousada of Monte de Santa Luzia, with magnificent views over the city and sea, and finally we have pousada de Santa Marinha, of great arquitectural interest as it is inside an Agustinian Convent of the XII century.

Pousada Santa Marihna

If you like historical sites, in the centre region, we have the palace of Queluz, which is now known as the pousada Dona Maria I, a castle the pousada De Castelo and a fortress , pousada Säo Filipe, with views over the Sado river estuary and Tröia Peninsula.

Pousada Säo Filipe

You might be looking forward to a beach holiday. I recommend the Algarve beaches (but not in the Summer as it gets overcrowded). In this region you might like to stay in the pousada Infante, in the city of Sagres.

As you can see Portugal has lots to offer and you will come back from your honeymoon feeling you have really gone back in time.

Don´t you love those lovely sunny Autumn mornings with the sun rays shinning on the tree leaves and bringing out all those gorgeous Autumn colours : browns, reds, oranges, yellows…?

I think the fall season is a wonderful time of the year to get married. Temperatures are still nice and nature is bloosoming with beauty.

It is harvest time and we can get a lot of ideas to decorate our wedding. Just imagine bright orange pumpkins, seeds, cones , wheat… as table arrangements. Mango colour tablecloths and small bouquets of wheat tied with orange and brown ribbons to the backs of the chairs. Wooden framed seat places and your guests table list hanging from a raffia background.

Over our heads hundreds of twinkling lights with orange and cream paper balloons. A table in the centre of the room with wooden farm boxes full of exciting favors for the guests to choose one. Just think of marmalade jars, natural soaps or seed bags all nicely presented and with a thank you tag, with the names of the bride and groom and the date.

I can envisage the bride. A vaporous dress, small flowers in her hair and a sunflowers bouquet. Just like a forest fairy. And the groom so handsome in his dark brown suit.

If you can´t have an outdoor wedding at least make sure that you have your photos taken in a park or a garden. A great idea would be to have an engagement session in the forest !

Photos: Style Me Pretty, Martha Stewart, The Bride’s Cafe

Ideal for lovers of nature, wildlife and adventure. The journey by car from Johannesburg, the capital, is an easy five hour drive. We can organize our own safari. We just need the car and to book in advance into the different lodges and campsites in the park. The Kruger Park is famous world wide because not only can you see the `big five´(lion, elephant, lepard, buffalo and rhino) but lots of other animals and plants. We will have to get up early, because the early hours of the morning and evening are the best to see the animals drinking at the water holes, we must bear in mind that we have to be back at the lodge before 6pm as you can be heavely fined for roaming the park after that hour.

Once back at the site we will get ready to enjoy an African sunset, one we will never forget for its stricking red colour, or just relax at the bar watching the nearby water holes and awaiting for the animals to come with our cameras ready.
A trip we will never forget!

We have all seen and heard in the news the terrible situación Japan is going through.

Today Beautiful Blue Brides will be joining the Bloggers Day of Silence to support the people of Japan.  Please join us in donating to the aids being gathered for this devastated nation via ShelterBox.
Thank you everyone

How did your love story begin?
In Beautiful Blue Brides we would love to hear all about it !!
The couple whose love story gets voted the most in Facebook will receive a voucher of 150 euros to spend on Azulsahara´s wedding invitations or accesories, we will also be giving a second voucher of 75 euros to spend on our wedding invitations or accesories for the story we in Beautiful Blue Brides choose to be the most original and funny.

Come on, have a go! The best stories will be published on our blog.

Click here to tell us your love story.

Our honeymoon is the perfect excuse to go on that trip we have always dreamt off. It is romantic, unforgettable, it is something we will always remember.

Where to go for our honeymoon?

Here in Beautiful Blue Brides we want to provide you with plenty of ideas so you can organize the perfect trip. You will be able to see other places and cultures, places you would have never thought existed….Where do we begin?

After all the haste and stress of the wedding, planning the honeymoon is a delightful way of switching off, something to enjoy.

To decide on where to go we can ask ourselves some questions that might help us:

1. Do we want to just relax or do we prefer some outdoor activities and a bit of adventure?
2. Enjoy the crowds and exoticism of a bazaar in Estambul or forget about everyone and just enjoy each others company on a heavenly island.
3. What do we enjoy doing as a couple? Trecking, surf, diving, mountain climbing, photography…
4. What do we like best? Nature, learning about other cultures and history, eating out or just go shopping !
5. Do we prefer to look after ourselves with nice healthy food, saunas and and massages ?

What we should bear in mind? :

1. The best time of the year to do the trip depending on the climate of the place we want to visit, crowds etc.
2. Should we just stick to one place or combine different places. Depending on the number of days we have and the place we are going to visit we can combine it with a short stop in another place on the way there.
3. How many days de we have? This is very important we cant decide to see all of China in two weeks as we will be busy traveling all day and won´t enjoy our honeymoon. We have to be realistic!
4. Last but not least is the budget we have. This is very important, we might not be able to go to the place we always dreamt off but we can look for other closer or less well known places that are equally incredible that we can afford.