Ann Rene’s wedding dress was perfection! Add on 601 Spring as the backdrop and you’ve got a gorgeous bridal session!
Ann Rene’s wedding dress was perfection! Add on 601 Spring as the backdrop and you’ve got a gorgeous bridal session!
Time for a few sneak peeks from David & Ann Rene’s wedding day! 601 Spring looked amazing with decor by The Colony House!
We visited Thailand in April 2017, and I’m ashamedly just now sharing our photos! Our personal photos always get pushed to the back burner, but I’m resolving to do better this year. It’s just as important to me that we have beautiful printed photos as our clients.
We chose April for a visit to Thailand for a few reasons…first, it was when we could fit the trip into our busy schedule. Second, it was shoulder season which is always helpful to the pocketbook. And, lastly, we wanted to see how the Thai people celebrated Songkran, their New Year’s Festival! For the majority of our trip, we stayed at the Chatrium Hotel Riverside in Bangkok. We also hired a private tour guide and private transportation from Your Thai Guide. We had a great time with Nina as our guide! It was wonderful having a knowledgeable guide to explain what we were seeing…and even better to have an air conditioned van waiting on us! (In case you didn’t know, it gets HOT in Thailand!) We arrived early on our first day. Having experienced jet lag numerous times, we knew it wouldn’t benefit us to lounge around the hotel. If we did, we’d be asleep and our schedules would be off. Instead, we opted to start our trip with an afternoon tour to keep us up.
For our first tour, we visited Wat Trimitr (home of the world’s largest gold Buddha image), walked through Chinatown, and experienced Songkran…where we got soaking wet!
While at the temple, Sam and I received a blessing from a monk…
Stinky fruit…this stuff was everywhere!
As I said earlier, the Thai people celebrate Songkran, their New Year Festival, in April. Their celebration includes LOTS and LOTS of water! We walked down a particular area where everyone had water guns. Some of those water guns contained iced water…brrr!
We were really tired by the time we finished watching the Songkran celebration, so we headed back to our hotel for rest. On the next day, we boarded our van and headed to Ayutthaya,
During our visit to Ayutthaya, we saw the Buddha in the tree…
This is the national flower of Thailand, ratchaphruek or golden shower tree.
We also visited Wat Chaiwatthanaram…
After arriving back in Bangkok after visiting Ayutthaya, we visited the Chatuchak Market which is their big weekend market.
That evening, we boarded the Chayo Princess for an evening river cruise…
For our next day in Bangkok, we had a busy itinerary. Our first stop was the Grand Palace where the Temple of the Emerald Buddha can be visited. These first two photos show wall art near our parking space. We giggled…
After the Grand Palace tour, we headed to Wat Pho
Wat Pho is known for its massage school. During our tour, there were drawings and references to the human body…
One of the coolest Buddhas we saw was at the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. Did you know there are Buddhas for each day of the week? The reclining Buddha is for those born on a Tuesday…like Kevin. (The Buddha above is for those born on Saturday!)
This is the Buddha for those born on a Wednesday evening…like me!
Following Wat Pho, we headed to the Golden Mount.
This is where you can see the Buddhas of the week…
We ended this travel day at the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson was an American who started the silk industry in Thailand. He mysteriously disappeared while in Malaysia in 1967. His house in Bangkok is now a museum housing his art collection.
I think our next travel day was Kevin’s favorite. We visited the Kanchanaburi region of Thailand. We started at the Bridge over River Kwai…
They actually let you stand on the bridge as the train passes. Thankfully, there were small step out areas to get out of the way.
Following the bridge, we headed to an elephant sanctuary. We were running short on time, so we didn’t have time to walk with them down to the water for a bath. Instead, we fed them watermelon which they were happy to receive!
After our visit with the elephants, we headed to Krasae Cave where we saw another part of the railroad tracks that run over the River Kwai.
The next morning, we woke up and headed to the airport for our visit to Phuket!
Photos such as this one below of the recently deceased king of Thailand were everywhere. King Bhumibol Adulyadej seemed to have been an amazing man. All of the Thai we encountered had wonderful things to say about him. Thailand was in a year of mourning for his passing during our visit.
Kevin and I left the rest of our group the next day to take a tour with John Gray’s Sea Canoes where we visited caves and hongs. We went out on a large boat, but we boarded sea canoes to explore the caves and hongs. We had to fit in some pretty tight places on this tour. There’s a video of just how tight it was on our personal instagram (@nicolehberg and @kevkberg).
This is an example of the tight spaces…we had lay flat on our backs in our sea canoe to fit through.
The next day, we explored a bit more of Phuket before heading back to Bangkok to finish our trip.
On our final day in Thailand, we started at the Train Market (also known as the Folding Umbrella Market). This place was insane! There were vendors under umbrellas VERY close to the train tracks. When the train blew its horn to indicate it was coming, the vendors folded back their umbrellas and pulled a few baskets out of the way to allow the train to pass. Immediately after the train passed, they unfolded their umbrellas and got back to business.
Following the train market, we headed to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market where we boarded a boat to go shopping! We ended up buying a few souvenirs, including some artwork!
We finished the day at a Tiger Sanctuary where we fed young tigers! We also got photos with a medium size tiger (medium being relative because they were still quite large!).
And that was our trip to Thailand! Since our Thailand visit, we’ve also traveled to New Mexico and Canada, so expect blogs on those locations soon! And we’re already planning our next international destination…
Ya’ll. The BEST! Loved these, especially the sea kayaking part, so so so beautiful!
New Year’s Eve weddings are our new favorite thing. For the second year in a row, Nicole and I have celebrated the New Year camera in hand photographing a newly married couple celebrating with family and friends! Hannah and Paige were married at the beautiful Inglewood Plantation where they celebrated by having an epic dance party with not one, not two, but THREE bands!!! We were so happy to have been able to capture the love between these two throughout their rehearsal dinner and wedding day. It was so nice to hear the family give such heartfelt and loving toasts at the rehearsal dinner, but the coolest part was that all the guests at the rehearsal dinner turned their place cards over and wrote a wish for the couple to be placed in the bonfire. That was a first for us! The rehearsal dinner tent was, thankfully, heated given the crazy winter temperatures we’re experiencing. The decor by Mandy Cathey Weddings was superb for both the rehearsal and the wedding day. We loved that they changed up the color schemes for each event!
For the wedding day, Hannah and Paige had planned to say their vows underneath the marriage oaks. Given the freezing temperature, the couple opted to move the ceremony inside for sake of their guests. Hannah and Paige braved the chilly weather for a portrait underneath the marriage oaks, though! Following the ceremony, the couple and their guests second lined their way into the reception tent where the dance party began! When the clock struck midnight, everyone celebrated beneath confetti bombs. Guess what happened next? A huge group hug commenced on the dance floor. It was a beautiful moment of love and friendship that we hope carries on into the New Year for everyone.
Vendors:
Planning and Coordination: Mandy Cathey Weddings
Florals and Decor: Mandy Cathey Weddings
Tent and Floor Rentals: Majestic Tent
Lighting: Majestic Tent
Catering: Upper Crust
Bar: Thrifty Liquor
Band #1: The Essentials
Band #2: The Pinettes
Band #3: The King James Band
What better way could you spend ringing in the New Year than celebrating the love of two people? Hannah and Paige were surrounded by family and friends to do just that this New Year’s Eve! They had an epic dance party with THREE different bands. And just wait ’til you see the decor by Mandy Cathey Weddings! We’ll share more later this week, but you can enjoy a few sneak peeks at the moment…