Getting Married In Bkk In May (legal Ceremony)

[Eastender]

Hello,

I'm heading to LOS to marry my g/f in BKK in May. This will just be the office visit, legal procedure which I've read about and think I know what to do (although any advice welcome). May be having family wedding ceremony much later this year.

I'm wondering what else I/we should do to make this a special day.

e.g. Should I give my wife a wedding ring, or leave this until the 2nd ceremony.

My g/f mentioned paying for photographs after we are married and suggested I bring a suit - is this normal?

Any other suggestions of what may be expected of me, or what more I could do.

Any suggestions of a romantic evening later also appreciated.

Thanks.

[bkk_mike]

I know for me, rings got exchanged on the day with the monks, wedding ceremony, etc.

For the official wedding - it's just a lot of running around. I seem to remember the embassy, some government department and the local amphur..., with different bits of paper at each place. No ceremony as such...

Suit for the photos - up to you. Why not just ask your g/f to leave the photos until the actual ceremony later in the year. - when you'll have "dress up" clothes anyway...

[Gumballl]

Eastender -

Congratulations!

The post by bkk_mike is right on. I went thru the same... running around to get one document after another; I was dead tired at the end of the afternoon. I did not have the wedding ceremony until 6 months after getting married.

If you want, you could always get your GF an engagement ring, either with diamond(s), or with her birthstone. Also, consider going on a honeymoon vacation. There is nothing to stop you on go on yet another honeymoon at a later date.

Out of curiousity, why are you getting married in Thailand? Do you live there?

I am now divorced from my first wife, but back then, we elected to get married in Thailand. We did the legal stuff early to get a jump on getting her a visa to come to the US. Still had to wait 18 months!

With my new GF, I am attempting to get a Fiance Visa (K-1?). Should take a lot less time (maybe 6 months), and I will get married legally here in the US.

[bkk_mike]

For some weird reason, the US takes longer to issue a visa to a spouse who is already married to a US citizen than to a fiance. (very weird).

UK takes the same amount of time to issue to either fiance or spouse, so no benefit in getting married in the UK. Usually it's 2-3 months depending on the waiting time for an interview at the UK embassy. I think you would have to be extremely unlucky to wait 6 months for a UK visa, let alone 18...

P.S. Checking Eastender's location says he's in England...

P.P.S. One big advantage of getting married in Thailand is that it is a LOT easier to get your relatives/friends out to Thailand for the wedding as they probably wouldn't even need to apply for a visa, where getting any of your wife's relatives to the UK/US for a wedding would be a bit of a nightmare... (in comparison anyway).

Edited April 7, 2005 by bkk_mike

[ThaiPauly]

Hi Eastender Congratulations. At least you KNOW you are getting married. When I went to the register office I thoought it was just more apers to sign as I thought (and yeah I really was stupid) that I was getting married the following week in Surat Thani) My wife told me just to look smart! So of course did not take the ring even though I had it. Then we picked up two of her freinds in my car (still even more stupid that I cannot see what is going on here) and went to the registry office. Lots of smiling people . Happy Faces for any Thai Government Office this in itself is unusual. People having their pictutes taken under a big Heart of Flowers, (and I STILL cant see it.) Am I the most STUPID FARANG in Thailand- I will certainly be up therenear the top of the list

Anyway if you are getting married in Patpong which is the main registry office in BK, the staff are more than happy to take any pictures you want, its a simple service.

We had our "Marriage Blessing " the week after with over 150 guests and that was fantastic. Dont expect too many (if any ) presents from the other side- the extended family will quite happily consume the grub and booze you have paid for.

For Info my reception cost around 77,000 baht, good value I think considering we had a boat that cruised up and down the river TWICE (I was not expecting that either)

Enjoy your day, at least IMHO you seem READY for it.

Good luck, may I wish you every happiness for the future

TP

[lopburi3]

Advise is good but will point out that there is no marriage registry office as such - you can do the deed at any district office in the country as long as you have the paperwork in hand. But the Patpong area is in the Bung Ruk District and that is considered good luck (love district) and they do have experience with expats so probably is a good choice.

I would go with an engagement type ring - in fact no marriage band is really required at any point.

As for visa to US the new K3 type is designed to make the fiancee and marriage waits much closer to the same amount of time. It should not take 18 months anymore unless there are problems.

Photos are a very big deal with most Thai (unfortunately all too often it is all they have after a few years) so I would try to do as she wants. Most people do the non official part first so that may be why she wants some now. Believe she wants you to dress in the suit when you visit the District Office to register the marriage rather than for the photos (which you would normally dress in Thai attire provided by photo studio I believe (never did it).

If you are not providing sin sot perhaps a heavy weight gold reckless would be a good gift for the family affair later?

[ThaiPauly]

perhaps a heavy weight gold reckless would be a good idea

[Dragonman]

Don't suggest wearing a suit to dash around Bangkok. I wore a suit at the Thai ceremony as told it was expected of a farang.

Didn't have any photos at the amphurs either because as romantic as a visit to sort out your Council Tax in UK.

From my experience any Thai lady will be looking for the gold ring to show off as soon as possible, mine certainly was(20 minutes after the ceremony).

Why is the family wedding much later?This is normally more important to Thais than the registration. It's normally when the parents get the dowry and guests give money for luck, which is also quickly grabbed by the parents,and of course it's a good reason for the whole village to get plastered.

My experience is that you can't beat a moonlight cruise, even if there's no moon. Best of luck.

[mistermister]

"My g/f mentioned paying for photographs after we are married and suggested I bring a suit - is this normal?"

Maybe she means Profesional Marriage Photos at a Studio??

[lopburi3]

Don't suggest wearing a suit to dash around Bangkok. I wore a suit at the Thai  Best of luck.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would strongly suggest wearing a suit for registration of your marriage at the District Office. If you have aversion to suits (as I do) use a safari type suit with no tie. But do dress well. How your wife is viewed will depend on it.

[Pudgimelon]

I got married in February, and it was a big hotel extravaganza with nearly 500 guests, several outfit changes, lots of ceremony and other trimmings.

We went to a wedding studio and they provided us with several outfit changes for a photoshoot. The whole package cost around 30K to 40K baht, but that's also because we used that studio to rent outfits for the wedding day too. We got a pretty nice photo album of studio-shots from them, so you might want to check them out (Modern Wedding Studio on Sukhumvit Soi55, just before the bridge over the canal). Getting the wedding pictures taken is an all-day affair (actually it took us several days because we had to select outfits and get them fitted prior to the shoot). So be prepared to take your time and don't schedule anything else that day.

In all the chaos that went into the preparation for that event, we never found time to do the registration at the local amphur. No big deal, really, it can be done at any time, but it's very hard for me to get down to the embassy for the necessary paperwork, so I just got around to that yesterday.

What a pain in the ass. The embassy is only open until 2pm, so it's pretty much a waste of a whole day to get down there in the morning during peak traffic hours.

I really can't imagine getting the document filled out and translated, taking it up to the Thai Consulate Services (on Cheangwattana Road) and then over to the amphurs office in one day. Even on the most optimistic traffic days, that's a lot of running around. But right now, traffic on Cheangwattana is BAD, and I mean BAD EVEN FOR BANGKOK BAD (and trust me, that's very bad). You could spend 30 or 40 minutes just waiting to make the U-Turn into the Consulate, and that's not even counting the hour it took you to go the 2 km from the expressway to that U-Turn.

Also, don't forget that you're going to need the name and address of two people in the States (as a reference).

Edited April 9, 2005 by Pudgimelon