Marrying at Loy Krathong: What a November Wedding Trip Looks Like

Most couples pick a month for the wedding and then look for a date inside it. A festival makes the choice sharper, because it names the actual nights. Loy Krathong names two of them in late November. This article explains what the festival is and what it is not. It also shows how a wedding trip is built around a registration day the festival does not control.

If you plan to register your marriage in Thailand, our marriage registration service covers the documents, the legalization and the district office for one fixed fee.

The dates in 2026

Loy Krathong 2026 falls on 24 and 25 November. The festival is set by the full moon of the twelfth month of the Thai lunar calendar. That is why the date moves from one year to the next. A krathong is a small float, usually built from a banana trunk and banana leaves, carrying a candle, incense and flowers. People set it on a river, a canal or a pond after dark. The custom is nationwide, so a couple can float a krathong beside almost any water in the country.

Loy Krathong and Yi Peng

In Chiang Mai a second tradition runs across the same two nights. Yi Peng is a Lanna festival, which means it belongs to the culture of northern Thailand rather than to the whole country. Its symbol is the khom loi, a paper lantern lifted by the hot air of a small flame inside it. The two customs move in opposite directions. A krathong travels downstream on the water. A khom loi rises into the sky. They are two layered customs, not one festival under two names. A couple in Chiang Mai in late November sees both. A couple in Bangkok sees the first.

Government offices during the festival

Loy Krathong is not on the government's list of public holidays. Government offices, banks and district offices therefore generally keep their ordinary hours through both days. The list carries no public holiday in November 2026 either. The cabinet can still add one, so check the calendar close to the date. The celebrations happen in the evening, after the offices have closed anyway.

Building the week backward from registration day

The registration date is fixed by the working days each step needs and by the district office, not by the festival. The paperwork is therefore booked first, and the festival fills the days around it. The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes three to five working days. It offers no guaranteed maximum. Its task is legalization, the official certification that makes a foreign document acceptable to Thai authorities. If you bring your documents with you, legalization begins after you land. The length of the stay follows from those steps. Six working days after the embassy step is then the minimum, and eight to ten working days is what we recommend. A couple who legalize their documents and a power of attorney at home and send them to us ahead need one working day in Thailand. A power of attorney is a document that authorizes another person to act for you. The embassy step is the appointment where the document proving you are single is issued or sworn.

A couple who wants to be in Thailand on 24 November therefore starts at the registration day and counts outward from it. Landing early enough to cover those working days leaves both evenings free. A couple who lands on the festival itself has not yet begun that count, so the registration falls after it.

Access to a lantern release

One thing we do not promise is access to a mass lantern release. The large ceremonies outside Chiang Mai are private events, run by their own organizers and sold as tickets. Their dates, prices and venues change from year to year. The province also restricts releases, and announces the arrangements again each year. That announcement bans releases inside Chiang Mai's municipal boundaries and near the airport's flight paths. It allows them only at pre-approved venues and inside limited time windows. It also states that an unauthorized release carries penalties. We do not arrange or reserve tickets for these events, so a couple who wants a place should book it directly and early.

Flights into Chiang Mai on the release nights

Chiang Mai International Airport adjusts its schedule for this festival every year. In recent years that has meant more than a hundred flights canceled or retimed. Flight operations have also ended early in the evening on the release nights. A lit lantern in a flight path is a danger to an aircraft. Treat a domestic flight booked into Chiang Mai on 24 or 25 November as provisional, and check it again in the weeks before you travel. Reach the north with a day in hand rather than on the night itself.

Planning a November registration

November sits in Thailand's cool dry season, and Loy Krathong gives that season a date a couple can write in a calendar. The festival is the easy half of the plan. The registration is the half that runs on embassy appointments, ministry working days and the availability of the head of the district office. Pride Legal Thailand was created to become the platform for the LGBTQ community around the world looking to get married in Thailand. We make the registration plannable from abroad and completable in a single trip.

Pride Legal Thailand arranges the registration of marriages in Thailand for two people of any gender and any nationality. The fee is ฿49,000 (~1,480 USD) for both partners, fixed, with VAT and government fees included; registration outside the Bangkok region costs ฿10,000 (~300 USD) more.

To register your own marriage in Thailand, tell ELSA your nationalities and your dates on the Marriage page: she lists your documents and your timeline, and our lawyer confirms the plan. The steps in order: how two foreigners can get married in Thailand.