Wedding planning...
I remember when i first started thinking about arranging weddings in Thailand. It was in 2012, and I wanted to be a wedding planner as I had already made a lot of small events, concerts and gatherings of different kinds. But weddings were something different. It was in my mind exclusive and it had to be perfect every time, as it is usually the most important day in the engage couples lives.
I decided to make the most stunning weddings Thailand had seen!
I had no trial period, as two of my newly acquainted friends in Thailand, both from Norway, already decided that they wanted to marry in Thailand in about a year, and I offered them to plan their wedding. I promised to take care of ALL the details that they wanted, and to make it exactly as they dreamed of. I also promised that I would make it even bigger than their dreams, and what a ride it became, and what a wedding it turned out to be!!
I started the planning in January 2012 and we aimed for the wedding to be on the 22nd February 2013. I had one year of making my wedding package with everything in it and so far I had nothing!
First thing I did, was finding the location. I had been almost everywhere in Thailand, so I decided on Koh Chang. Koh Chang isn`t that far from Bangkok Airport to transport the guests, and we decided that we needed a private stunning beach. I found Ayiapura Resort and firstly I went there to make a deal with the resort.
I spent 2 days, talking to the management, and asking them what we could do together. They showed me some wedding packages that they already offered, but it was far from professional. Neither was the other places we visited, so I decided to make the Aiyapura staff professional instead, and offered them to make my own package for my clients and that they needed to back me up on everything I did. They agreed, and I started my planning….
It was to be 70 guests and all guests would stay in the resort for 4 days and 3 nights. Firstly, I found the nicest bungalow for the wedding couple, a huge private house with private pool and even a pool-bar and pool-house. They had a stunning view over the whole resort and the sea. Perfect! Then the other accommodation, and I pre-booked all the rooms and decided to choose myself the places the guests would stay. Family of the bride and groom near the couple, the older people near the pool and restaurant/party area so there would now be so long for them to walk and so on. It was a huge area, so everything needed to be planned down to the details.
I arranged the tickets for the guests that flew in from Norway, arranged a big bus from the airport all the way to the resort and was there myself to meet and greet them.
Then the wedding and parties. We made a “get to know each other” party on the day of arrival and had whole roasted pork for main course on the beach. Hired a fire show to top it up and was myself the DJ and talk-host and I filmed the whole event with my video-camera.
Then I arranged the flowers and all decorations, sound system and stage, photographer, and I trained the staff at Ayiapura to follow my lead every time something was needed. Then I arranged the menu together with the couple, arranged the timeline of the wedding and the party with pre-party from the time the guests arrived to they were to leave 4 days later. We had an elephant to bring the couple to the wedding, a priest to wed them from the Norwegian Seaman Church, Thai traditional dancers from a school nearby, a band and several other small preformances, and to top the whole thing of, a boat trip for all 70 guests on a private boat the day after the wedding.
While I was there, I was riding around in a golf-cart, making sure that both the wedding couple and guests had everything they needed. Took suits to ironing, brought people back and forth to the SPA, served food and drinks in the rooms, entertained by the pool, filmed with my video camera and made sure that all the set-up was in perfect order.
One thing I didn`t think of at the time was that I was actually doing all this ALONE!! My staff from the agency that I owned was taking care of our other clients and helped me only with some of the orders by phone. The whole idea on everything, including making everything from planning to real-time and to set the timeline. Decisions on what to have and not have, what kind of food and and beverages, all the entertainment and so on was made by myself. After planning I got it verified by the wedding couple only, and they approved everything! It was such an amazing time!!
After this first and most memorable wedding, we had an amazing time planning weddings for other clients and at Ayiapura we had 16 weddings in total until 2016 when I left the wedding and event planning to work on hotel projects.
Now, 6 years later, I intend to bring it back up and do it again! My friends always tell me, do what you are good at, and this showed that I really am good at it. So why not, right?
Therefore events and wedding planning is now in my product database for the future. Not necessarily in Ayiapura and Koh Chang, but at a stunning place where you can have your perfect wedding day planned to the smallest detail so you don`t need to worry about anything other than having the time of your life on your most important day of your life.
SEE THE VIDEO FROM THE EVENT BELOW
Tom Stenshavn
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