Underwater Wedding !!!!!

Trang Underwater Wedding

 

           The district of Trang is located on Thailand’s Andaman Coast in between Krabi and the Malaysian border. The Trang Underwater Wedding originally started as a one-off event in the mid 1990s with just one couple marrying underwater, but its popularity has increased and in 2000 it gained official recognition from the Guinness Book of Records as the largest underwater wedding in the world.

            The festivities take part every year from February 13th-15th with the actual wedding ceremony being performed on the 14th, Valentine’s Day. To take part in the underwater ceremony you and your partner need to be qualified divers. If you are not a qualified diver there is still the option of a beachside wedding that can be held at the same time as the other couples head underwater. The Trang wedding festival is clearly a great way to generate tourist revenue, but it does have a serious side too because it promotes eco-tourism and the location is specifically chosen not to cause damage to the delicate marine environment.

           On Valentine’s Day the wedding couples are taken by speedboat to the island of Ko Kradan. The speedboats themselves actually form the khan maak procession with musicians and dancers on board. On Ko Kradan a blessing ceremony is held by respected elders followed by the rod nam sang ceremony where water is poured from a conch shell over the hands of the bride and groom. The couples who are qualified divers are then taken offshore to complete the underwater ceremony whilst the others remain on the beach watching on. Some couples wear their wedding dress or tuxedo with their scuba gear but it isn’t compulsory. Under the water a representative of the district office witnesses and approves the ceremonial waterproof marriage certificate, but to make the wedding legal, couples will normally still need to go through the formalities listed on the legal section of this site.