If your planning a destination Wedding in Thailand, you better send the invites out well in advance.  It is a 34 hour trip after all and unless you’re working for yourself, you’ll have to put in leave; besides, you’ll have to rake a few dollars together to join the party!  This is exactly what Marita & Ryno did, with the wedding invites landing in their 33 guests mailboxes 1 year before the big day in Koh Samui!

In theory a wedding in Thailand sounds like a fairytale (which it is), but logistically it can be a bit of a headache.  Getting everything organised and getting everything there….  Easily solved!  The couple got each guest to take along one bottle of wine and one decor item – how clever!  For the organising and planning they used a local wedding coordinator, a South African expat that lives in Koh Samui and does events.

Marita also rounded her friends to help cover essentials such as make-up, hair, dress and most importantly, the photography – Shows you how important it is to choose your friends right!  Then you also have to make sure your choice / person is multi-talented – The hair stylist also doubled up as the minister for the ceremony – now that is what I call the shizniz!!!

Guest arrived on the Sunday for the wedding in Thailand, with a full-moon party organised for the bachelors / bachelorette’s.  Apparently the photos of this crazy event is censored!

The wedding day itself was amazing – the ceremony on the beach – just as you would expect of a wedding in Thailand.  Guests were dressed “island style smart casual”  – to be honest, I don’t really know how to describe it – have a look for yourself.  The groom and his best men ditched long pants for smart shorts and the bride and bridesmaid went barefoot for the ceremony.

With light going fast Natelee only fitted in 30 mins for the couple photos on the day – but the day-after shoot made up for the loss of time.  Luckily their outfits were all in tact still after they partied the night away the day before.

The reception was held at Easy Time Resort, next to the swimming pool.  Well, if that is not a hint for getting wet then I don’t know!  Dinner was followed with an amazing firework display after which guests sent up sky lanterns.

Then things got rough, or should I rather say WET?  The bouquet and garter was done “island style”, with the girls and boys in their swimming costumes in the pool – how cool is that!  Needless to say, bride and groom also joined them after – the end – imagine pool dancing with party music going – makes you think of something you would see in the movies!

PS.  Congratulations to the two other couples that got engaged on this trip!

Photos by Natelee Koen