Candles, rose petals, satin, succulent foods, perfume—you’re probably already familiar with all of these time-honored ingredients for creating a romantic mood on your honeymoon. But candles, rose petals, and other sensual ingredients only go so far. The real key to creating a romantic honeymoon is to spend time celebrating your relationship and your new life together as a married couple. After all, romance is more about the heart than the body. That doesn’t mean you should put the candles away, but start setting the mood early by reveling in your relationship. Here are five ideas to get you started. 1. Explore uncharted territory Intimacy is a key ingredient for creating a romantic mood. Most of the time couples are friends, or they think they are friends, before they get married. After they get married, somehow, they lose their friendship
What is a friend?  A Friend is somebody you know.  You know.  You know people on different levels: some casually only by their names, some personally, and then some intimately.  The friend that you know intimately should be your mate.  Someone wrote, “Have you ever noticed most people end up marrying their best friend?”  That should tell us something.  If a husband or wife has a friend better than the spouse, they’re in trouble.  This is why so many bosses run away with their secretaries and husbands run away with their wife’s best friend.  They have gotten to know each other and become close, intimate friends. 

Intimate does not exclusively refer to sexual relationship, although that is included: but intimacy in a friendship means a close relationship.  Intimacy is having a close relationship with someone who deeply loves and appreciates you for all you are, regardless of your shortcomings and failures.  It is unconditional.  There are many marriages that operate on conditional love.  They are based on conditions like, “I’ll love you if you get me that living room suite, or if you give me sex when I want to have it.”   Its most basic sense, intimacy is about revealing our interior selves to another person—the part of ourselves that we normally hide from others. When we do this, we honor the other person as someone we cherish and trust. Since it’s often difficult to start sharing in this way, a game or book of questions can help. The classic game of relationship questions is the Ungame, while the classic questions book is (appropriately enough) The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock. Each of these products contains hundreds of questions on topics ranging from ethics (“What would you do if . . . ?”) to feelings and ideas. These are just two of many similar products that you can use in almost any setting—even in the car or airplane on the way to your honeymoon destination. 2. Combine Your Photo Albums Buy your first photo album together, if you don't get one at your wedding. Bring out your photo albums and choose the best photos of each other from your dating days to put in your new album—it's a great way to relive old memories. 3. Write a Dream Letter Write letters to each other about your dreams for your marriage. What do you hope your marriage will look like in ten, twenty, or thirty years? Exchange the letters on the first day of your marriage, and then save them to read on your wedding anniversary. 4. Leave Memory Notes Everywhere Nothing creates a romantic mood better than remembering your best moments together as a couple. Purchase some small notepaper or post-it notes and spend some time digging up your favorite memories of your spouse. How did you meet? How did your first kiss come about? What is the goofiest thing he or she ever did? When was your spouse there for you when you needed him or her the most? Then spend some time thinking of the memories you’d most like to share with your spouse over the course of your marriage. Write these all down on the note paper, and hide them all over the place at your honeymoon destination (on the pillow, in the luggage, in the rental car, etc.).  5. Share the Love The funny thing about love is you get more by giving it away. That's as true for newlyweds as for anyone else, so find ways to share your love with others. Start by committing random acts of kindness—both toward each other and complete strangers. Visit the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation web page for inspiration (http://www.actsofkindness.org/). One of our favorite stories there is about a young woman who was caught in the rain when a complete stranger gave her his own umbrella. When she asked how she would return it to him, he just smiled and walked away. Creating great memories like that adds a magical twist to your honeymoon.