Oh-so tropical! Ashley and Shannon planned an intimate sun-soaked celebration in Thailand with just 52 guests.
THE MEET
I met my now Husband, Shannon (Re: the handsome man behind drumming crew 1st Project), Shannon, about 4 years ago. I was walking into a cocktail party as he was leaving, but he came back for ‘one more drink’. Turns out we had a mutual friend in common, and have not been able to get enough of each other ever since!
THE ENGAGEMENT
Shortly after we met, Shannon decided to go travel Thailand, and surprised me with a ticket to join him. We spent a month falling in love with Thailand and each other.
Fast forward a couple years, I was lucky enough to receive another ticket to Thailand, and after a few weeks of exploring, laughing and dancing all night, Shannon told me to get dressed up, as we were going for a classy dinner. I walked onto the beach to our own private table, served by our chef and waiter. As I was already used to romantic and unexpected gestures, I thought nothing of it. We lit a lantern on the beach after dinner, and next thing he was on his knee, promising to make me coffee for the rest of my life!
THE PLANNING
We almost immediately decided to have our wedding in Thailand, we wanted something small and intimate. We were so taken with our visit to Railay Bay in Thailand, I managed to get a quote and we confirmed our wedding there, at Rayavadee Resort and Spa.
Only inviting close family and friends, we thought about 20 people would join. In the end, there 52 RSVPs yes, for a 9 day long party through Thailand!
The people management side was slightly challenging, but we put together a detailed website with links to all the hotels, airlines, things to do, dates and times, which made it easy for people to follow. It was easy enough to plan the actual wedding, the aim was to keep it simple, such as choosing local flowers and local food. The venue offered a wedding package, which we agreed not to deviate too much from, they did weddings all the time so the plan was to let them take care of business. An excellent local wedding coordinator from the venue helped us with every question, which was a great stress relief. We managed to include a few personal touches to the wedding, such as our favourite song quotes on each seat, and a few other things that we could bring along from South Africa.
THE DRESS
Thailand is HOT and HUMID! So a normal wedding dress was just not going to work. After months of Pinterest and trying on dresses, I knew I had to get my dream dress made, and it couldn’t have turned out any better. Bernice Curran from Mink Fashion had myself and all my bridesmaids overtake her studio every weekend for 6 months, and it was worth it! It was designed to not have too many layers, and accentuated every asset! The Bridesmaids looked beautiful in matching dresses from YDE.
THE SUIT
The talented Diaan Daniels made Shannon’s 2-piece suit. It was exactly what he wanted, simple grey with the black collar and detail on the waistcoat made it stand out.
THE WEDDING WEEK
The 28th of March 2015, our nearest and dearest gathered at a hotel in Phuket. The next night seperated the girls from the boys (and the boys from the men), as we hit the infamous Bangla Road for our Bachelor and Bachelorette parties. Bangla Road hit us back and we all spent a lazy day recovery by the pool, before another night out. The ‘youngsters’ all took off for PhiPhi Islands, for the backpackers beach parties and R25 buckets, it is a surprise we all made it to the Wedding Weekend in tact!
THE DAY BEFORE
The girls all managed to get quick and cheap mani-pedis in PhiPhi, before everyone jumped/stumbled onto the boat to Railay Bay. There are just no words to the scene coming into Railay Bay, it should have its own theme song!
Doing our best to be responsible adults, we planned a family dinner and decided to only have a few drinks with our friends after, before finally going to our separate rooms at Rayavadee (massive FOMO but was worth the decent night sleep).
THE WEDDING DAY
Getting ready…
I felt relatively calm waking up, and went for breakfast with my brother and sister, making sure to avoid the groom. Before we left for Thailand, I decided that instead of having our make up done on the day, we went for make up lessons with Janna Stone (Made Up by Janna). So our room was a mad house of hair, make up, lots of natural tranquilers and champagne, it was a laugh a minute, which is why I was 30 minutes late to the ceremony. The boys just chilled by the pool, drank vodka and got ready in 10 minutes!
The ceremony…
There are just no words to describe the moment one walks down the aisle, not a dry eye in the jungle. Having wrote the ceremony and our own vows, it was a perfect moment that meant so much to us!
The cake…
The cake was simple, vanilla with some indigenous flowers. Our favourite part was the cake topper, I had it specially made with a silhouette of Shannon’s band logo, its him playing the drum.
The photographer…
Sheldon Evans is a genius. He is new to the wedding world, but we loved his style so much we flew him to join us in Thailand, he even came along for the week long party. Our photos needed to reflect our style as a couple, he was guided to focus on capturing the emotion and feel of the day, we weren’t to fussed about posing, just laughing and dancing on the beach.
The reception…
While the photographer was making us sparkle, the guests all enjoyed cocktails and snacks on the beach, while being serenaded by a local acoustic guitarist.
Dinner and speeches came next, and we could not have been more impressed. Giant prawns and champagne were overflowing on tables, followed by Thai style dessert. We loved that we got to spend so much time with everybody, and since we spent all week together, everybody was great friends, the atmosphere was amazing!
The after party…
We kicked the party off with Zorba, as any Greek heritage family does, and we danced all night with our guests. Such a treat to watch all our separate friendship groups party like they had been mates for years.
Service providers: Venue: Rayavadee Resort and Spa, Krabi Thailand; Photography: Sheldon Evans
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