"How do you pay for a honeymoon before it happens? (Pre-paid
package tour or something?)"

Steve

Steve, what I meant is that we had the money to pay for our honeymoon
ahead of time without having to borrow or go in any debt. We hadn't
actually literally paid for all of our meal checks & tips, motels, gas,
etc before the fact.
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"Well, then, include us among the exceptions, also. DH and I both had
good jobs and were fortunate enough to be able to pay for our wedding
ourselves. It wasn't a lavish affair (the ceremony was held outdoors at
an overlook at the "PA Grand Canyon", and the reception afterwards was
held in a parish hall connected to a local Catholic church), and we paid
for things, little by little, starting a year before the event. At the
end of the reception, we gave the caterer a check for the balance, and
everything (except for wedding photos, which we paid for when we ordered
them later on) was done. My mom made my wedding dress, we bought our own
booze for the reception, and we got married in a very inexpensive area.
It was a wonderful party, and many of the guests still tell us--13 years
later--what a great time they had. Our honeymoon was a week-long road
trip from PA back down to Houston (we had driven up for the wedding),
with stops in the Poconos, Williamsburg, VA, and Memphis along the way.
No debts to pay off for us.
I just cannot fathom how/why people spend tens/hundreds of thousands of
dollars on *one* day..."

Mary

Mary, your wedding sounds quite similar to ours.
We also go married in Pa, although in a church rather than at Little
Grand Canyon.
And then we also drove to Texas, but to our new house outside Dallas.

We did have a formal church wedding complete with long white gown, 6
attendants, reception at the Shriner's social hall, etc.
But we also had been working for a while and had the money to pay for
everything ourselves and started planning and paying as we went along
for months in advance.
We also closed on our first home less than a month before the wedding,
so we did not want to go overboard for a wedding, but instead have the
money to buy all the things we wanted to get settled into our home.