Thai Beach Takeover, by IHNY [RF Wedding of the Week]

June 3, 2015

By Laura Brauer

It’s June in New York, which to me equals summer (“unofficially”) but as I take a look outside my office window all I see is a gloomy sky, droplets of rain and people shivering in windbreakers. So When Karen Seifert and Tim Co., who make up IHNY (founded by our very own Jason Groupp) told me about a Thai wedding they had photographed, I was all for taking a look. (While the duo are branded for their shoots with a New York City backdrop, they also regularly capture moments from proposals, elopements, weddings and marriages all over the world).

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All Photos IHNY/Karen Seifert and Tim Co.

Turns out that wedding couple Karina and Gavin are New Yorkers by residency but Karina grew up in the UK with her Austrian father and Columbian mother, and Gavin is from Connecticut. Seifert explains: “Karina’s father bought land at Railay Beach in Thailand many years ago and built a traditional Thai home at this remote beach, so Karina grew up going there as a child during the summers. Gavin ended up at this beach in his college years and when he met Karina in Manhattan they soon realized that Railay Beach was, for each of them, their most favorite place in the entire world.”

001_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_001The IHNY photography team arrived the night before their rehearsal BBQ at the Railei Beach Club. “To get to this venue we had to take a longtail boat about 20 minutes and actually wade through the water to get to the beach. It was freaking magical,” Seifert exclaims.

005_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_005Seifert continues: “The couple wanted to create a ‘wedding village’ and that’s exactly what happened! One hundred of the couple’s family and friends flew in from all over the world and most of them stayed at the Railei Beach Club, a resort that has all these traditional Thai homes you can stay in. Karina’s father’s house is a part of this resort.”

009_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_009010_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_010013_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_013011_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_011012_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_012The actual wedding was down the beach at the resort Rayavadee, which is situated at the end of the peninsula. The couple had a traditional Thai water ceremony followed by a reception that was half in a cave. Drinks and dinner were enjoyed with a beautiful Krabi sunset followed by heartfelt toasts.

018_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_018015_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_015019_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_019020_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_020004_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_004025_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_025023_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_023016_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_016021_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_021002_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_002027_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_027024_Karina_Gavin_Thailand_024The night of the BBQ, everyone wore white (the photographers, too) except for the bride, who wore a bright red dress. They ate Thai food and danced and partied the night away in the cave with a reggae band before getting into longtail boats to journey back to the part of the beach around the giant limestone cliffs, Seifert says. The afterparty was on the beach in front of Railei Beach Club with fireworks welcoming the bride and groom and lots of dancing and partying into the wee hours of the morning. Then the entire wedding went to the beach and set off the floating wish lanterns into the sky.

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