Newly married couples are now putting about 26% of their total wedding budget toward the honeymoon, more than double the roughly 10% share planners traditionally recommended, according to Honeyfund’s 2026 Honeymoon & Wedding Trends Report. The average honeymoon now runs about $6,500.
The shift is also changing where couples go. Japan cracked the top three honeymoon destinations for the first time ever this year, landing behind only Hawaii and Italy — and knocking Mexico out of the top three for the first time in eight years, per the same report.
Key Points
- Couples are allocating roughly 26% of their wedding budget to the honeymoon, up sharply from the traditional 10% guideline
- The average honeymoon now costs about $6,500, according to Honeyfund’s own data
- Japan reached the No. 3 spot for honeymoon destinations for the first time, behind Hawaii and Italy, while Mexico dropped out of the top three for the first time in eight years
- Roughly 23% of honeymoons stayed domestic, and about 31% of weddings this year were destination weddings
- One in four couples reported using AI tools somewhere in their wedding or honeymoon planning
Honeyfund, the registry and travel-fund platform that produces the annual report, has tracked the honeymoon-spending shift for two decades. “For 20 years, we’ve watched honeymoons evolve from a post-wedding tradition into a core part” of how couples invest in their relationship, said Sara Margulis, the company’s CEO and co-founder, in the report announcement. Margulis said couples are increasingly prioritizing “memorable experiences” and locking in travel plans earlier in the wedding-planning process.
Japan’s rise tracks with a broader travel trend: the country has drawn record numbers of American visitors this year, driven by a weak yen, direct flight growth and interest in everything from Kyoto’s temples to Tokyo’s food scene. For newlyweds, that combination of favorable exchange rates and a bucket-list itinerary appears to be outweighing the shorter flight times and lower costs of long-standing favorites like Mexico and the Caribbean.
The bigger story in the data is how central the honeymoon has become to overall wedding planning. A trip that used to get squeezed into whatever budget was left over after the venue, catering and dress is now one of the first line items couples plan for — and, increasingly, one they’re willing to spend the most on. With destination weddings now making up close to a third of all weddings, for a growing share of couples the wedding trip and the honeymoon trip are starting to blur into a single, bigger travel plan.
