Hamilton

Thanks to everybody who attended our wedding.  It was a wonderful experience for us and I hope you all enjoyed the day and night of eating and drinking.  The wedding was so much better than we hoped for mainly due to the big turn out of friends and family from around Thailand and around the world.

A few friends have asked me what is the paperwork needed to get married to a Thai.  Below are the steps needed.

1. Complete an affidavit at the your Embassy. The American Embassy has an affidavit form, available upon request.  It includes all of the information required by relevant Thai law. The form must be completed and notarized at the Embassy (for $30).  The form has a section for two personal references (with addresses) in the US of people who know you.  Not sure what other embassies do. 

2. Have the completed affidavit translated.  (This will cost 300-500 baht)  For an extra 1,xxx baht the translation office will normally do step 3 for you.

3. Take the affidavit and translation to:

Legalization Division
Department of Consular Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
3rd Floor, 123 Chaeng Wattana Road
Tung Song Hong, Laksi District, Bangkok
Tel:(02) 575-1057-8, Fax:(02) 575-1054

4. Take the affidavit and supporting documents to a local Amphur and register yourselves as married. The Amphur will also require the following documents and photocopies!:

a) Your passport;

b) The Thai citizen's identification card;

c) If either party is under the age of twenty, written

permission from the parents (with Thai translation);

d) If either you or your fiance have been previously married the Amphur will want to see proof that prior marriages have been terminated; either divorce or death certificates. These documents if available, should be translated into Thai prior to presentation at the Amphur.

We have finalized our wedding plans and invitations will be sent shortly.

The wedding will take place on Friday APRIL 1st 2005 (no jokes please) in Bangkok.

There will be a traditional Thai daytime ceremony at Pop's house in Rangsit (about 30 minutes from downtown Bangkok).  This will start at 9am sharp!  Plenty of Thai food and drinks will be served.  Guests are reminded to not wear black. 

The wedding reception will be at the Westin Grande Hotel located on the corner of Sukhumvit 19.  http://www.westingrandesukhumvit.com  The reception will take place in the Grand Ballroom from 6:30pm-10:00pm.  It will be a full buffet dinner mixed Thai and Western food. 

We will have more info later on hotels for people who will be flying in from outside Thailand.  The Westin is lovely but a bit pricey compared to other hotels in the neighborhood of similar standard.