This adventure seeking couple start their story in The Netherlands, organise their wedding from Australia and marry in Thailand. Jori shares their story and a peek into this intimate wedding:
"Mark and I are both Dutch and met while studying at the same university. After 2 years of dating, Mark got offered a job in Sydney, Australia and we decided to seek the adventure and give it a go. This move and trying to start a new life at the other end of the world made our love for each other even stronger, we really are everything to each other now.
After dating for 7 years Mark proposed during a holiday in The Netherlands. He organised a goodbye dinner with friends and family on the last night of our holiday in a restaurant in my home town. He suddenly stood outside and held up signs in front of the window with beautiful words about our love story...and it ended with the big question! It was so special and I loved it that we shared this moment with our family and friends. During our engagement party in Australia I wanted to also tell Mark how much he means to me and proposed back to him in front of all our Australian friends with a beautiful watch.
Mark and I wanted an intimate, relaxed celebration and since we don’t see our family and friends from The Netherlands often, we wanted to be able to spend more quality time together than just focus on one day. We choose to get married in Phuket (Thailand) to make the location half-way so that everyone would get that holiday feeling.
I was lucky enough that my mum was able to travel to Sydney to help me find my dream dress. We both said that it was just about the experience and that there was no pressure to find it in the two weeks that she was here, but secretly of course we were both determined that we just had to find it! We did... we went shopping the day after she arrived day and at the end of the day we saw my dress! It was love at first sight!
The whole experience was very relaxed! We did our legal ceremony in Sydney which meant we could really make the ceremony in Phuket how we wanted it. We choose to get both our brothers involved, they both read a poem during the ceremony. And we did "tying of a Fisherman’s Knot" as our ritual, where we got our mums involved as well. We had no seating arrangements but asked everyone to move around throughout the night, we enjoyed a beautiful BBQ buffet dinner which was cooked live.
We had 33 people attending our wedding, including a photographer from Australia and two videographers from The Netherlands. Everyone arrived a few days before the wedding and it was amazing to spend this quality time together. Our photographer was happy to fly back the evening after the wedding, he said he was available for a photo shoot the next day. We hired a private driver and had so much fun visiting amazing locations and wearing our wedding outfits again!
Congratulations on "tying the knot" Jori and Mark! As much as they love the Australian lifestyle, Jori would love to put the money from sale of her dress towards visiting her family and friends in The Netherlands.
Watch the proposal:
Dress: Lisa Gowing, Handmade Flower: Swish Bridal Design, Photography: James Day, Location: The Renaissance Resort, Phuket
By Ingrid Szajer
Anonymous Buyer