Take her somewhere special or you'll pay a hefty price down the road. Make it extra special and you'll reap the benefits immediately.

You need more than a day to celebrate love so I’ve decided to buck tradition and declare this Valentine’s Week. Therefore, through Friday I’m blogging about romance travel.

Probably the toughest thing for a travel specialist to deal with is waiting for a client to return home from a trip he booked.

Alan Whitt

Talk about nervous, it’s even worst when it’s a destination wedding or a honeymoon.

Think about it for a minute. You’re entrusted with one of a couple’s most important moments in their new life … a signature moment. A great honeymoon can jumpstart a great wedding. A bad experience has the opposite affect.

Who wants that kind of pressure?

You’re out of the loop, so you wonder if the moonlight dinner you ordered went off OK … or if the excursions you arranged were as good as advertised …or whether or not uncle Ned made of a fool of himself (again) and disrupted the wedding.

You don’t call, because you never want to interject yourself into private or family time. You figure that if something goes wrong they will call … but you never really relax until you hear it for yourself.

When you hear the word “Perfect” you finally exhale. Whew!

The last thing you want to hear is … “I’ll get back with you later, I’m with my divorce attorney.”

Uh oh!

Destination weddings and honeymoons are big business. Folks may scrimp on regular vacations, but any guy with even half a romantic streak has to know that his bride has been dreaming about this moment probably from the time she hit puberty.

Maybe even as far back as when her Ken & Barbie dolls hooked up in marital bliss.

Now it’s time for her Ken to step up and come up with an original honeymoon.

On that note, here are five honeymoon planning sins every groom needs to avoid:

5. Never let the kids tag along, even if this is your second, third or fourth wedding. You’ll get enough bedtime interruptions when you return home. Map out a  family vacation later, but this time belongs to the couple.

4. Never surprise her with a honeymoon, even if you think you know that she will love it. That’s a decision for the two of you. Plan your honeymoon together, just as you should every important decision through the years.

3. Never tell her that it doesn’t matter where you go, and leave it to her. That’s telling her that you don’t care, and akin to telling her to buy her own birthday present.

2. Never take her to a sporting event for your honeymoon … even if its the Super Bowl or the World Series. Taking a four-hour break during the honeymoon is a bit different than building it around the event.

1. Never take her to a place you’ve taken another woman. She may not find out immediately, but women have memories like elephants and if you slip up and spill the beans even 15 years down the road … well, can you spell D-O-G-H-O-U-S-E?

ROMANCING THE WEEK

Monday: I’m rich and famous … if only while writing this blog

Tuesday: Gulp! Honeymoon pressure’s on both travel agents and grooms

Wednesday: A sexy cruise provides many opportunities for ‘romance’

Thursday: Romancing the continent, Africa is a great travel destination

Friday: Do-it-yourself honeymoons? Call your travel agent instead