Once you've mortgaged the rest of your life for the dress and the ceremony, made all sorts of promises in front of everyone you know and danced with your long-lost fifth cousin twice removed, you deserve a little time off to recuperate. It's called a honeymoon.

Your honeymoon is that wonderful period of grace between the fantasy of your wedding and the reality of simply being an old married couple. It's a time for the two of you to get to know each other as well as two people who are going to spend the next couple of days alone with only each other for company can. But not so alone that you can't ring for room service when you need it.

According to a recent survey by Modern Bride magazine, newlyweds are certainly not loathe to shell out when it comes to spending up on their honeymoon - on average, newlyweds spend $3,700 on their honeymoon. For the average wage earner, that's almost 10% of their annual income.

Honeymoon spending is high for a number of reasons. Firstly, for most of us it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to live it up, favoring luxurious resorts and exotic cruises over a two-star just-off-the-highway motel. And the honeymoon is generally not the time for going to stay with mad old Aunty Gladys who you haven't seen since you were five. No, honeymooners want their day in the sun, a time to luxuriate in the newness of coupledom and they are usually looking for something special. So if that means ordering that second bottle of champagne, or deciding on the lobster for dinner, most honeymooners don't give it a second thought.

To compile their list of Top 10 honeymoon destinations, the Modern Bride survey factored in romance, ambience, affordability, seclusion, culture and adventure amongst its list of important qualities. Here are the results for overall excellence:

1.Hawaii
2.Jamaica
3.Mexico
4.Tahiti
5.St Lucia
6.Italy
7.US Virgin Islands
8.Aruba
9.Las Vegas
10.Bermuda

While there are no real surprises on the list, the surprise is that there are not more distant, out-of-the-way places in the Top 10. Which only goes to prove that even honeymooners want value for money and the chance to explore new territory - but not too far from home. Of course, Italy is the one exception, but who couldn't imagine romantic visions of strolling through vineyards in Tuscany, or sipping grappa in a trattoria in Venice?

If your honeymoon is still in the planning phase, or even if you've already got your heart set on an exotic honeymoon destination, it's worth visiting Romantic Honeymoon Destinations. Although most of the destinations we've included are in the "let's max out the Amex card" type honeymoon, we've also included plenty of useful information for the more budget conscious "we smashed open the piggy bank to pay for this" honeymoon traveller in our Honeymoon Tips guide.

Just don't forget, it's YOUR honeymoon and one of the few chances most of us get to indulge a little. So whether that's the little village down the road you always wanted to visit or some exotic location, the most important honeymoon tip I can give you is HAVE FUN!

Bon voyage!