Y+N Wedding

The real reason Sam and I came to Thailand this time was to attend the wedding of one of her closest friends. This is the same friend that let us stay in her new condo for the three days preceding the wedding. On the big day we got up at 5am, got dressed (Sam in t-shirt and shorts and me in full regalia) and stumbled out the door into (another old friend of Sam’s) June’s car. Twenty minutes later we were at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the most elegant (and expensive) hotel in Bangkok (and perhaps all of Thailand).

Above is the lobby, below is the river view from the bar area.

The shady path to the pool is below.

The ladies went off to do their hair and makeup and I set out to find some food.

Bangkok is a city that sprang up from a millenia of trading posts on the Chao Phraya River. Even with a GPS enabled map it was easy to wind up in a few dead ends in the gridless sprawling maze. Walking onto the grounds of a catholic middle school at ten minutes before the opening bell was interesting. Eventually I gave up on finding real food and/or coffee and settled for whatever I could find at a local T-Mart (a 7-11 clone). I spilled yogurt on myself and didn’t notice until half an hour later when I was back at the hotel giving myself a sponge (or more like, “little square towels”) bath to wipe off all the sweat I’d accumulated from walking the streets.

Around 9 we were ushered down to a waiting area to mill about with all the other wedding guests.

Then, shortly before the ceremony, we were moved into a banquet hall (in which we’d eat immediately after the ceremony).

For the wedding we were ushered into Author’s Lounge, in which the wedding would take place in a small two-story open room. The white “chapel” room was well decorated, some florist in Bangkok must of been very happy judging by the amount of flowers and flower petals everywhere. In the wide but short room there were four sections of seating laid out in five rows each about forty seats wide. A sprawling double staircase connected the upstairs to either side of the “chapel” area.

Sam was one of four bridesmaids (1 of 2 female).

Followed by the bride (Jay):

We’d heard the wedding would be massive, but it turns out this was really a description of the reception; the actual ceremony was attended by 200 photographers and thirty guests. Wait, reverse that, but I think you’ll agree that thirty photographers buzzing around is still a lot. I was reassured that it was a typical Thai wedding and it’s commonplace for folks to be snapping pictures of each other and posting to facebook, not to mention chatting about it, twenty feet from the bride and groom exchanging vows. Given Jay’s celebrity status I’m sure some of those folks were liveblogging the event. Below is a film of the wedding cut by a pro.

Did you catch my cameo?

Did you catch Sam’s?

The good thing about all this is that it allowed me to play professional photographer for the morning and crane my hand up and over guests to try and get some good shots. I never tried to get in the way of the real photographers though, as someone likely paid a lot of money to get them there. I was still able to pull off some intersting shots later due to a combination of luck, taking hundreds (about 350) of photos and careful cropping and editing in Photoshop. This was really the first time I’d ever regretting my decision not to get the zoom lens for my camera. I was never any closer than thirty feet from the wedding party during the ceremony, and this made for some difficult sharpening, smoothing, etc. in photoshop to get the zoomed and cropped shots to not look terrible.

Since the wedding itself was all done in Thai I’m not sure what exactly was said, but it was a christian wedding, so I got the gist of what was happening most of the time. I won’t share all the edited photos (hundreds) on this blog (but you can see them on facebook), as the only people I’m sure will read this (hi Mom, hi Dad, hi Aunt Lois!) won’t know anyone in the photos (except Sam). Well, that and the fact that putting each photo into these blogs is still a laborious task; apparently the ability to append multiple photos to a blog entry is something WordPress still doesn’t deem important enough to include in their basic code. (yes, I’ve tried the widgets – they don’t work with Google Photos)

After the wedding there was a short lunch reception in one of the smaller ballrooms in the hotel connected to Author’s Lounge. The food was a mix of western and asian, and I ate too many mashed potatos. After this we were informed that we’d have a few hours of “down time” before the official reception at six. I used the time to start editing down the hundreds of photos I’d just taken.

It was also at this time that Sam and I checked into the room that Jay had procured for us for the night. The room was without a doubt the most expensive I’ve ever stayed in. The bed, tv, etc. weren’t much different than something on the level of the Green Valley Resort in Vegas, but the bathroom was filled with a very nice looking stone tile. The amount of “stuff” provided was also above the level of most hotels (sewing kit, dental kit, shaving kit, talc, etc. etc.) I’ve ever stayed in. The most interesting thing, perhaps, wasn’t any of that, it was the small note left on the desk for us. It read:

Dear Guest, Re: Celebrity Wedding for 900 guests on Wednesday, 1 August 2012.

I would like to inform you that there will be a wedding reception of one of Thailand’s most well known celebrity couples on Wednesday, 1 August 2012. The creme de la creme of Bangkok’s high society and celebrities; high profile personalities as well as media are expected to show up in full force. We anticipate very busy “traffic” in the Lobby…. (and so on)

This was a little taste of what was in store. To get to the reception every guest had to walk through the lobby, up the stairs and through a “forest” entrance. After the entrance was a line of greeters and a line to get your picture taken with the bride and groom. This was all immediately adjacent to a massive ballroom with a “cocktail party.” The little cocktail parties that my office throws at our symposium in Vegas looked like an elementary school slumber party compared to this spectacle. The room was lined with top cuisine from several parts of the world as well as having a full bar and hors devores stands in the center. Sam and I wanted to sample everything, but after about an hour the place was so packed that we were never able to navigate to the far side of the room. For all we know, in addition to the American, French, Japanese, Italian, Chinese and Thai tables there could have been another table representing every country in the world. It is also worth mentioning that Jay gained some of her fame from hosting cooking shows on Thai TV. She must have had her personal approval on all of the food available as it was all top notch. I think Sam and I went back to get chocolate crepes at least three times. There was very fresh and good sashimi and sushi (and many other dishes I won’t mention).

Eventually we broke off (as many of Sam and Jay’s friends did) and went down to the lobby for a breather. Getting there was a minefield. As soon as a guest would step outside the sardine can of the ballroom every third step would be “in the way” of a celebrity photographer. We would be walking along and suddenly a school of cameras would circle us like ants around a chocolate bar. We’d have to duck out of the way of an oncoming celebrity on their way to the ballroom. I’m sure parties in Hollywood (after the Oscars, etc.) are very similar to this; however, since these were all Thai celebrities I couldn’t tell famous from non-famous and got caught off guard quite often. It was also funny to see a celebrity finish an interview and turn around and say hi to their “old college buddy” Sam.

Several of Sam’s friends are celebrities in Thailand and some have greater reach than that, being spotted in LA when we go to eat with them. It didn’t really crystalize for me until this night how “big” Jay in particular was. Of course part of me had been reluctant to believe she was really a huge celebrity because, well, celebrities are supposed to be narcissistic jerks, right? I guess that’s only true in America (Wolfgang Puck and your “I won’t sign two books for two people at my meet and greet” I’m looking at you). Throughout our four days in Bangkok Jay was always apologizing for not spending more time with us and asking how things were. As if having a wedding with 900 guests wasn’t distracting enough. As if letting us stay in her new condo AND booking us a night at the best hotel in Thailand (AND booking transportation to Trat the next day) AND picking us up at the airport the night before the rehearsal AND giving us a Samsung Galaxy III to use while we’re here wasn’t enough. I’m probably forgetting more things she’s done for us on this trip, but you get the idea. Having got to know her a little bit before the wedding it was a jarring contrast to suddenly see her (and her groom) at the center of the celebrity spotlight, as all our previous interaction was of a decidedly more personal and “down to earth” flavor.

After an hour or so we left the lobby to check out the view of the river.

We then retired to our room to get some sleep. How many of the other guests (including the newlyweds) stayed up until 5am at the afterparty I have no idea.

In the morning we met with three of Sam’s friends for the breakfast buffet.

It was possibly the best breakfast buffet I’ve ever had. I ate until it hurt, and then tried to eat more.

Even the river catfish enjoyed a feast.

Before checking out we stopped by the bride and groom’s penthouse on our same floor. The room had a great outdoor patio with a view of the city and river. There was evidence of many other things that had came with the room the night before. One thing remaining was a long tail boat made out of white chocolate.