Melía’s La Quinta Spa and Golf Resort is many people’s dream location for a wedding. Mark and Denise Duffield-Thomas arrived there this week to renew their wedding vows, after a year of marriage.

Celebrating a first wedding anniversary is an important milestone, and usually one of the most special for a couple. It’s a chance to reflect on that all important first year together, where typically reality with all its challenges, such as sharing a home together, earning a living and spending time with the in-laws, can sometimes make the honeymoon seem a distant memory.

Well, that is not the case with Mark and Denise, who were married in August 2009. Their feet have barely touched the ground since getting hitched a year ago; in fact they have travelled the globe and have renewed their vows over 40 times during the last few months in ceremonies and honeymoons across the planet. The ceremony at La Quinta was number 46! Why? Because Mark and Denise have the ‘ultimate job in the world’; they are the ‘Honeymoon Testers’.

Over 30,000 people from 90 different countries competed for the job of ‘Honeymoon Testers’ for the Irish specialist honeymoon travel company, Runaway Bride and Groom.

Mark and Denise Duffield-Thomas are the first winners, and were unanimously voted into the job by the judges in a heated final with nine other couples, having successfully completed a number of challenges testing their communication skills, team working and creativity.

Travel

The job of testing out some of the best wedding and honeymoon destinations worldwide has taken the lucky couple to far flung continents, experiencing the best that the world has to offer newly weds; from a safari in Kenya, to living like royalty on the island of Zanzibar.

Southern Spain is a popular wedding and holiday destination, and Mark and Denise have been in Andalucía this week to road test some of the varied and attractive destinations in Southern Spain.

“We’ve seen a lot in just a few days” confirms Denise, an Australian who lived in London for over eight years before testing honeymoons. “Runaway Bride and Groom is part of Zara’s Planet that also offer horse riding holidays, so while we’ve been here, we’ve also enjoyed some superb places like a dressage school near Seville surrounded by orange groves, and a posh Polo school near Sotogrande.” continued Denise. “It’s magical being here, just eating figs and fruit off the trees! I can’t believe after all the years I’ve lived in the UK, I’ve never made it down here before. Our car navigation took us down a wrong turn this week, when we were travelling in Cadiz province, but it was a pleasure, as it took us through this wonderful natural park full of pine trees and when we emerged we were greeted by huge white wind turbines; an amazing sight.”

Denise has a passion for writing and in addition to regular blog updates that appear on the couple’s honeymoon tester’s website, she is also preparing a Destination Weddings book and a Behind The Scenes Guide to weddings.

Pressure

So how does a newly-wed couple cope with the pressure of travelling and living together 24 hours a day, and the excitement of luxury honeymoons every week?

“Well, we understand that no one is going to feel sorry for us, having this dream job!” jokes Mark, who is from England and has a degree in Management from Manchester Business School and has spent five years in marketing and strategy in London.

“But the whole experience so far has really strengthened and intensified our relationship” he continued. “It’s tiring, yet really it’s a fantastic opportunity and we make a good team. We’ve taken in some stunning destinations, and experienced wedding and honeymoon options for all budgets; from having a private butler at our resort in Zanzibar, to taking the ‘Paddy Wagon’ coach tour in Ireland. Spain we think is an attractive option for weddings as it’s feasible for friends and family to come here from the UK or Ireland, where as a destination wedding in somewhere like Mauritius tends to be more intimate as it’s expensive to get there. Those types of locations are ideal for intimate vow renewal ceremonies too.”

Visa problems

Denise adds, “we’re having a great time and really it’s going so well. The only problem I had early on was I ran out of visa pages in my passport; we were travelling so much and I was getting so many stamps that I had to go back to London to get a new passport before we could go to any more countries!”

Destination weddings are increasingly popular, and with more and more European countries offering gay marriages and civil partnerships, the market for all types of wedding is growing. “We’ve seen quite a few gay couples at our destinations” confirmed Denise, “and now that the Civil Partnerships act has been passed in Ireland this year, Runway Bride and Groom are getting more enquiries for civil celebrations too.”

Mark and Denise’s dream job is the latest in ultimate jobs offered to create publicity, following as it does 'the world's best job' which was to be a caretaker of an Australian tropical island; won by Ben Southall, from Hampshire.

If you fancy the idea of testing luxury suites; elegant cocktails; and hammocks slung beside azure seas, then why not compete for next year’s ‘Honeymoon Testers’?