In Western cultures the honeymoon is a transition between a couple's wedding and the time they settle into everyday married life. The modern honeymoon is usually a dyadic event that enables the bride and groom to be alone with one another, away from family and friends and often in a special place. In many cases the honeymoon site is kept secret by the couple, and they often steal away after the wedding ceremony to embark on their private trip. In the contemporary Western stereotype, the husband and wife engage in seemingly endless sexual and interpersonal intimacies and are free from everyday responsibilities. It is a phase of marriage, albeit brief, during which the two direct all of their energies to one another and to the uniqueness of their relationship. The modern honeymoon is the ultimate dyadic experience, to use the term of our analysis.

Although contemporary Mormon fundamentalists generally follow Western cultural traditions, honeymoons vary across and within families. However, the special challenge for the fundamentalist couple is how to achieve a unique dyadic relationship on the honeymoon, and simultaneously maintain dyadic and family communal relationships with other wives. In other words, is the honeymoon a strictly dyadic event, with the couple completely cut off from other members of a plural family?