About
Welcome to Ty and Kim Collins’s website. Ty’s cousin, John Frazee, has done a wonderful job in creating this special and unique site. To all our friends and family that were unable to attend the ceremony and party, we hope that through the photos and wedding video, everyone can experience the next best thing to actually being there with us. In the future we will continue to add photos from around the world as our lives grow and develop together.
In the morning, we married in a Thai Traditional Buddhist Wedding Ceremony that consisted of 3 parts. It started with a traditional engagement procession that normally begins with the groom’s family coming to pick up the bride and asking her family permission to take her in to the groom’s family. Ty, Jeanne, with friends, and stand-in family, came to escort me to the wedding ceremony. I was waiting with my boss, John, who graciously stood in for my family, and some of my friends, to walk us together to the Engagement Ceremony.
The Engagement Ceremony is where Jeanne asks John permission to take Kim into the groom’s family. Along with asking permission Jeanne offers John a dowry. He can either accept or turn down this offering. Of course, he accepts. The dowry is symbolic and given back to the groom, but in some parts of Thailand, it is kept by the bridal family. Ty offered 9,999 baht (a lucky number for the Thais, all in new bills from the bank), a gold chain, and some earrings and ring he gave me for a gift. After my family(John) accepts, then Ty and I exchange our wedding rings and we kiss for the first time as man and wife.
The next part of the Wedding is the Buddhist Monk Blessing. This part of the Wedding was presided over by 5 Buddhist Monks. Ty and I lit a candle together, offering up our prayers. Then we poured water into a small bowl together, symbolizing our new life together. The Monks then chanted prayers for 15 minutes, blessing our union. Ty and I now offered alms to the Monks. We started with a lotus blossom and a small money envelope to each Monk. Next, we offered food to the Monks. Together, Ty and I, scooped rice into the head Monk’s bowl. Then a full meal was offered to each Monk. The Monks share their meal together and leave to go back to their temple.
The final part of the Ceremony is the Water Blessing. Ty and I go to another room and kneel on small individual alters, side by side. Jeanne places two crowns of yarn over each of our heads that are connected together. Then she blesses us with 3 dots of chalk on our foreheads. It means something positive in Thai Buddhism. Then each of our guests come up and pour water over each or our hands that we have together in prayer, cleansing us of the past and offering prayers and blessing for our new marriage. It is very nice and it must be good for getting all that good karma from everyone attending our Wedding.
Later in the evening, we have a more western reception party. We are escorted to the party by a baby elephant. Elephants are sacred in Thailand and are good luck. The baby was very cute and seemed to smile as he posed for the wedding photos. It was a good omen.We had invited all our friends and colleagues at the Hotel where we both work. It was a large turnout and very fun. We had a gorgeous cake that the Hotel pastry chef made for us. He is from Germany and is an incredible baker. It was 5 layers and beautifully decorated. We did a champagne toast and first dance as man and wife. The tossing of the bouquet was very intense and competitive among the single women. I am glad I was only tossing the bouquet and not in the free-for-all to catch it. We had a live band and for our group wedding dance, it was the “Macarena”. I was very glad it wasn’t the “Hokey Pokey”.Everything was magical and perfect. I felt like a princess in a fairytale. Ty was my prince. The Hotel staff went out of their way to make this most special day of our lives, something that we would never forget. Ty and I were truly blessed and we both feel we have an excellent start to our new lives together.