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FASHION
256
June14
Gabrielle Riggir &
Klas Eriksson
From:
New Zealand and Sweden
Wedding destination:
Phuket, Thailand
Bride’s dress:
BCBGMAXAZRIA
Photographer and florist:
Our wedding
planner Fab Event sorted everything out
for us
Head count:
35
When did you get married?
29 March 2013.
Who designed your invitations?
Klas and I designed our invitations
together, which may not have been the
smartest idea! We chose to get married
quite quickly after we got engaged, and
given that our family and friends live all
around the world, we felt that sending
e-invitations was the best option.
Why did you pick this
destination?
As everyone knows, Singapore is
expensive when it comes to weddings,
and after looking around at the options
we quickly realised that even though
Singapore is right between Sweden
(Klas) and New Zealand (Gabrielle), it
was unfortunately not a financially viable
option for us or our guests.
We looked at a few options around
the region, and the reason we ultimately
chose Phuket is because the flights
to Phuket from New Zealand and
Sweden are affordable and direct, the
accommodation is cheap, and it made
it easy for our guests to get around to
different destinations if they wished to
continue their holiday after the wedding.
Although Klas and I did not see Phuket
as our dreamwedding destination, it was
a great compromise as we managed to
find a really nice restaurant right on the
beach in a relatively quiet area. At the
end of the day, your wedding shouldn’t
be about the destination, but who is
there to celebrate with you.
Did you use a wedding planner?
I knew from the get-go that there was
absolutely no way I was going to get
married without a wedding planner.
That might sound a bit snobby, but
it really was for unpretentious and
practical reasons.
The amount of work you have to
do to pull a wedding off is absolutely
huge, and as a video producer I really
do understand this. I see it in my work
every day, where people try to take on
projects they aren’t familiar with to save
money, but due to inexperience, end up
spending more money and time than if
they had hired a professional. (Not to
mention the stress.)
I wanted our wedding to be our day. I
didn’t want to be stressed that we were
missing one chair, or that the flowers
were an hour late.
The planner we hired – Yai, from Fab
Event planners based in Phuket (fab-
event.com) – was an absolute magician.
The price was also extremely reasonable
– in fact it was an absolute steal, but
not at the cost of the big day. He also
provided flowers and a photographer at
the last minute.
What was the biggest challenge?
Guest logistics. For many people,
coming to a country halfway across
the world on short notice to attend a
wedding is a difficult thing to do, so
we had to be flexible on our dates and
REAL PEOPLE,
REALWEDDINGS
Planning your wedding in Asia
and looking for inspiration? Four
Singapore-based brides share the
ins and outs of their big day.