Thailand wedding
The beautiful Thailand wedding of Jenny & matt Wagstaff
Jenny and Matthew Wagstaff Thai the knot in a perfect beach wedding in Phuket
A wedding ceremony on a private beach in Phuket, Thailand, was the perfect start to married life for Matthew and Jenny Wagstaff.
The couple celebrated their marriage with 22 of their closest friends and family, including parents Peter and Carol Howard and Jim and Hazel Wagstaff, at the Surin resort in a service that was “more than we could have dreamed of”.
The couple, who live in Wilnecote, near Tamworth, Staffordshire, chose a beach wedding in Thailand after spending their first holiday together in the country in 2008, returning the following year for a month as part of a seven-month, 17-country world trip.
“We knew it was the right place to tie the knot,” says Jenny. “The beaches, the weather, the food and the Thai hospitality are out of this world and everything about the day was perfect.”
Jenny, a supply chain strategy analyst for Molson Coors Brewing Company in Burton, and Matthew, general manager at Chameleon Bar and Restaurant, Birmingham, enjoyed a non-religious ceremony on the beach, with the sea as the perfect backdrop.
The service included two readings chosen and read by friends, a sand ceremony to signify their union and a “sharing of the things we love about each other”, in which the celebrant read out the letters Jenny and Matthew had written to each other about why they wanted to marry each other.
The couple exchanged matching platinum rings, which were handmade at Element in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter and engraved in Thai with each other’s names on the inside.
“After the ceremony we rode off along the beach together as husband and wife on an elephant, accompanied by a long drum procession, which was amazing,” says Jenny, who wore a Destinations wedding dress by Maggie Sottero, from Beautiful Dreamer in Erdington.
She was attended by her sister Lucy Howard, who was chief bridesmaid, cousin Sophie Patrick, flower girl Meadow Midford, aged three, and page boy Roman, aged five, both of whom are Lucy’s children.
Matthew, his Best Man Richard Hoare, who is Matt’s deputy at Chameleon, and usher Liam Patrick, the bride’s cousin, wore linen and silk blend suits from Collezione at M&S, which were finished off with made-to-measure silk shirts from a tailors in Surin.
“We spent the afternoon relaxing on the lawn enjoying cocktails and canapés whilst being entertained by a traditional Thai band and dancers, which created a wonderful atmosphere in which to chat to our guests,” remembers Jenny.
“At sunset, we had a 17-month-old baby elephant called Yai Yai to join us and take part in the photos. She was one of our favourite parts of the day and everyone absolutely loved her.”
After a sumptuous four-course sharing-style Thai meal, the bride and groom and their guests danced the night away under the stars and finished off the night with a beautiful lantern ceremony.
The celebrations continued the following evening when they enjoyed a private barbeque and then afterwards, the happy couple said goodbye to their guests to spend two days at the Elephant Hills Luxury Camp in Khao Sok National Park where they kayaked, had lunch on a traditional boat and fed and washed an elephant.
They finished off their honeymoon with a four-night stay in an ocean front villa at the Ramada Khao Lak.
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