The Love Story How did the two of you meet?
At work, although the funny story is the day, I started working in the company was the day David (my future) husband left to go overseas, to travel for a few years.
Fate brought us back together 3 years later when he returned to Sydney and was hired back again into the same company, same team but this time he was my senior. Over the years we became friends and one thing led to another and the next minute we were dating.
How did he propose?
Dave arranged an early start for us to go on a hot air balloon ride, when we were in mid-air, he got on one knee (in the confined space) and popped the question.
Preparation for The Wedding
How did you find the experience of planning a wedding? From where did you take your inspiration?
After we settled on a date, 8th December 2016, we then started to plan. We were lucky, we had almost a year to prepare for the special day.
There was so much to prepare for this one day! This ranged from,
- Date of the event
- Number of guests & who to invite
- Ceremony & Reception
- Whether we would have bridesmaids & groomsmen
- Hens & Bucks Day or night
- Wedding gowns, accessories
- Transport to Thailand
- Transport for the guests from the airport to the hotel & to other venues
- Invitations
- Honeymoon
- Makeup & hairstylist
- Gifts for guests
- DJ for the wedding
- Celebrant
And the list went on….
We knew that we didn’t want a big wedding, so we kept the guest list minimal. This meant we could spend a bit more on the venue and other things, to make this day memorable.
Our initial thought was to have the wedding in Sydney, Hunter Valley, Australia as this would allow more guests to attend the event with ease but after obtaining some quotes with some venues, we felt this was getting too expensive.
“Our love for travel was the deciding factor for a destination wedding!”
Where to hold the event, we were not sure
We selected the venue not only on price but also on what the country could provide for our guests.
We looked at venues in Fiji to New Zealand, finally deciding to hold the wedding in Bang Tao Bay (now named Saii Phuket Laguna), Phuket, Thailand. The area and resort were highly recommended by a family member who had been there before. Both of us had also been to Thailand on numerous occasions and we had always enjoyed it.
We started researching and thought perhaps hiring a local wedding planner to assist us would be a good move, considering we didn’t know the local area. We located our planner online, some were Australian expats and some were from other English countries who knew the country well enough to have connections, to be able to organize the wedding.
We requested quotes from these event planners but soon realized they charged a far bit for their services and by this stage we knew the resort we would hold the reception at – Outrigger at BangTao Bay (now named Saii Phuket Laguna). Luckily, we realized they had their own event/wedding coordinator.
In the beginning, it was hard to communicate and understand what the event coordinator was trying to tell us but eventually after months of planning we nutted out the main details for the wedding, this included the following;
- What packages are available & what’s included in the package, there were different options to select from. This could affect the pricing and what is provided to you on the day.
- What is extra that is not included in the package, includes booking the celebrant, music, hair & makeup, entertainment etc.
- Accommodation – a special deal for us and our guests.
Wedding Breakdown of Expenses
The wedding package didn’t include a lot, only the big-ticket items, reception, food, basic beverages including alcohol, floral arrangements, cakes, photographer, 3 nights of accommodation and pick up and drop off from airport. Anything additional cost, like entertainment (photobooth, fire dance or fireworks), music, celebrant, pre-wedding reception canapes, and additional alcohol was out of our own pocket.
Most of the additional services required were recommended by the hotel.
Throughout the year we had to go back and forth communicating with the event coordinator, so at times it became quite frustrating as we couldn’t just pick up a phone and call them directly, especially with the difference in time zone. We managed to get most of the organizing completed on time.
We even decided to visit the resort to finalize everything in person. Due to the location and timing of when the wedding, there were some restrictions that were placed on the ceremony, as finishing at midnight. In addition, as the location of the wedding was close to the airport, we were not permitted to release the Thai Lanterns on the night nor could we have any fireworks on the night.
During our visit, we managed to catch up with the event coordinator, celebrant, musician (DJ and a cello player), photographer and also the hair & makeup artist.
Whilst we were there, we visited the local bars, restaurants, and clubs, which allowed us to organize and put an itinerary together for our guests, which we later disbursed with the wedding invitation. For our wedding invitations, the ideas were from Pinterest and Instagram and any design was assisted by graphic designers on Fivver.
Our final guest list was reduced to a total of 40 guests. This included family and friends.
Our wedding was simple, so most of the traditional outlay like the bridal party, first dance, change of wedding clothes etc. was omitted from the day. By the end of the day, we just wanted to have fun and make it a memorable event, not just for us but for our guests.
At this stage, the reception was organized but there was still a lot to arrange. This ranged from designing our own invitations, the bride and groom’s wedding gown, jewellery, hens & bucks day (even though this was in Thailand), gifts for the guests on the wedding night and also upon arrival, along with the decorations for the wedding ceremony & reception.
We had a week’s itinerary for our guests ranging from the welcome dinner to arranging alternative days out for the girls (being the Hen’s outing) and then for the boys (Bucks outing).
The wedding ceremony commenced at around 4 pm, the ceremony was by the beachfront. We hired an English celebrant and a cello musician.
Since Thailand is a tropical country, we arranged for handheld fans for each guest and drinks were available.
The ceremony was short and sweet, including the exchange of vows, a quick tea ceremony to pay respect for the elders considering my Vietnamese background and then photos.
Once this was completed, we had a short break for our guests to continue to mingle with the extra refreshments and nibbles arranged on the side whilst Dave and I took some wedding photos on the beach. The photographer was hired by the resort themselves and inclusive of the wedding package deal.
The reception was beautiful as it was set next to the pool. The theme was based on burgundy, red wine color. All tables, chairs and sashes were arranged in this colour, which was brought from home. We also provided the name tags, gifts, and signature puzzle.
With the time restriction, this meant we could not party until the early hours of the morning and we were limited to ending the event at midnight, however, this didn’t stop us from having a great time. We organized a DJ along with a photo booth for some entertainment. Food, cake and alcohol were included in the wedding package.
As the pool was nearby and the weather was hot and humid, it didn’t take much convincing for us all to end the night by the pool.
Once the wedding was over, a few of us continued the party at the resort’s bar, whilst others retired for the night.
The following day some guests flew back home, others travelled further and for us we had another 4 weeks of our honeymoon to enjoy. Our first stop was Bangkok, then off to Vietnam for a week which meant we spent Christmas there and for our last week we flew to Malaysia, to enjoy New Year’s Eve.
I believe our wedding was a success!
We planned a long way to allow us to research the venue, the surrounding area and of course what’s best and what fits into our budget. We contacted the hosting venue quite regularly to see if they were on track with our plan. Above all, it was a day to remember!
Wedding Venue: Outrigger Laguna Phuket Beach Resort, Bang Tao Beach (management has changed, so it’s no longer know as Outrigger as of 1/2/21 but now named Saii Phuket Laguna)
We wanted to keep the overall wedding cost minimal, so we organized a lot of the extras ourselves.