The day after his first date together with his now-wife Emily Austin, in 2019, Robert Lipman set off for a visit to the Maldives. “I tried to text her throughout in the hope that she was still interested in me,” says Robert, who works in development advertising for a credit-card firm. “But I made a promise, because I already knew she was the one: I’m taking her back here someday.”
Six and a half years later, he made good on that promise—the Seattle-based couple flew collectively to the beautiful archipelago in January 2026 to get married. Their beachside elopement within the South Asian paradise was dealt with by resort workers and bounced off a typical occasion bundle, however that’s the place any sense of conference ends: Robert and Emily plotted and paid for their marriage ceremony and four-country, three-week-long honeymoon (not counting meals and actions) by utilizing bank cards factors. Ahead, the newlyweds clarify why such a celebration was the precise match for them, what sort of analysis and planning it required, and the way different {couples} can pull off such a feat.
Decide forward on the journey plan
Robert proposed on the acclaimed northern California restaurant Harbor House Inn in 2024. Within weeks of their engagement, they agreed {that a} conventional celebration wasn’t fairly proper for them. “Honestly, the thought of planning a big wedding with all of our friends and family, with me as the center of attention, seemed a bit daunting,” says Emily. “Early on, I brought up the idea of just the two of us getting married somewhere beautiful, with less pressure.”
Robert had spent the previous couple of years accruing bank card factors—extra on that under—within the hopes of planning a blowout honeymoon expertise for the wanderlusting couple, who had beforehand traveled collectively to romantic locations like Japan and the south of France. They knew they needed a part of that journey to contain a great stretch within the Maldives, fulfilling Robert’s early imaginative and prescient, however amid their marriage ceremony venue analysis, he says, “There was just this light bulb moment of, What if we just did it there? I reached out to the resorts and asked, ‘Is this something you do?’”
The response blew his thoughts. The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands despatched over their occasion packages, and the couple couldn’t consider their eyes. The ceremony, officiant, dinner, manufacturing on the seaside or a resort location of their selecting, flowers, cake, champagne, and pictures had been all included for lower than what economic system flights themselves may cost a little (simply $3,500 to start out). “There was this moment of, Wait, what? You’re telling me you can do all this for that amount of money in one of the most spectacular places on earth?” Robert says. After assurance that they might in fact personalize the bundle to their personalities—and that their family members had been cool with the plan, so long as one other celebration would occur at house someday—the couple was all in.