After the most terrible experience with our original wedding planners whom we discharged with just over 2 months to go to our Phuket wedding, we were referred to Take Us to Thailand. During our first call, Take us to Thailand had already addressed many of the issues and our concerns that had been outstanding from our previous wedding planners for more than a year. Upfront, they were forthcoming with examples and ideas from past weddings and suggestions on what we could also consider based on the planning work we had already done. Additionally, they provided us with a cost breakdown estimate which gave us a clear idea of how much our destination wedding would cost.
Even though we had a very good idea of what we wanted for the design and décor for our wedding, Take us to Thailand were open to our ideas and built on them to make them better and unique to our wedding, instead of imposing their ideas on us. They helped to simplify the many food and drink menu options for our chosen resort into several tailored packages that fit our budget to facilitate our decision making, which was helpful especially since we had a welcome party, pre-dinner reception drinks and a dinner reception. Options and alternatives were similarly presented for all other aspects of the wedding from venue design, music, etc. Where something could not be done, they were clear that it could not and also suggested alternatives – instead of promising they could do it and then either informing us last minute it could not be or that it would be very expensive to do. If there was a way to save us costs, Take us to Thailand would suggest it. For example, they did not need big setup teams but preferred to leverage the resort staff as resources to help with the decorations, and we had organized a farewell brunch on the third day, which they suggested that we could really manage on our own so we save on fees. Their recommendations were always honest and thoughtful. We made a single planning trip to Phuket with the expectation (or rather, trepidation) that we would be in back to back planning related meetings but Take us to Thailand covered mostly everything off in a single morning, ensuring that we had fun making all the other decisions (eg: food and drink tasting) throughout the trip and to our surprise, we even had time to relax and enjoy ourselves.
Throughout the planning and preparation process, Take us to Thailand made sure that we were regularly kept updated on progress, key milestones and costs to date. In particular, we really appreciated that they were transparent about costs, worked with our budget and always negotiated or made decisions keeping our best interests in mind. Although we weren’t expecting it, Take us to Thailand had negotiated a further discount on our food and beverage – another pleasant surprise! Aside from our one trip to Phuket, all other decisions and issues were covered off in conference calls and via email, and we found Take us to Thailand not just efficient and trustworthy to work with but also that they made our experience with them enjoyable and significantly less stressful.
During the two days of the wedding, Anna did a great job of coordinating the many events from the welcome party, rehearsal dinner, Chinese tea ceremony, western ceremony, pre-dinner reception cocktails, dinner reception and an after party. Our day was stress-free, we were able to enjoy our wedding and spend time celebrating with our close friends and family – which was precisely what we had envisioned.
Anna takes a “natural” approach to the wedding day, which meant that she let things run naturally instead of staging a show with lots of “entertainment” but still made sure that things were run smoothly and generally on time – especially since we had quite a lot of events throughout the days. Take us to Thailand worked well with all our chosen vendors (ie: photographer, videographer, tea ceremony lady, makeup artist, hair stylists), despite not having worked with them before.
The makeup artist and her team that Take us to Thailand recommended did a fantastic job on guests and family members – we couldn’t have been happier. We absolutely loved the celebrant that was referred to us as he made our ceremony unique and special. The cake that was arranged by Take us to Thailand garnered so many compliments, as not only did it look amazing, it tasted amazing. Nat’s venue design for both the ceremony and the dinner reception was just stunning – we received so many compliments about it and we especially loved the ceremony flowers in the perspex stands. Our guests had a fabulous time and said that our wedding was one of the best weddings they had attended.
Overall, the key differences you’ll find working with Take Us to Thailand is that they really spend the time to listen to our vision, they take direct ownership and work in partnership with you to create your dream destination wedding and they are always honest and transparent. They utilize their good business relationships with the best vendors in Thailand to ensure that you have the best and that you can trust that they have done the research for you. If we could do it all over again we would have loved to work with Take us to Thailand from the beginning – so we would not have had to experience the stress we did with our original planners! Given the short time frame, the particularly large destination wedding group of 120 guests, having to pick up pieces and huge mess leftover from the original planners, we are truly impressed with the Take Us to Thailand girls and would not hesitate to recommend them to any couple intending to have a Thailand wedding.
Best,
Trish
