A Magical Wedding on Railay Beach

We were privileged to be invited to Railay beach in Thailand to see the marriage of our good friends Katie and Grant. Their wedding turned out not only to be an amazing day full of laughter, new friends and love - but it also gave us a luxurious break away from our current life as dirty backpackers.

For anyone who doesn't know Katie and Grant, they're our friends from Nottingham who now live in Adelaide, South Australia, with their little girl Bethany. Katie's a Brit and Grant's Australian which means the halfway point of Thailand made for the perfect location to ensure optimum attendance of family and friends from both isles. It's also a pretty spectacular place to get married.

Railay/Railei beach in Krabi, Thailand.

Most of the guests arrived a few days before the wedding in order to enjoy the hen and stag parties. The ladies' day was a classy affair with lunch in nearby Ao Nang overlooking the sea and an afternoon snorkelling off a junket boat with the odd cocktail thrown in for good measure. While the men had a day canoeing and an evening enjoying the night life of Railay. Considering it's not the wildest of resorts, I hear they managed to show themselves up in a way that only a large group of Brits and Aussies could... and I'll say no more.

The hens on board the junket boat.

Katie moved to Australia nearly five years ago and since then I've been doing my very best trying to talk her into coming home. But after meeting all of her Australian friends and family I know I've got a job on my hands - they're friendly, generous, funny and they obviously love Katie and Grant very much.

The ceremony itself was held at Railei Beach Club which is a collection of ornate, traditional wooden houses on the beach front. They chose to get married in House Number 1 which is perfectly shrouded by trees from the gawping eye of sunbathing tourists but has the dramatic scenery of Railay beach and its limestone cliffs as a backdrop.

House Number 1 at Railei Beach Club set up for the wedding ceremony.

Me and Luke before the ceremony.

From the moment me and Luke arrived and got handed stubby holders with our names on, I knew it was going to be a wonderful and thoughtful day full of things that are typically "Katie and Grant".

Katie is the kind of person who always puts extra special effort into everything she does - not only will she remember your birthday but she'll hand make you a personal card. This was reflected in her wedding as she and Grant had thought of everything from giving fans and a bottles of water to all of the guests, who were wilting in the heat, to providing buckets and spades for the kids.

Personalised drink holders (pic courtesy of Conor and Elva, forgot to get one of ours).

The order of service was written on a blackboard and hung on a tree.

Katie and Grant's photo tree of their best memories.

The guests were given a Poloroid camera and hung their photos up.

Along with another of their Nottingham friends, Emil, I was given the role of doing a reading which was both an honour and a source of great anxiety. I read the lyrics of All I Want Is You from the film Juno while Emil read The Book of Love by The Magnetic Fields. Emil's Indonesian-print batik shirt was also a big hit of the day.

Me and Emil practice our readings before ceremony while the groom fans himself! 

I'm not a big cryer at weddings but when the time came for Katie to walk in with her dad I think the whole congregation had a little tear in their eye. Not only did she look beautiful, but also so happy and delighted to see all of her family and friends, both British and Australian, in one place for the first time ever.

Katie arrives with her dad.

One of the most memorable parts of the wedding was the Sand Ceremony which saw (slightly pebbly) sand from Katie's hometown beach of Shoreham and (much softer) sand from Grant's hometown beach of Adelaide being poured together. They then kept some of the sand as a keepsake and the rest was poured into Railay beach - meaning there will always be a little bit of the UK and Australia swilling around on the shore where they got married.

The sand from Adelaide and Shoreham.

Grant and Katie during the sand ceremony.

Katie and Grant wrote their own vows which meant there wasn't any of the "honour and obey" crap and instead they spoke words that meant something to them and everyone around them. The wedding celebrant was also a fantastic chap who'd devised a little poem about how they met.

Happily married.

The newly weds with both sides of the family.

By the time the ceremony was complete and we'd all had a glass of South Australian pink wine, kindly brought over by the Australians in their suitcases, the sun had nearly set and we all had dinner on the beach. The setting was amazing - it was so quiet in front of Railei Beach Club it felt like we had the beach to ourselves.

Katie, Grant and Bethany (The KGB) on the beach after the wedding.

Wedding dinner set up on beautiful Railay beach.

In another "Katie and Grant" touch they had named all of the tables after places they've travelled together and did the table plan on a world map.

Map of the world table plan...

We were on the Great Britain Table, of course!

The party on the beach was pretty epic and something I'll remember for the rest of my life. If the amazing setting wasn't enough, they'd planned entertainment in the form of fire dancers who were probably the best I've seen in Thailand (and believe me, you see a lot of fire entertainers in Thailand!). I think everyone's heart was in their mouth when fire dancing Mr.Ting brought Katie up and danced around her (and her dress) with his flaming torches. I think the ladies will also forever remember Mr.Ting's rippling muscles!

Katie plays with fire with Mr.Ting (photo stolen off Nick Donovan's Facebook).

After the party there was an after-party on East Railay where the congregation headed for more cocktails. Again, the bride and groom thought of everything and at midnight a man arrived on a bicycle with loads of pizzas for the tipsy guests.

As well as the tradition of throwing the bouquet, the Brits were also introduced to an Australian tradition where the man takes off the bride's garter using only his teeth. Grant actually did a pretty good job, rather worryingly.

Katie doesn't like Australian traditions!!

After that there was just enough time for Kayten to challenge everyone to a press-up competition and for the Best Man to whoop his ass.

So there it is. Surely a contender for Wedding of the Year 2014?

USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT RAILAY BEACH
Getting married: Jeeez! Don't ask me, Katie and Grant did all of the hard work - I just rocked up and enjoyed the day. The best place to start would probably be at Railei Beach Club as I know they used their wedding planner. Just say you want the "Katie and Grant Special".
Accommodation: We stayed at Railay Garden View Resort which is a brilliant mid-range option at 1,240 baht (£25) a night for a double room including breakfast. We then moved on to 500 baht (£10) a night huts at Phutawan Resort which were the cheapest huts we could find in Railay and were fine, if a little depressing after a week at Garden View.
Eating: By far the best food we found was at The Organic Thai restaurant, an unassuming little place located on the pathway between East and West Railay. For Western food then Joy Pizza on East Railay does really tasty stone bake pizzas.
Getting there and away: From Bangkok to Railay we took a night train, bus and long tail boat which was a joint ticket and came to 1,350 baht (£27) and took 15 hours. To get from Railay to Koh Tao we took a long tail boat, bus and catamaran, again a joint ticket, which came to 1,450 baht (£30) and took 7 hours.