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[jenandmatt]

Official Wedding Photos!

Jen & Matt's Wedding OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER - Images by Jennifer Oyston

[jenandmatt]

We did it!!!

[jenandmatt]

Online RSVP Form

Hi everyone - just a little something to make the RSVP process a bit easier if you haven't sent your reply card back or sent an email RSVP. Just fill out the form below & let us know whether or not you will be attending. Please do fill it out even if it's a definite no. We need to finalise numbers for the venue very soon so confirming the number of guests is essential for our planning. Thank you! J & M xxxx

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[jenandmatt]

What shall I wear? (The Dress Code Post)

Hello everyone. We have had a few emails asking about the dress code for our wedding, so I thought it might be easier to address that here......

Overall, we are going for 'Smart but relaxed'.

We do want our wedding to be a reasonably relaxed affair :) and the fact that we are getting married in Thailand reflects that wish. We also want everyone to be comfortable given that is likely that the temperature will be around 30 degrees Celsius. At the same time, we are not having a 'beach' wedding and in the setting of the chapel & the reception hotel 'beachwear' won't be appropriate.

A couple of things to consider:

- The Chapel (ceremony venue) & reception venue at the Dusit Thani are both air-conditioned.

- We are having an hour of cocktails on the beach at the hotel outside the Causuarina Beach restaurant (between 5.30pm-6.30pm) so this will be the only time actually spent on the sand.

For the guys - it is not compulsory to wear a jacket if you don't wish to. Same goes for ties. Summer suit trousers, linen trousers or smart chinos are fine. Short-sleeved & open-necked shirts are also fine. No t-shirts/polo shirts. 

For the girls - I think it's a bit easier for the girls :) Just what you would wear to a smartish summer wedding....

Hope that helps - any questions just let us know!

J & M xxxxx

[jenandmatt]

The 'FriendMoon' Update

Hi everyone.....we can't really believe it, but we are now about 3 and a half months away from our wedding in Thailand. We're starting to get pretty excited! So - we're writing with an update on the post-wedding 'friendmoon'......

Part 1 - Ko Phi Phi - 24th-26th April (2 nights)

We'll be leaving Phuket on the morning of the 24th April & taking the ferry to Koh Phi Phi.

When Matt & I arrive on Phuket on the 17th we will aim to book ferry tickets for everyone who needs one.

We have now booked our hotel on Phi Phi for 2 nights (The Phi Phi Palmtree Resort www.pppalmtreeresort.com). We plan to do the camping on Phi Phi Le on the night of the 24th (setting off at 4.30pm), so you only need to book a hotel for the night of the 25th.

We will store everyone's stuff in our room the night of the 24th, or the company that organises the camping does also provide secure storage.

The Phi Phi Le Camping is 2100 baht per person (including food) - about £43. We will sort out the deposit to confirm the booking. Full info can be found here:

http://www.mayabaycamping.com/Default.aspx

Part 2 - Koh Lanta - 26th-29th April (3 nights) On the morning of the 26th we will take the ferry from Phi Phi to Koh Lanta.

We are booked in at LaLaanta (www.lalaanta.com) for the three nights, and there are also rooms now confirmed there for the following people:

Vanessa

Vic (& Phil for 1 night?)

Lisa & Paul

Ali & Neal

Oz

If you haven't booked a room yet & want to come to Koh Lanta please do email Patrick (patrick@lalaanta.com). LaLaanta is a small place & they will probably fill up....

However, there are two other accommodation options on the same beach, a very short walk from LaLaanta:

Baan Phu Lae - http://www.baanphulae.net

Bamboo Bay - http://www.bamboobay.net

PLEASE NOTE: You will need to leave Koh Lanta 1 full day before you fly home from Phuket/Bangkok because of the ferry timings etc, so most of you will need to stay one night on Phuket the night before you fly home.

Any questions etc just let us know..... Jen & Matt xxxx

[jenandmatt]

Choose your dancing tunes

Fill in the form to tell what you'd like to dance to at our wedding!

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[jenandmatt]

How the Royal Wedding affects the Oyston-Chapman Wedding......

I can't say I expected to be writing a blog post with that title :) Anyway, the date of the wedding of Kate Middleton & Prince William has now been set for 29th April 2011 - exactly a week after ours! What this means is that 29th April is now a Bank Holiday, so if you plan to be away at this point you can take a day less annual leave. Yay! So there are now 4 x public holidays the week of our wedding and the week after....

The UK public holidays are:

Friday 22nd April (Good Friday)

Monday 25th April (Easter Monday)

Friday 29th April (Royal Wedding)

Monday 2nd May (Bank Holiday)

I should add that as this means that people only need to book 3 days of annual leave to take an 11 day holiday there may now be alot more people considering travelling abroad over these two weeks. If you are coming to our wedding or seriously considering it we would recommend booking your flights as soon as possible.

[jenandmatt]

We have just sent out our formal invitations! They turned out beautifully, and we're really happy with them. Hope everyone enjoys receiving them! We want to thank the lovely Annabella Weiss (www.bellapropella.blogspot.com) for doing all the design work for us, and Dave Jared for sourcing the beautiful card and doing all the printing......

Just over 5 months to go till the big day :)

[jenandmatt]

Our awesome engagement party....

Last Saturday we finally threw our engagement party and we had the most amazing time! We even got soaked in champagne F1 style :) It has made us even more excited for the main event in Thailand next year. Thanks to everyone who was there at the weekend and to our families for helping us so much with the preparation. We felt the love!

[jenandmatt]

Flights

Well - Matt & I have now booked our long haul flights, as have our parents & I thought I would share the results of our research on options.......we haven't booked our Bangkok to Phuket bit yet because most of these flights haven't been released yet, and there are plenty of flights a day from Bangkok to Phuket. The choices you might want to consider (out of the UK) are:

These are based on a sample search (London to Bangkok 18th April 2011 to 1st May 2011)

www.evaair.com (Direct to Bangkok) - Economy approx £650

www.qatarairways.com (Bangkok via Doha) - Economy approx £550

www.etihadairways.com (Bangkok via Abu Dhabi) - Economy approx £560

BA/Qantas (Direct to Bangkok) - Economy approx £650

We have found Dial a Flight extremely helpful on the phone - competitive prices, able to hold seats while you decide, and deposit options on lots of flights that are being booked a long way in advance. But we also like Ebookers & NetFlights if you want to book online.

Flights to Phuket from Bangkok

There are loads of options, but here's the main ones we've found.....some of these probably won't release flights for April/May 2011 until June-July time.

Thai Airways - www.thaiairways.com

Bangkok Air - www.bangkokair.com

Thai Air Asia - www.airasia.com

Spanair - www.spanair.com

JAL - www.uk.jal.com

Orient Thai Airlines - www.orient-thai.com

One Two Go Airlines - www.fly12go.com

Hope that's helpful!

Jen & Matt xxxx

[jenandmatt]

Save the Dates & Info Update

If you are reading this, you have probably recently received our wedding announcement/save the date card. Yay! If you are planning on joining us in Thailand next year - double yay! Don't forget to email and let us know that you are planning to come, as we would like to set up an email group to help keep everyone up to date. 

We know April 2011 seems a long way off, but time will fly & there are travel plans to be made :) It would also really help with our planning to have an idea of numbers.

Please bookmark & keep checking this page as there will be regular updates! Here are a few more details on the provisional plan so far & there are also a few earlier entries on the proposal/shiny item.....

Jen & Matt xxxx (mrandmrs.chapman.to.be@googlemail.com)

Ceremony Date: 22nd April 2011 at 4pm

Venue: The Chapel on the Lagoon at Laguna Phuket

Laguna Phuket spans 1000 acres of tropical parkland along an eight kilometre stretch of beautiful beach at Bang Tao Bay on Phuket’s west coast - http://www.lagunaphuket.com/

Location: You can find a map of Phuket here - http://www.lagunaphuket.com/images/phuket-map-l.jpg. This shows all the main beaches & many of the hotels.

Hotel: We plan to be based at The Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket & have our reception here - http://www.dusit.com/hotels/thailand/phuket/dusit_thani/index.html. If you would like to stay here too that would be fabulous!

Other accomodation: The Laguna Phuket complex also contains 6 other hotels....

Banyan Tree Phuket, Sheraton Grande Laguna, Laguna Beach Resort, Outrigger Laguna Phuket Resort & Villas, Best Western Allamanda Laguna Phuket, Laguna Holiday Club Resort.

And of course there are many other places to stay on other beaches in the vicinity of Bang Tao Bay.

Travel Contact: The lovely Natasha Yelland at Creative Events Asia will be happy to help you book your accomodation. She has the details of all our plans & can provide you with the rates we have organised at The Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket, but can also advise on any other options you wish to explore - just email her at: natasha@creativeeventsasia.com (reference the Oyston/Chapman wedding). Natasha always responds very promptly to emails, but please bear in mind that Thailand is +7 GMT! Natasha is an Australian who has lived in Thailand for eleven years, so communication is very easy.

Flights: Flights for April 2011 will apparently start being released in May & June 2010 (depending on the airline). We will be looking into the possibility of group rates, but as we are assuming that anyone coming will be adding holiday time either before or after the wedding, & also flying from different places, it may be difficult to do this. There are usually plenty of good deals on flights to Bangkok (from there it is a very short internal flight to Phuket), and a number of airlines fly to Phuket via other hub destinations in Asia (avoiding Bangkok altogether). If you want a nice (& usually reasonably priced) direct flight from London to Bangkok then try Eva Air (www.evaair.com).

And www.skyscanner.net is always useful for initial research!

Travel Insurance: Please check your travel insurance policy carefully in light of the recent problems with the volcanic ash disruption!

Provisional Schedule: There is of course some flexibility in terms of when you arrive on Phuket or at the resort. We would love everyone to be there for the evening of 21st April so we can get all our guests together for a welcome dinner (probably at one of the local beach restaurants).

Here's the plan....... 20th April 2011 - Bride & Groom arrive at Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket

21st April 2011 - Welcome dinner for everyone (evening)

22nd April

4pm - Wedding Ceremony

5.30pm to 6.30pm - Champagne & Cocktails on the beach (at Dusit Thani)

6.30pm to 8.00pm - Dinner

8.00pm to 8.30pm - Speeches!

8.30pm onwards - TBC

23rd or 24th April - Jen & Matt leave on honeymoon!

[jenandmatt]

Our Save the Dates are going out today! Feels like it's all happening now......we made them ourselves & it was really fun!

[jenandmatt]

The location of the proposal…….the church within the Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site don’t ya know. And there’s beautiful lighting from chandeliers made of salt crystals.

[jenandmatt]

The provisional plan.....

We have decided that we would like to get married in Thailand in April 2011.....looks like the 3rd week of that month should be the one to get pencilled in to those diaries! Of course you can take a week before or after our ceremony to make the most of the time in Thailand......

N.B. Except for Vic. I know the whole 'using a diary' thing didn't quite work out :)

[jenandmatt]

The Shiny Item.......

Matt took Jen on a surprise trip to Poland, where he proposed in a church inside the Krakow salt mine. Jen said yes :) Then they couldn’t fly home because of the volcanic ash incident, so they had a 3 day adventure travelling across Poland, Germany & Holland. When they finally got home Matt presented Jen with this shiny item…….& now they are getting married!