We Have Decided To Get Married In Pai...

[ThaKing]

Hi All,

Well, my finace and I have decided that we will get married in Pai, the place where I proposed to her.

Love the place, the relaxed vibe, great food and the quiet at night.

What we are now facing is the hassel of trying to organise a wedding in Thailand from Australia.

We were thinking of booking out one of the many river front accomodation complexes (not hotels, and not guest houses.. you know what i mean) and have a ceremony for during the day for us. Nothing formal, no offical processes as this would all be done back home via the registry office. That night, we were thinking we could ask some street vendors (pad thai vendor, roti vendor, etc) to provide food for our guests all night. We would pay them for their food and services in advance so guests can just approach them for food, or we may just book out a resturant for the night (undecided at this point in time).

We are looking to have the ceremony in 2011, but not sure of the best time.. Looking at off-season (as it will be cheaper for us to fly families over) and may also be cheaper to book out an entire gh...

We are looking at having about 30 guests at a maximum so we will need to cater for this...

What I am hoping to get from you guys is an idea about how we should organise this, if there are any issues we should look at and suggestions on when to do it all..

My fiance and I are both Australian with no Thai heritage (just for info)

Thanks in advnace!!

ThaKing

[nikster]

Don't do it around new year's because you'll have to sleep in a tent. Total off-season isn't so good either, I'd recommend shoulder season, maybe October or February before it gets hot. Months to avoid: March, April - bad air, and hot. December / January - crazy numbers of tourists.

Anyway - congrats! Find somebody local to organize it for you, maybe? Are you coming here prior to the wedding?

PS: I met my wife in Pai too - something about this place, ey?

Edited November 18, 2009 by nikster

[Artamus]

Love the place, the relaxed vibe, great food and the quiet at night.

When were you last in Pai? Tourist development is continung unabated and uncontrolled. The quiet at night is dissapearing fast in town and the immediate surroundings. They just opened a second kareoke bar down the road from where I stay, so time to move out for peace and quiet.

As mentioned above avoid the really high season as it's totally mental.

[ThaKing]

Love the place, the relaxed vibe, great food and the quiet at night.

When were you last in Pai? Tourist development is continung unabated and uncontrolled. The quiet at night is dissapearing fast in town and the immediate surroundings. They just opened a second kareoke bar down the road from where I stay, so time to move out for peace and quiet.

As mentioned above avoid the really high season as it's totally mental.

Hi Artamus,

We were there Jan/Feb this year..

Wasnt like the first two times i was ther (2003-4, 2006-7) but still nice...

Has it really changed that much???

[Artamus]

We were there Jan/Feb this year..

Wasnt like the first two times i was ther (2003-4, 2006-7) but still nice...

Has it really changed that much???

Yes, it really is changing fast. (others on the forum will also be able to confirm that). More and more people are "discovering" Pai and Pai is cashing in. Nowhere stays the same. Pai still has its charm, but is losing it fast. I've lost count of the number of times people have told me "development is going to slow down in Pai" but it still continues at an ever-increasing pace. I agree that coming just before high season (say late October time) would be a good option as Pai is then green, the climate not too hot and many fewer tourists. Still the possibility of rain then of course.

As suggested above I think it would be a good idea to get someone locally to organise it for you - specify what you want.

[nikster]

Love the place, the relaxed vibe, great food and the quiet at night.

When were you last in Pai? Tourist development is continung unabated and uncontrolled. The quiet at night is dissapearing fast in town and the immediate surroundings. They just opened a second kareoke bar down the road from where I stay, so time to move out for peace and quiet.

As mentioned above avoid the really high season as it's totally mental.

Hi Artamus,

We were there Jan/Feb this year..

Wasnt like the first two times i was ther (2003-4, 2006-7) but still nice...

Has it really changed that much???

No.

I am 6km from town and it would be super quiet here if it wasn't for the frogs making a hel_l of a racket

[nikster]

We were there Jan/Feb this year..

Wasnt like the first two times i was ther (2003-4, 2006-7) but still nice...

Has it really changed that much???

Yes, it really is changing fast. (others on the forum will also be able to confirm that). More and more people are "discovering" Pai and Pai is cashing in. Nowhere stays the same. Pai still has its charm, but is losing it fast. I've lost count of the number of times people have told me "development is going to slow down in Pai" but it still continues at an ever-increasing pace. I agree that coming just before high season (say late October time) would be a good option as Pai is then green, the climate not too hot and many fewer tourists. Still the possibility of rain then of course.

As suggested above I think it would be a good idea to get someone locally to organise it for you - specify what you want.

Come on it certainly has not "changed that much" since January 2009?!

I am also amazed that the growth continues - if it was up to my predictions, it would have stopped years ago. But it keeps growing and getting more popular. I have an analogy to whats happened here too, and that's Carmel by the sea, in CA. It was a small town by the sea with nothing going on, then artists moved there and made it cool, then the cool people heard about it and went there, then everyone else heard about it and went there and now it's a rich people's enclave / tourist-disneyland. Sound familiar? I think that's what's happening to Pai, maybe with a Thai twist. So according to that Pai will continue to be a tourist-disneyland plus will have rich people building houses here. The latter is already happening, with rich BKK Thais buying in.

Some of the changes are bad - they seem to be destroying the old market just now, which is a shame. It had not been used for a while, but it's a large space in the center of town. The first bright idea was to create an upscale shopping mall with totally ridiculous terms (10 years upfront rental, or something like that). Nobody went for it, and it never happened. Now they are concreting it all over, and let's hope that's all they do.

On the other hand, take the new K-Bank in town. For one, it's great to have a choice of banks, rather than just one. And they did a very nice job making it very "Pai-like" - it looks like it should in a fantasy romantic Pai as sold to BKK tourists. And now the fantasy is becoming reality in some parts- maybe not everyone's cup of tea but for sure it's better than faceless concrete blocks that they'd put up in other parts of Thailand.

Change is a fact of life. You can accept it, or resist it.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Congrats!!!

Typically, you just select a resort/bungalow operation and ask them about their rates for the event. Typically you don't just get street vendors to come provide food; the resort/bungalow guys/etc will arrange that, and it'll be a fixed fee per head. So you get to a total charge that covers use of their grounds for the event, food, and anything else you might need; typically they could arrange music/a band, monks if you want or someone else to do a ceremony, decorations, etc.

Typically you have to hold them back a little or they'll want provide way too much shit.. Think karaoke machines, multi-storey wedding cake, two presentors & stage & sound system, ice carved swans & harts, dancing girls, etc. etc. But ultimately it's easiest if you pick a place you like and start a discussion with them.

Edited November 18, 2009 by WinnieTheKhwai

[Nio]

When you try to plan something in Thailand over a year in advance (2011) the other poster is correct.

Thailand is changing and areas like Pai that used to be sleepy are now overrun with backpackers.

Good points were made about the air quality as this year in CM it dragged on and on and on with haze everyday.

Asking to plan a simple wedding like you are asking over a year in advance is not going to help you plan anything.

With the economy and govt situation who can predict anything this far in advance?

Since you have no fancy hotel to reserve etc., I see no need to plan now.

A couple months is all you need to plan max, not over a year.

[nikster]

Hotel bookings in the high season might be the only thing that needs to be done a year in advance. In the shoulder season, you don't need that. And then, Nio is right that it's a lot easier to plan a few months in advance. Anything can happen in a year, like the person planning it for you left and went somewhere else, or whatever.

Winnie is correct in that they will easily plan a wedding for you here and if you're not careful you get way too much

BTW Nio, backpackers are still in Pai but not a whole lot more than there used to be. The hordes of tourists coming in the winter are all Thai. Quite different in terms of needs and wants.

[ThaKing]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the info...

We were thinking that we would fo it in March-April 2011 but from the sounds of it, it may not be the best idea....

So we have changed the date to somewhere Sept-Oct 2010... Hows that sound for weather and tourists??

Although Pai is likely to change drasticly, it is still the idea that we love... Being in the hills, quiet town by day, with limited night life... Not much more to do then sit by the river and read, eat and sleep... Walks through the hills, and a whole lot of laughs...

Can anyone suggest a guest house that we should look into???

We were thinking "Rim Pai Cottages" or "Wang Change Puek Pai" as they are both on the river... Any suggestions would be great!

Thanks again!

ThaKing

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Sept - Oct is the wettest part of the year. It IS better than March-April, but all of those are by far the worst months of the year; be it too wet or too dry and hazy.

November-February are really good months, as are May-August. (some afternoon/evening rain in June-August but manageable)

[Artamus]

Sept - Oct is the wettest part of the year. It IS better than March-April, but all of those are by far the worst months of the year; be it too wet or too dry and hazy.

November-February are really good months, as are May-August. (some afternoon/evening rain in June-August but manageable)

August and September are the wettest months of the year in northern Thailand.

http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.p...097+2100+48300W

http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.p...098+2100+48327W

Typically rain starts to tail-off in late October, although it is still possible to get wet into November.

November to February is decidedly the driest. I'd personally go for late October or early November as it is still green. Once the surrounding hills dry out and the leaves fall everything takes on a dry, arid arid, look and then in Fenruary the burning starts.

[cloudhopper]

Naimuang Pai circa May 09 looking Southwest from 500'

Edited November 19, 2009 by cloudhopper

[getgoin]

I've said this before, Pai? Why?

Street vendors to do the catering? A novel idea and I would have to say that I love street food and this would be fun.

[Sparkles]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the info...

We were thinking that we would fo it in March-April 2011 but from the sounds of it, it may not be the best idea....

So we have changed the date to somewhere Sept-Oct 2010... Hows that sound for weather and tourists??

Although Pai is likely to change drasticly, it is still the idea that we love... Being in the hills, quiet town by day, with limited night life... Not much more to do then sit by the river and read, eat and sleep... Walks through the hills, and a whole lot of laughs...

Can anyone suggest a guest house that we should look into???

We were thinking "Rim Pai Cottages" or "Wang Change Puek Pai" as they are both on the river... Any suggestions would be great!

Thanks again!

ThaKing

We stayed at Rim Pai Cottages in late October. perfect place by the river and the spacious gardens would make an a excellent choice for a wedding. The staff are very friendly and efficient and you feel you are away from it all but actually in the centre of town. If you do decide on Rim Pai I would book in early as their repeat business is very good and quite often heavily booked. They only do breakfast but I am sure you would have no problem organising a caterer.

[ThaKing]

Thanks guys,

This is all really good information....

I know a lot of people have gotten over the "Pai is amazing" thing, but this is where my fiance and I got engaged (where I poped the question) and we would both like to go back. Sure it wont be what is was, but still a slowing in lifestyle from the hussel and bussel of bangkok and even Melbourne Australia...

We will be deciding on a date shortly, and due to your ideas, we will arrive at something good I am sure..

Thanks again, and I am sure there will be more questions to come!

ThaKing

Edited November 24, 2009 by ThaKing