But money has got to be considered. Even if a well-meaning relative is ready to bankroll that ultimate fantasy, it's simply wrong to spend excessively, heedlessly, when so many other matters need funding, like the furnishing of your new home or apartment.

Mind you, I'm not suggesting you be a miser on your honeymoon vacation, or forego glamour and comfort. Some of the most attractive resorts--first class hotels, even deluxe properties--charge reasonable rates for their "honeymoon packages." And other travel interests have created glamour vacations for honeymooners on the most limited of budgets. It's all a question of choosing wisely.

I've chosen five honeymoon trips that give real value, even when they use top hotels or locations:

(1) Club Valtur, Agadir, Morocco: Glamorous, exotic, comfortable, warm--and yet only $949 or $1,099 per person for the week, including round-trip air fare from New York, all three meals daily, unlimited wine, all sports facilities: We start with a stunning bargain, but at a sophisticated and rather elegant, Italian-managed resort on the west coast of Morocco, a part of the growing, Italian challenge to the French Club Meds. "Valtur" hotels are operated like Club Meds in that they are totally all-inclusive: you receive everything (room, meals, activities) for one set price. But the staff here is Italian, the cuisine Italian (one resort lists 30 varieties of pasta on its menu), the service Italian and superb, and there's none of the emphasis on an unmarried, single clientele that's found at some Club Meds. This winter, until the end of April, a long-established, American tour operator called Central Holidays (1-800/935-5000) will be sending Americans to spend a week at Club Valtur in Morocco for $899 per person some of the time, $999 at other times, and for slightly more than $999 in later months (summer and fall). Attended by a warm, sentimental and caring Italian staff, anxious to establish their resort in the American market, you'll enjoy a honeymoon of swimming, sailing, and remarkable sightseeing of Morocco, in as luxurious a setting as you'd wish, but at an unprecedented bargain price. Write for the brochure.

(2) Moorea, in the Tahitian Islands: The same $899 buys you a week's stay throughout the year, at the Moorea Village Resort (and other properties) on the enchanting island of Moorea, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles to the other-worldly Tahitian Islands of the South Pacific, but this time with meals and activities charged in addition to the basic $949 price. (About $300 more will upgrade you to one of Tahiti's very best resort hotels). Tour operators are two of America's most eminent, Islands in the Sun, of El Segundo, California (phone 1-800/642-1881) and Tahitian Legends (phone 1-800/200-1213). You will be staying on the dreamy island of Moorea, with the mountaintop that James Michener called "Bali Hai" in his novel, Tales of the South Pacific. From my own personal visit to Moorea, I can assure you it is a place lifted from your dreams, surrounded by sugary white-sand beaches and turquoise waters, the classic honeymoon location. It's a matter for rejoicing that America's tour operators have now enabled this experience to be enjoyed by modestly-incomed visitors.

(3) Jamaica's "All-Inclusives": The setting is the north shore of the classic Caribbean island of Jamaica, all lush with flowers and foliage, near seaside villages whose very names bring goose bumps to your arms: Ocho Rios, Montego Bay, Negril. The resorts to which I refer are operated by two separate chains--"Sandals" (1-800/SANDALS) and "SuperClubs" (1-800/GO-SUPER)--with such success that they now number a dozen individual properties, and each one charges one set price for the stay, including all meals, all drinks and beverages, all tips, all sports activities, all evening entertainment--they are "all inclusive" hotels. And each one, with the possible exception of the modest Sandals Inn in Montego Bay, is a comfortable, high-quality and attractive beachside resort, perfect for a honeymoon at moderate cost. The Sandals hotels tend to charge $1200 per person for an all-inclusive, seven-night week (room, meals, drinks, everything), while those belonging to SuperClubs do the same, except for two upgraded properties--The Grand Lido Negril, and the Grand Lido Sans Souci --priced throughout much of the year at around $1900 a week per person. I've stayed at the Grand Lido Sans Souci, and visited The Grand Lido Negril, and both are unusually comfortable, attractive hotel resorts, massively popular among honeymooners, and endowed with every form of sea sports and entertainment. If there were any negative at all about either chain, it would relate to the somewhat brash and innocent young newlyweds that sometimes patronize Sandals, but who become a bit more subdued and sophisticated when seen at SuperClubs.

(4) Classic Hawaii, Wisely Planned: Seven nights in paradise, on the island of Maui, in one of Hawaii's single finest hotels. Yet the price for the two of you comes to only $2,000 for that entire week, and champagne on arrival, with chocolate-dipped strawberries alongside. How is that price brought about? By choosing the seven-night "Mauka Bliss" honeymoon package at the resplendent Westin Maui, which places you not into a room facing the sea, but one overlooking the manicured golf course (sea views cost a total of $375 more). For that reasonable cost, you stay in one of Hawaii's three or four "wow" hotels--so-called because the usual reaction is to say "wow" when you first glimpse this other-worldly, opulent palace, lined with marble throughout, filled with masterwork sculptures and wall hangings, dotted with fountains, lagoons, and Asian-style gardens, supplied with multiple restaurants, lounges, swimming pools, water slides, and swim-up Jacuzzis--and, of course, directly on an ethereal beach. You'll want to phone immediately for a brochure (800/228-3000 or directly to the hotel at 808/526-4111) so that you can fully grasp the almost unique quality of this 700-room hotel. By booking the "package" and staying in a "golf-view" room, you experience the heights of luxury--at an affordable price.

(5) Sailing on the QE2: Few travel experiences are quite as memorable--especially for a honeymoon--as a six-day transatlantic crossing on that "city at sea," the QE2, followed by a three-day stay at London's Ritz Hotel, before flying home (phone the ship's owner, 1-800/5-CUNARD, or any travel agent, to make the arrangements). While a minimum rate cabin costing $3,000 per person may be too small and cramped for this special occasion, a payment of about $3,500 gets you more-than-adequate quarters--and the price includes a return trip by British Airways jet to your home city (any of 82 North American locations), at no extra charge. Your only extra payment is for that stay at the Ritz, which comes at a special price, but still hefty, to QE2 passengers: $975 for two nights, including sightseeing tours, theater tickets and breakfast. And you've had hardly any extra costs at all on that all-inclusive ship.

The QE2 departs New York at roughly-two-week intervals from early April to early December. If the actual dates don't coincide with your wedding, you can always reverse the itinerary by first flying to London, enjoying the Ritz, and then making the crossing by sea to the U.S. On board your ship will be a highly vital sort of fellow guest, well-read and well-educated, and the activities schedule of the liner (which includes numerous lectures and discussion groups) is well suited to that special clientele. You will recall this once-in-a-lifetime cruise for the rest of your life.