Wedding Blog
On the day of my wedding, I will be having a traditional Thai Water Ceremony at my mother’s home in Westchester. My dilemma now is getting a Thai dress to wear. Unlike the myriad of Chinese Bridal shops in the NYC area, I have yet to find a Thai one. Actually, I don’t think one exists (but hey I could be wrong). I pretty much have 2 options here as I see it.
1) Find a Thai dressmaker here in NY and have them tailor one for me. (Although, I think finding the appropriate matierials, unless they have a large selection at hand, will be quite challenging.)
2) Take a 2 week trip to Thailand for my vacation sometime next year and have one made there.
Of course, I’m loving the thought of being whisked off to Thailand to pick and choose what I want there. On top of that I also wanted to pick out some favors and Thai decorations there as well. (I’ll get into my thoughts & ideas about decor later.) Now I’m on a mission looking at different Thai dresses/styles, and picking and choosing some of my favorites. (God, I love the internet!) Here are some of the dresses/styles I’m taking into consideration.
I just added the blue one because I love the way the color just pops out. Beautiful… But my favorites are the 1st and 2nd one.
I actually wore a Thai dress for my engagement ceremony. I’ll have to find a picture where I am standing up when I get home. Here’s a picture of me sitting down with my uncle after the ceremony. 
Please disregard the crazy hair day I was having. And just for kicks I also added in a picture of me cheesing it up for the camera. Despite my messy hair, I think the expression shows how extremely happy I was that day. I can only begin to imagine how happy I’ll be on my wedding day. 
Which of these dresses do you think looks best? Are any of you ladies also having a cultural ceremony? What cultural background are you from? What kind of dresses will you be wearing?
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I will be wearing an ao dai (Vietnamese traditional dress) for either/both the rehearsal dinner and/or to cut the cake. I like them all except for the blue one. I think the red will look great with your skin tone.
Wow those are gorgeous!!! I think the first is my favorite (LOVE that fabric!) followed by the 3rd.
I’ll be wearing a cheongsam to our Chinese banquet, but I’ll probably have to get one made since my white-girl hips don’t fit into any of the pre-made ones I’ve seen!! 
The fifth one is GORGEOUS!
I love the first dress it so pretty. The white and blue dresses are gorgeous too.
i like 4 or 5 
i think white is just a great color and the yellow is beautiful! any of those will look great on you - purrrrty lady
Those are all beautiful, although the first one is my favorite.
I love the color of the first one, detail, design, and contrasting textures of fabric in second one, and the color contrast/ detail of the fourth one. Am I helping?? I guess not!=p
wow! I hate gold jewelry, but those two gold dresses are so gorgeous!!
i like the second one… but i love love love the fifth one!
i like 1, 4, or 5.
The first one is so pretty! The second outfit is similar to what I wore for my engagement ceremony except my “shawl” (for lack of a better word) was shorter in length…
I like the first one! One of my friends got married, his wife wore a cream colored thai dress…. it was soooo beautiful. Style was most similar to the first dress. Although I also really like the third one. Really any of them will look so pretty!
traditional thai dresses are so pretty! we had a korean ceremony at our wedding - most guests told us it was the highlight!
i like 5 and 6, especially the drape detail on the 5th one.
when i get married i’m planning on doing the p’yebaek so i’ll be all decked out in a hanbok. i’m sooooo excited.
I agree with T…I love the 5th one! The drape is so pretty.
My favorite is #1 and 2, but I love skirt part of #4. The color is beautiful and my favorite of all the choices. #5 is beautiful too but I’m assuming you’ll be wearing a white wedding gown so a different color Thai dress would be gorgeous. I’m Korean and I really wanted to have pae baek, but since my FI is white (ergo ditto on his parents) I decided not to do it. It actually breaks my heart a little because I always wanted to have a traditional Korean wedding if I ever got married. Pae baek, receiving the hahm, the whole schbang.
2ingkos — if it means a lot to you to have a Korean ceremony as well, go for it! Your FI should understand how important it is to you and be willing to incorporate at least some elements into the overall wedding. I am of Chinese background and my boyfriend is from the Middle East, and I intend to somehow get all traditions in : )
BTW Miss Orchid — #1 would be beautiful with your skin tone, and #2 is gorgeous too. I think you should take the trip to Thailand!
These dresses are gorgeous. I love how it drapes over your shoulder - so sexy~! I like the first two also.
oOo.. I hope you can change your outfits many, many times over the course of the evening because all the dresses are so pretty!
2ingkos - I also think you should do paebaek. My mother has a side business doing paebaek and she has many customers that are Korean and American, whether the Korean be the bride or groom. I’ve helped her on many occassions to help translate for the non-Korean family/friends and they absolutely LOVED it. They kept remarking on how beautiful the traditional costumes and traditions were and the pictures came out wonderfully. It also gives the Korean side to explain the importance and meaning of each action.
I plan on doing it, too!
They’re all pretty! But #1, 5, 6, 7 really appeal to me. How fun and exciting it is you’re wearing your own culture’s dress. I remember when I went to Thailand years and years ago, one of the things that made a strong impression on me was the gorgeous gorgeous fabrics I saw at this store where my mom was shopping. The fabrics were so rich and beautiful. I’m excited for you! Show pix once you find your dress(es)!
I actually had a Thai water ceremony for my wedding! I got the the silk from my mom’s friend and we got it tailor made from this Thai guy in Chicago. It was simply beautiful! Where did you get this website? I actually had a blue Thai dress that looked modern than those.
Love that you are posting this!
i love 2, 6, and 7!! the blue dress is gorgeous. very eye catching and beautiful.
i’ve never heard of a thai water ceremony. will you please share with us, what one is? thanks!!
A Thai water ceremony is a special time when the guests of the bride and groom (who are their elders or older than them) will come and give their blessings upon them. The bride and groom will wear their Thai outfits and sit at special seats. There is a bowl of water next to them in which someone (in my case the wedding party) hand to the guests a small bowl of water and they will pour water to the hands of the bride & groom and give them their blessings. It’s a really wonderful time where they can give well wishes to the newlyweds! There’s more to the ceremony but this is a short summarization of it.
>>2) Take a 2 week trip to Thailand for my vacation sometime next year and have one made there.
“2) Take a 2 week trip to Thailand for my vacation sometime next year and have one made there.”
I would DEFINATELY take this option. You could do it in a week, and besides your travel expenses would probably equal what you would pay for the dress in NYC. Thailand is my second favorite country on the earth next to ours. Anyway, the experience of having it tailored to you in Thailand with authentic style and everything would just be part of the whole Thai experience. And as the materials and labor are so much less expensive there - you’ll have the richness of the experience. In my mind - that’s priceless!
I’d go Thai style for the whole day, not just a water ceremony. Don’t know if that was your implication. Who would want to go back to plain ole white after wearing the exuberant colors of Thai style? And if you do that you have a greater justification to go to thailand. Their stying is definately so form flattering and sexy with out being sleezy or showy - so elegant down to the materials.
Miss Bride and Luckyme, thanks for your support and well wishes. We are getting married in 8 days so we don’t have time even if I changed my mind. :p My FI has always been supportive about all my ideas, good and bad. He feels bad we are not doing pae baek too, especially since he loves the traditional dresses. But I had decided not to do it for many reasons one of which, his parents are divorced and are civil (I think?) but I can’t ask them to sit side by side and do the pae baek. I don’t regret my decision but I suppose I feel a bit wistful. There are just so many things I wish we had done differently. But I’m sure our wedding will be beautiful as it will be and not going to dwell on what it could’ve been.
i like the 1st and the 5th! i think i’m gonna go tailor make the 5th one, cos it looks very much like a saree, which i love totally!
i’m chinese, and i’ll be marrying a wonderful malaysian indian. so on my wedding day (sept 17 2006), i’ll be wearing a bollywood-inspired lengha in aqua blue during my reception!
ooo i can’t wait! 
I’m planning on doing the same thing for my thai dress…probably in January when flights are cheaper and the weather’s nice. I won’t be getting anything too expensive though, because I think that we’re just going to do a little thing at the temple and go western all the way at the wedding. I just wanted to do something Thai so my family can feel more involved and less alienated in the tradition.
I just love the dresses and wished I had known about this site. I would’ve probably have gone to Thailand for my Thai dress. Instead, I went to California to get my dress custom-made. There is a Thai dressmaker who has her own store that sells Thai silk (all sorts of colors/patterns) and Thai outfits, including the Thai wedding dress. I was going to go to Thailand but thought it was going to be too much traveling & money and plus I couldn’t find the time to take off work and graduate school. If you decide not to go to Thailand, then I would suggest going to the store in California. It’s in Thai Town.
BTW, I will also be wearing my dream wedding dress along with the Thai dress AND the cheongsam (chinese) dress to honor my fiance’s heritage. Lots of dress changes!! 15 more days to go!
Hi! I really liked the 5th dress but the 3rd dress comes in at a very close second place.
I’m having a similar problem with finding the perfect dress. I’m half Thai and half English and I’m determined to keep the Thai element in the wedding. So I’m looking around for a dressmaker which will be problematic since I want to have my gown made out of a hemp/silk blend. I’m also torn between contemporary Thai dresses with a hint of the tradtional versus the full on traditional style dress. We’re going to include a water ceremony at the end of our wedding so we can skip the formal line up before the reception. It’s just a shame that my mother refuses to participate so it’s all on me to form a creative wedding that combines my British/Thai heritage with my fiance’s British/Italian/Irish background!
Will you have a Western wedding as well as a Thai wedding?
I love the 2nd one!! Very classy.
I am having a similar problem with coordinating and finding a Thai dress without actually travelling to Thailand. Neither I or my finace are Thai- my fiance is Vietnamese-Laotian, and I French-Canadian; but we have decided to have a Buddhist Thai ceremony in Thailand as we will be having our honeymoon there. We will be going to Laos (his family from Pakse) first and have a Vietnamese Tea ceremony there, off to Thailand for wedding, then later back to Canada for another reception. So talk about dress changes and combining cultures.
So far, our only option is to order this online. Siamese style.com (you may want to check their website) and Fanony.com are the only sites that I have seen that sell high-quality wedding dresses. I would rather rent but no guarantees on availability, and I would rather have one thing out of the way as there’s lots to organize. As per previous message by Nitta Tapp, does this seamstress in California have a website or ship to Canada? I would love to know her/his contact info.
Hi there again,
Sorry for the interruption but…I just wanted to revise my suggestion of looking at Siamesestyle.com for wedding dresses. My wedding coordinator (she is from Chiang Mai) has advised me that this is not a reputable company, but has given Fanony Bridal rave reviews …thought I would update all of you! Thanks!
Jaimie.
Hi Jaimie,
I got my dress in cali. Their website is http://www.houseofthaisilk.com; I’ll try to attach my wedding pictures later. I absolutely love the dresses on Fanony. The dress I got from cali. ended up being too big, so I had my tailor fix it and it was perfect. My mother also got her dress there and had to get it tailored here even though both dresses were “custom-made”. In addition, we bought the jewelry from the same store. My mom got her jewelry flown in from thailand.
-Nita Tapp
Hi,
Very lovely dresses in the photos above.
Can someone please tell me how much you have paid for a dress at house of thai silk in California or how much they go for in Thailand?
Trying to see if it will fit my wedding budget. Thanks in advance.
Vickie
Hi
I was wondering if you ordered from fanony.com? I am planning a wedding too and wanted the perfect gown and all those pictures you posted are so beautiful. I am just worried about ordering online.
those are gorgeous but i really adore the white one, its exotic….. really…
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Mrs. Orchid, New York
Age and Occupation in 07: 28, Database Programmer/Analyst
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Physician
Engagement Date: November 19, 2005
Wedding Date: September 29, 2007
Venue: Ocean Jewels Restaurant in Flushing
About Me: Asian woman of Thai/Chinese/Japanese decent, although I am raised Thai. Born and raised in NY. I graduated from The City College of New York with a Graphic Design degree, however I'm doing database programming. (I know go figure!) I'll be marring my college sweetheart of 6 years next September. I have 2 furbabies ages 1yr and 8 months. I'm born on the cusp of Capricorn & Aquarius, I guess that accounts for my diligence and streak of creativity!
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