Wedding Information

If you want to get marred in Phuket, you may wish to include a few Thai Customs, or you would like to know what is available to you. We will try to give you as much information as we can about what you can find locally. It may give you some ideas to help you create your dream wedding.

We have many photos from a wedding we arranged located in our extensive photo gallery.

Wedding Cakes

From conventional to original, the Thais are exceptional artists, so any decoration for your wedding cake is possible. The traditional fruit cake will need to be ordered in advance, other types of cakes are available as well, from chocolate brownie to light sponges. Most decorations will be made from soft icing rather than the hard icing sugar.

If you have a particular cake in mind, please send us a photo and what it is made of, and we will send you a quote. Prices start from 650 Baht for a 2 pound cake, ideal for no more than 6 guests, to a 6 pound cake ideal for 25 people at a cost of about 2000 Baht.

Flowers

Flowers are a very important part of any wedding and can be as complex or simple as you wish. You can create a color theme to match the wedding dress, or choose traditional white flowers. You can take the approach of choosing flowers that have special meaning or memory to you and your groom. If you have special flowers in mind, please let us know, we may have book them in advance. 

Thai Traditions

So what is traditional Thai wedding like? Well, it really is completely different to a western style wedding, and there are several parts of the ceremony that can fit in well with a western wedding ceremony, to make your special day unique.

Entertainment & Music

Great music and entertainment are vital to ensure your wedding day is special. Phuket now has a range of options when it comes to music at your wedding. Resorts sometimes have an in-house band that can play for you or you have a choice of duets, trios, solo violinists, soft rock bands, Thai music, dance shows, DJ's. Options for entertainment on the island will mainly depend on where you choose to have your reception. Hotels will provide you with their in house entertainment or will ask that you organize any entertainment through them. Smaller hotels and restaurants will allow us to organize this for you.

Here is a few of the options available. Most groups require specific information regarding your reception to be able to quote appropriately

DJ Music - From 12,000
Live Music - From 20,000.000
Thai Show - From 15,000 Baht
Polynesian Show - From 20,000 Baht
Fire Show - From 20,000 Baht
Fireworks - From 25,000 Baht

If your dream is to get married on a boat you have plenty of choice here in Phuket. A range of sailing boats, traditional junks, and luxury motor yachts are available. This option is really only appropriate for smaller wedding parties. Islands and waters surrounding Phuket offer a superb backdrop for your ceremony, reception, and photos.

Water Blessing Ceremony -  Monk Blessing

A Traditional Thai Wedding Dance is usually performed with dancers donning traditional Thai dress. This is a wedding blessing dance for the couple and is performed after the wedding vows and certificate is signed.

A Thai wedding commonly starts with a morning chant from monks. The monks chant prayers blessing the bride and groom, who make merit by offering food and other domestic necessities to the monks. This ceremony must be completed in the morning as the monks will eat the food presented to them by the bride and groom after the blessing, which must be before midday. Monks can not eat after midday.

Over the years the monks have changed what they can/will do at your wedding ceremony, if we have the monks come in the afternoon, money is donated to the monks for their temple in lieu of food. The monks must be done and back at the t emple by sunset.

To actually legalize a marriage in Thailand , the steps are the same whether your foriegner marrying a foriegner, foriegner marrying a Thai citizen, or even a foriegner of one country, marrying a foriengner from a different country. Only man and woman marriages can be legalized, alternative marriages are illegal in the Kingdom.

First, you must first complete an affidavit at the embassy or consulate of your nationality in Bangkok, th is to to confirm you are of age to marry and are allowed to marry in your country of origin . You have to be there to do this and depending on what country you come from, it may take just a few hours or may take up to two working days. The affidavit must be notorized. This you can check out on your embassies or consulates website, or email them for advice. This can’t be done in Phuket unless your country has a consulate in Phuket offering this service.

Once you have completed the affidavit and it has been notarized by your embassy, the next step is to have the affidavit translated to Thai and legalised by the Ministry of Foriegn Affairs, and you have a few choices to do this:

1 - Come to Phuket and let us take care of the rest of the paper work. This is the most expensive option and will require at least 3 to 5 working days. You can expect to pay around 30,000 Baht for this hassle free option.

2 - Stay in Bangkok for a time and have a translation service do the work for you, we can recommend a reputable service. This process will require 2 or 3 working days and you can expect to pay around 25,000 Baht.

3 - For a cheaper option, and more interesting, you can go to all the government departments yourselves with the help of our translator. This will cost around 15,000 Baht plus hotels, taxi fares, etc. for the translator. You'll need around 3 to 4 working days.

4 - For the Easiest option, (LOL) get married at home and have the ceremony / honeymoon in Phuket. We do this more and more every year. It is easy, one day, less money. More to spend on a great, longer honeymoon.  

So what's all this stuff in Bangkok ? Well the process is almost simple, but can be disheartening if you don't speak the language, or know where you are going. But this is the process: The letter of intent that you fill out from your embassy must be translated into Thai along with your passports. This must then be registered at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is an office located in the North of Bangkok City. Once these documents have been registered, you can then visit any amphur (like a court house) anywhere in Thailand . This is usually located around the city hall and Phuket has one in Phuket town. You must be present for this part of the process. Once you have visited this office and you are officially married in Thailand. You can have any kind of ceremony you like. If requested, the district officer will come to your wedding location to sign the documents for a fee, which is arranged case by case. Once you have your Thai Wedding Certificate, you must then get it translated back into your language before it is official in your country. There are many translation offices in Bangkok / Phuket that offer this service.

So in short

1. You must visit your embassy first, in person.
2. Then you can either go through the rest of the process or have someone do it for you until the signing of the wedding certificate. Bangkok is a large city, and unless you really know your way around, it is recommended that someone do the legalization of the paperwork for you.
3. You must then have your wedding certificate translated into your language.

If you opt for the process to be done while you are enjoying the sun and sights of Phuket, then your paperwork will be sent to Bangkok by courier and someone has to do the leg work around Bangkok for you, which is why there is additional charges.

Embassy documentation

The paper work each person needs to marry is:

Completed statutory declaration with the vice consul to witness your signature (from your Embassy).
Original Birth Certificate (may not be needed, but bring just in case).
Certificate of divorce if previously married (this may require another affidavit from your Embassy).
Proof of identity with your passport.
For a Thai citizen, their ID card and house paper.

You may need other paper work for your particular embassy, so please check with your Government before you leave your home. Your government may need other paper work from the Thai government to make it legal at home. It is highly recommend that you visit the website of your country's embassy in Bangkok, most will have information on marrying here in the Kingdom. To search for your embassy's website in Bangkok, search for something like "canadian embassy bangkok."

Note from the Webmaster: In April 2008, I was married to a Thai citizen, the steps stated here are clear and accurate. I am a US citizen and their Embassy website in Bangkok has some great information regarding marrying in Thailand, with clear steps and recommend translators. The basic procedure is oulined below:

Day 1, arrive Bangkok from Phuket, arrive early so you get to your hotel, then head to the embassy. I made my appointment online, so when I arrived and the embassy, I had from of the line to get my affidavit notorized. I printed the affidavit from the embassy website as well. On the affidavit that states you can marry, you have to state if you were divorced, I was divorced so I had to complete another affidavit stating that as well. The official will look at the papers, look at your passport, send you to another window to pay, then you return to the window and the papers are notarized. After the affidavits are notorized, leave the embassy and go to a reputable translator to get them translated to Thai, you will also need a copy of your passport(s) and for Thais copy of their ID card and house paper. This will take 2 days.

Day 3, return to the translator and pickup your documents, either go to the Ministry of Foriegn Affairs or have the translator service do this for you. This will take another 2 days.

Day 5, pickup documents from the translator or go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and get your documents. After this, you can go to any Amphur, which is like a court house, to register your marriage, this will take 30 minutes to an hour. You will again need copy(s) of passport and for Thais, ID card and house paper.

On a side note, it actually takes less time to get divorced from a Thai citizen that it does to get married, on average 20 minutes, my divorce took 1 hour and 20 minutes, the official took lunch break 10 minutes after we sat down at their table! When they returned, 10 minutes later we were divirced, fast and painless!

I have done this two times now, once in 1987 and again in 2008, I really know how to do this! It is recommended that you have Kung and Terry do the paperwork for you, except the embassy visit, you will need to do that in person, then when you leave the embassy, you simple turn the paper work over to their staff and you can continue enjoying your holiday!