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The guy and I are huge Harry Potter nerds so, naturally, September 1st is a fun day for us because it’s Hogwarts back to school.
When we first started dating I still hadn’t read all of the books the whole way through and had only seen the later four movies maybe a few times through – now I’m the bigger Potter head, haha.
As we moved closer to our wedding and subsequent honeymoon in 2017, we spent a lot of time trying to figure out where to celebrate our first trip as newlyweds and ended up deciding on a trip to Universal Studios in Orlando. It was truly a wonderful trip. Having gotten so engrossed in the books, movies, a few podcasts that I still follow pretty closely, and just the world in general, walking through the entry to Diagon Alley, seeing Hogwarts for the first time, and riding the Hogwarts Express early brought me to tears. What they have created is nothing short of amazing. To be able to feel in every way like you had stepped into another space and time was truly magical and we’re both eager to get back as soon as we can.
On September 1st that trip is naturally where my mind goes each year. What Potter fan doesn’t still secretly wish that our Hogwarts letter will come telling us how to prepare our school things and requesting our presence at the start of school feast on the first of September. I’m twenty years past my letter-getting age and am not ashamed to admit I still wish I could go to Hogwarts.
Today I watched The Sorcerer’s Stone and listened to Hedwig’s Theme while flipping through pictures and trying to figure out when we can take our next trip. To all who enjoy Harry Potter, happy first day of school – maybe next year our letters will come!
Until then, enjoy some memories of our honeymoon to Orlando. Our wedding was in June, but we chose to wait until a few weeks before Christmas to take our honeymoon since neither of us are really crowd people. It was a special treat to see Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley all decked out for the holiday season – and it was also nice to travel to Florida when the weather wasn’t quite so hot and sticky.
We stayed in an onsite property, so we were automatically able to enter one of the parks an hour early each morning. This gave us an opportunity to see an almost empty park and get some really great photos. We stayed at the Cabana Bay Beach Resort in a suite with a small kitchenette – microwave, sink, fridge, and some extra counter space, really – which allowed us to cut down on some of the additional costs of eating in the parks or other surrounding restaurants because we were able to prepare breakfasts and snacks in our room to get us carry us through more of the day.
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