Ann + Mark's Wedding in Thailand

Bride, Groom, and Families

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:16:17 +0000

Selected pictures from our photo session with immediate families, taken about half an hour before the guests arrive.

Group Pictures

admin — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:37:48 +0000

Here are some selected photos of the bride & groom with different groups of guests at the wedding. Who knows, maybe you’re in one of them!

The Garden

admin — Mon, 04 May 2009 04:41:05 +0000

The task of finding the place to have our wedding was left to my mom and sisters, who were living in Thailand, while I was on the other side of the globe in Canada. One day, a few months after we decided the wedding date, I get an email out of the blue, from a name I haven’t thought about in fifteen years. It turns out that my close friend from 8th grade runs this beautiful one-of-a-kind resort in Chiang Mai.

Kaomai Lanna bills itself as a boutique nature resort. Their vast garden is lush with trees and other greeneries. Converted tobacco barns turn into comfy guest rooms and there’s a huge area under a very large rain tree that can be used for events. When we thought about having an outdoor wedding, we didn’t have a place in mind, but when I saw the photos, Kaomai Lanna was right on the mark. And the food was amazing.

And the fact that the owner and manager is a friend of mine just set our wedding in motion: everything that went into the wedding was done by someone we know, were friends with, or was a family member – the flowers, the rings, the cake, the outfits, and even the officiant. Huiluk Chen, the resort owner and manager, and along with all her staff, were instrumental in putting our wedding together. We can’t thank them enough.

These photos don’t really do justice to the place, but you could kind of get a sense of the resort. The ceremony and reception was held under the big tree and the after party was in a large veranda by the swimming pool. They put up the oversize mosquito net just so we can party all night.

The Making of the Flowers

admin — Sun, 03 May 2009 23:42:45 +0000

The morning of the wedding day, my sister, maid of honor and mistress of ceremony, Jane, rounded up the girls and had them make all 38 centerpieces and the bride’s bouquet.

Jane had picked out local flowers from the market the day before: lotus and lotus pods, orchids, sun flowers, and eucalyptus. Other wild flowers and leaves were picked from the resort’s garden. Each centerpiece were unique. At the end of the reception dinner, we gave them away in exchange of donation for a scholarship fund toward the local schools. The oil lantern in the middle of each piece can be reuse.

Many thanks to all the help! These photos are taken by Jeremy Blakeslee on his beloved hasselblad camera (with real film!).

The Band

admin — Sun, 03 May 2009 03:09:45 +0000

The wedding band was comprised of local school children playing traditional Lanna string instruments. The 13-piece musical troop played music during the hand-tying ceremony.

Kaomai Lanna Resort arranged for the band through their network within the local community of San Pa Tong (the Chiang Mai district where the resort is located). At the end of the reception dinner, we asked the guests to donate to an educational fund set up for the local schools, where these children attend, in exchange for the centerpiece flowers.

Interactive Video

admin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:43:14 +0000

We set up FACE, an interactive installation which allows the viewer to take a short video clip of themselves, at the welcome area of the wedding. Instead of having a stage set up for stiff photo session with the bride and groom, attendees were encourage to play with this installation and record themselves. The result is a timelapse, stop-motion video of most of the guests.

FACE is a project conceived at Fabrica under the direction of Andy Cameron. The software is by Oriol (who installed it at the wedding, monitored and fixed it several times while taking all these great photos. yeah, he’s a gem.)

Part 1, video from the reception area

Part 2, video from the after party

And here are some photos from the installation:

The Flower Girls

admin — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:37:18 +0000

Our flower girls were the cutest little dolls at the wedding and were quite popular with the cameras. Maria and Kiara (4 and 2 years old) are sisters, half Thai half British cousins of mine who came straight from England to attend the wedding.

We designed the ceremony so that both the bride and groom march in separately with both parents. So the two flower girls were perfect for leading us into the ceremony.

Flowers

admin — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:23:05 +0000

We didn’t use a flower vendor. Instead we bought flowers from local market and had friends help arrange them on the day of the wedding. The result is much more beautiful and showed a lot more character than any vendor could have done.

Orchids, sun flowers, and lotus were the main flowers. The leaves and some wild roses were from the resort’s garden. In the middle of each centerpiece was a small oil lantern, which was lit after the sun set. At the end of the wedding, we gave the centerpieces to the guests who donated money for the scholarship fund to a local school. Click here for the detail of the scholarship.

My sister Jane picked out the flowers and designed the arrangement. She’s been really good at arranging flowers since we were kids. This event was probably written as her destiny, as it couldn’t have been more fitting.

The making of The Cake

admin — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:18:29 +0000

The red velvet cupcake was my idea, then everybody else just kind of made it into reality.

Lighting Lanterns in the Sky

admin — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:38:21 +0000

The night before the wedding, we had a welcome dinner party for the oversea / out-of-town guests attending the wedding. We also lit up some lanterns to float away bad luck.