Wedding tips

[foexie]

Hi everybody,

i will be back in Udon Thani in 4 weeks to make preparations for my wedding somewhere in October this year.

But i would like to ask you all some extra good tips to make it a very nice day.

I first was thinking about having a small wedding at the beach in Phuket or so but since my girl want to have her family and friends with her this is not an option anymore.Or we must bring the sea and beach to Udon .

Then she suggested to do everything at her house.But that isn't an option for me.I been there last year,the house looks ok ( i have seen much worce) but still not a place where i want to have a weddingparty.
So until now the only good option i have is to have the party at the hotel.This will cost about 350 baht/person included infrastructure and food.I guess it will cost me about 60-70000 baht for 120 persons including some extras but also with some free stuff like decorations,free stay at the hotel,....
I also have been thinking about a wedding in the park near the pond but i have no idea to make arrangements for that (catering,tents,decorations,permits,etc. ).

The second problem i have in her hometown is the not-so-nice looking temple.It's not big but unfinished and also dirty.So here the option is to have the ceremony at her house or also in the hotel.

But now i also need tips about :

- where to find nice weddingcards
- a good bakery for the weddingcake
- all kind of practicaly things what is needed for the wedding.
- thai weddingballoons

And i would really appreciate if peoples inhere have also good tips for nice weddingplaces ,temples ,decoration , DJ's, photographers ,etc.


I'm counting on you guys to make it a very nice day.

Thank you already very much,

Foexie

[english.farang]

Hello Foexie
First of all congratulations on your forthcoming wedding, For what its worth, here are my thoughts.

1. All Thai weddings take place at the home, that is to say that the monks bless the partnership at home, normally early in the morning. At this ceremony, there are normally 9 monks, family, friends and nieghbours. at this stage a wedding breakfast is consumed.

2, Falangs, normally then hold a wedding reception at the home, or another venue, and in my case this was at a hotel, where invited guests attend.

3. There are several wedding shops around the city, which supply everything you need, Cake, decorations , invitation card, guests SMALL gifts, and balloons! IMO, it is best to put everything in their hands, they also can supply a photographer.

[foexie]

Hi English thx for your reply and your congratulations.

I already have been looking online and sended my gf into the city to look around.But i still want peoples opinion about what shop and other things they like the most or are the best.
When we will do it in the hotel we already have somebody who will rent their bus at us for bringing the peoples from the village to the hotel ( or somewhere else).

When i'm back i will "investigate" all tips i got inhere.

Regards,Foexie

[Philrjones]

Hi Foexie,

Congrats on the upcoming events! Hey I see a Belgian! I lived in Arlon for 4 years from 96 through to 2000 when working in Luxembourg. Great place, great beer, great people.

English Farang is right - we had our wedding at the wife's parents house. Monks, friends etc all came. Outside we took over the street and had a street reception/party - heaps of people turned up and it was all good fun. I was happy to have an entirely Thai wedding rather than the western one I'd had before. A a reception at a hotel is ok too.

We had our pics done at a wedding photography place and I'm sure they have contacts with all the other wedding type shops that are around. I can't remember the name of it - I'll ask the wife, but it's on the corner of Wattana Nuwong Road and Adunyadet Road at ref udonmap O10 - the intersection between Ruy Suk hotel and Lalita's (used to be Aussie bar) - or as a further ref - the intersection is near what used to be The Downunder Bar (then Molly Malones). Good grief - bars changing names doesn't half cause problems as we all use them as landmarks!

Cheers
Phil

[maaka]

Congrats dude..wish you and your wife to be all the happiness in the world..

I have been to a number of weddings and all featured the married couples parents home at some stage..cant remember if you were both thai, whether the party would be at the brides parents house or the grooms parents house..the grooms I think..but as you probably dont have one, then her parents house it should be, or at least the monks blessing part.. it has to do with the local monks coming to bless the marriage, and with the family showing off to the neighbourhood that their son or daughter is getting married..you can have the reception wherever you like really..I have been to one at the Napala Hotel, must have been a ten course meal, no expense spared, and over 100 people. I have been to a couple back at the parents house outside in the garden, with tents and chairs and kareoke music, with the old folks knocking back the whiskey, and the giving out of gifts......all I can say is to make sure you have the monks involved for that blessing part.

I have never been to a wedding at a temple, not sure if they do that sort of thing, like westerners do in a church..but there is no reason why you cant incorporate a temple in your day somewhere..generally it should be at her local temple, as they are the monks that the family have a long standing association with, whether it is run down and dirty or not..but there is nothing to stop you from then going to another nicer temple just for some nice pics..I like the temple near all the government offices, or where they hold all the outdoor concerts and annual outdoor shows..its just a small one room thingy, with no monks about, but looks amazing...and makes a good photo shoot.

when I met my ex girlfriend she took me down to the center of town one night to one of the roundabouts in the middle of the road(end of Phosri Road) with a statute on it of some kind, and said we had to walk around it a number of times to seal the engagement if you like, or get some blessing of some sort....so there are things that mean alot to them, that we can never begin to understand..anyway best wishes

[Techland]

> when I met my ex girlfriend she took me down to the center of town one night to one of the roundabouts in the middle of the road(end of Phosri Road) with a statute on it of some kind, and said we had to walk around it a number of times to seal the engagement

Nice one - and true as well!

FWIW, the few hotel wedding parties that I've seen in Udon so far have been the most boring money wastes that one can imagine. Don't care about the quality of the home, just do it there. More fun for everyone.

[Aardvark]

Foexie, because this is a traditional Thai Wedding it is for the benefit of the Family that you have it in your Ladies Village so all the Neighbours can see that she is in a legitimate and respectable relationship. Remember that to make it Legal under Thai and International Law, you will have to go into the Municipal Offices and get Married in front of the Head Honcho who will stamp your Marriage Certificates and make it a Legally binding Contract !!

[Dr. James]

Dear Foxie,
Lots of various advices have been given to you so I won't burden you with too much repetition. The most important thing to remember is what your soon to be spouse wants. The days when a wedding party was done only in the home and village are not necessarily satisfying to the younger women today. They like to have the opportunity to present themselves to family and friends. My wife and I had our marriage party at the Napalai Hotel last November and had over 250 attending. The whole charge from the hotel for flowers, karaoke, food, cake, etc. was around 55000 baht. It was much better to have the hotel take care of most things rather than rushing around doing it myself.

Remember, this is her day, not yours. You are there to shake hands, smile, and be dragged around for four hours. So find out what your soon to be spouse wants and do it. It will bring you many positive returns. The ladies like to have their day and to shine in front of her family and friends. She will be very proud when in the coming months people talk about what a fine time they had. One caution, limit the booze.
Good luck,
Dr. James

[douglas]

Hi,
Myself and wife decided to have a quiet marriage. I had suffered a stroke a few years earlier and thought this would be the best way. We went down to the family office in Udon, let future wife do all the talking. Signed countless forms which were in Thai. Had them translated to English later. You have to do this to satisfy the pensions I had. OAP and another gov. pension. so if anything happened to me wife would get widows pen. and 50 percent of my other pen.
What supprised me was the wife's name stayed the same, she had to go to another office in town to get her name changed. The same office that issues the ID cards. but it is up to you if you want to do this.
Anyway good luck on your marriage and have a good day.
Cheers Doug.

[parrot]

techland wrote: "FWIW, the few hotel wedding parties that I've seen in Udon so far have been the most boring money wastes that one can imagine. Don't care about the quality of the home, just do it there. More fun for everyone."

I'll second that. Been to 4 affairs at the Charoensri Grand. Good food, but very boring affairs. You probably won't see much imagination....... but it'd be fun to try out the wedding march at
youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0 (add the www.) and see what kind of reaction you get.

[jackspratt]

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4-94JhLEiN0&hl ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4-94JhLEiN0&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

A lot of fun.

[old-timer]

It's a long day, starts at 7am when your house gets stripped then traditional mats installed. Then the guests start to arrive and that's when the drinking starts, at around 8am the monks turn up and sit on a temporary stage set up in your living room, and then they chant and that goes on for ages. When the monks have finished the first lot of food comes from the caterers and the band starts, by noon everything has been drank and eaten and everyones a bit wobbly.
Then at 7pm you have to be at the hotel to accept the guests, give them a little trinket of something or other, have the photographer take photo's, then it's straight into eating drinking and dancing to another band. By midnight everyone is in a right state.
OT's wedding day advise is to pace yourself so you don't end up puking on your wedding night, as I did.

OT..

[foexie]

Hi again everybody,

first of all thx for the replieds i have got.They already made some things clear.

But until now i still not get any answers on my question about the tips i was looking for :
- where to find nice weddingcards
- a good bakery for the weddingcake
- all kind of practicaly things what is needed for the wedding.
- thai weddingballoons

And also good tips for nice weddingplaces ,decoration , DJ's, etc.

I really hope that you can give me answers on this too.

Kind regards, Foexie

[BobHelm]

I am sorry I have been playing around with this topic.
I have split off the bits about a Thai lady with a Falang husband owning land into a new thread called "Falang's wife owning Land" in Thai Law. I thought there was some good information/questions on it, but that no one would ever find it in the future under the title "wedding tips"...
Galee made a post that combined both topics, so I have split his comment up onto both threads.
Hope that is OK & that I have not lost anything in transmission as it is not the easiest thing in the world to do..

foxie. If you want a party in the evening, try the NB hotel. They have a nice seperate building for functions. They also take you to the florists and cake maker for you to choose what you want and make arrangements to transfer everything from your girlfriends house to the hotel on the wedding day. Up to you about DJ etc.

[papaguido]

foxie. If you want a party in the evening, try the NB hotel. They have a nice seperate building for functions. They also take you to the florists and cake maker for you to choose what you want and make arrangements to transfer everything from your girlfriends house to the hotel on the wedding day. Up to you about DJ etc.

My wife also suggested to check with the hotel(s), they may be able to source everything you need and make all the necessary arrangements.

[old-timer]

Hi again everybody,

first of all thx for the replieds i have got.They already made some things clear.

But until now i still not get any answers on my question about the tips i was looking for :
- where to find nice weddingcards
- a good bakery for the weddingcake
- all kind of practicaly things what is needed for the wedding.
- thai weddingballoons

And also good tips for nice weddingplaces ,decoration , DJ's, etc.

I really hope that you can give me answers on this too.

Kind regards, Foexie

There are many wedding shops all over town. They will take care of the photo shoot, where you can choose whatever you want to wear from their collection, and they will give good advise, then about half a day for the photo shoot. It will take about 2 hours before this for them to prepare your wifes make up and hair. You then have to go back very very early on your wedding day to get made up again. My wife had to be there at 4am! Then you have a very nice photo album. Any of these places will provide you with invitation and seating cards, and also with the little engraved gift that you hand to your guests.
You will need flowers and most weddings have a couple of floral arches made up, one for the morning and one for the afternoon, as well as for the tables in the evening. I found that all the florists in Udon provide the same thing for the same price, so I wouldn't bother shopping around for that to much.
As for balloons, the wedding shop will provide that. My reception was at the NB hotel and they sorted that out, although a waste of money imo.
The NB Hotel provided the live entertainment and it was excellent, from what I can remember.
You will be expected to get on stage and hand over something to the in laws in the evening.

OT..Assisting the Community.

[beki123]

I wouldn't want to get married there, but it is certainly a very nice place for a honeymoon. My friend was looking for a nice hotel for her honeymoon (and there is a whole lot on the internet), does anybody have any recommendations?

[Galee]

Personally I quite like Koh Chang. Stayed at this resort last year. http://www.gajapuri.com/index.asp, which I enjoyed, but many other good resorts on the island.