It’s so rare to get all of our closest friends together, and we love them all so much, that we took them on honeymoon with us.
I know that isn’t quite traditional, but we’re sort of used to doing things our own way. (My stag party was evidence of this, as most brides-to-be don’t take their fiancé along on their hen-do, so you shouldn’t be surprised!) We decided to stay in Cornwall for the first week of our honeymoon rather than rushing straight off. A few of us rented a cottage together in Flushing from Martin at Creekside Cottages, and everyone else made sure to stay nearby.
I forgot to take any photos of the cottage but it was lovely, and perfectly located; just around the corner from the Flushing ferry and opposite the village shop. Most importantly though, it had its own decking that led directly onto the sea. It was our own fault really that we were invaded by Northern pirates.
I really don’t think these two are taking the invasion seriously enough, to be honest
Though they soon summoned the troops
Rob quickly defected, and joined us on land
Having no other means of defending ourselves, we were forced to deploy scraps of bread into the air to lure in a mob of seagulls. Mick was not happy about this.
We had dinner at a different restaurant each night, from the Pandora in Mylor to the Cornish Range in Mousehole, and there were around twenty people sitting down together each time. It was just the start we wanted to married life. We both have a number of different friendship groups, whether from school, university or work, so seeing them all meeting and getting on was fantastic.
We went on a few cliff-top walks and enjoyed the spectacular views, as well as getting a bit of climbing in. This is just around the corner from Mousehole; St Michael’s Mount in the background
Yes, I’m climbing a cliff in a tweed mini skirt. No, it was not easy.
We also enjoyed the Maritime Museum in Falmouth. It’s very child-friendly, so we had a great time
We also spent a lot of time on ferries and water taxis, which are a fantastic way of getting around Cornwall. The ferries have fixed routes and times, but the water taxis will collect you any time, and drop you off anywhere there’s a jetty.
Here we are, all enjoying a water taxi together
It sort of looks like everyone had different expectations of that particular day out. Expectations that were NOT being met.
The best day was definitely the beach day. We got a water taxi across to St Mawes, stocked up on picnic items and champagne, then walked across the headland. When we arrived at the top of the cliff, we found that the path down to our favourite secluded beach had, er, fallen into the sea. Some enterprising locals had tied a rope to the bushes though, so we abseiled down. Being the only people stupid enough to do so on that particular day, we had the entire beach to ourselves. Heaven.
We drank champagne and sunbathed on the rocks
I got a bit more climbing-in-a-skirt practice in
We went swimming in the sea (freezing, but exhilarating!), then polished off our picnic in the sunshine. Once the champagne had run out and the sun was beginning to set, we made our way back across the headland. Lush spring hedgerows lined the dusty lane, and verdant rolling fields stretched to either side. A water taxi collected us, and dropped us off at our cottage.
Getting to spend the first week of our honeymoon with our friends was an experience we’ll always treasure. The memories will stay with us for our whole lives, though of course we plan on repeating the event as frequently as possible! That wasn’t quite the end of it though. Did I mention that my Tom is pretty wonderful? Once or twice maybe. Well, he’d organised another week’s honeymoon for us, but we needed our passports for this one. More details in my next post!
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