After the lunch, the newly-weds departed for a short honeymoon in Bala in north Wales, where ‘they found sunshine and fair weather’. According to Lionel Hill, their transport was Coetmore's unreliable old Wolseley Hornet. At the beginning of August, they returned to London to begin their life together in Coetmore's flat in Belsize Lane. In the meanwhile, Moeran's mother moved out of the Gravel Hill house in Kington and went to live with William Graham at his rectory in Ledbury.

Until he met and became besotted with Coetmore, Moeran had been a confirmed bachelor. He had reached the age of fifty having given little thought to what conventional married life entailed, and so it may reasonably be asked why he had allowed himself to get into this situation. Nothing about Moeran's life hitherto suggests that he was in any way suited to be a husband for anybody. However, it is clear not only that he had been coerced by his mother and brother and manipulated by Coetmore herself, but also that he had failed to consider objectively the reality of what was happening to him. While his letters reveal that he had divined Coetmore's underlying motivation, he was undoubtedly flattered by her attention, and this, together with pressure especially from his mother – who clearly had no understanding of Coetmore whatsoever – was evidently sufficient for Moeran to disregard any niggles of common sense that may have been trying to make themselves apparent.

Over the years since the ending of the Eynsford cottage ménage, Moeran had evolved for himself an itinerant existence in Britain and Ireland – variously living with his parents, staying with friends and acquaintances, taking occasional lodgings, or residing in hotels or boarding houses – which suited a composing process in which place was a key aspect. Moeran had convinced himself that to compose successfully, he needed an appropriate environment that was determined by the character of the music. Essentially, it was as if a composition that was begun or first imagined in a certain location became bound to that location, the effect being that he subsequently found it difficult to work on it anywhere else.