Where to Propose in Thailand

A proposal is a decision about an hour as much as about a place. A beach at seven in the morning is not the same beach at six in the evening. This article names places in Thailand and the hour that makes each one work, for two people choosing a moment together.

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.

One legal fact belongs at the top, and then this article leaves the law alone. Since January 2025, two people of any gender may marry in Thailand.

Wat Arun at first light

Wat Arun stands on the Thonburi side of the Chao Phraya River. Its central prang rises more than 80 meters above the water. A prang is a tall tower in the Khmer style that forms the center of a temple. The surface is set with Chinese porcelain and Benjarong shards that catch the sun before the rest of the city does. Benjarong is Thai porcelain painted in five colors.

The temple generally opens at eight in the morning, so first light arrives before you can go inside. Confirm the published hours for the day you go. The view at that hour is from the opposite bank, and Thailand's official Bangkok guide names a wide view from across the river as a photograph spot. A cross-river ferry runs from Tha Tien pier. Watch the light reach the prang from the east bank, then cross when the gate opens.

Wat Benchamabophit in the early morning

Wat Benchamabophit is the marble temple of Bangkok. Its ordination hall, the building in which monks are ordained, is clad inside and out in white Italian marble under a red roof. A cloister runs around it and holds 52 Buddha images in styles from across Asia. Marble is at its best in the low light of the first hour. The temple generally opens at eight from Monday to Saturday and at ten on Sundays and public holidays.

Temple conduct and dress

Almost every temple in Thailand asks the same things of a visitor. Cover your shoulders and cover your knees. Shoes come off before you enter a temple hall. Keep your voice low, do not touch a monk, and do not point your feet toward a Buddha image. Wat Arun and Wat Benchamabophit both turn away shorts, sleeveless tops and flip-flops. A proposal in an active place of worship should stay small.

Bang Tao at the golden hour

Bang Tao is a long beach on Phuket's Andaman coast. The Laguna Phuket complex of resorts dominates a large part of it, and most of the accommodation sits at the southern end. The northern end stays much quieter. Photographers who work this beach single out the golden hour, when warm light comes off the Andaman Sea. Flowers, candles or a dinner setting may need the resort's approval or a reservation, so check in advance.

Tri Trang beach and the tide

Tri Trang is a small beach a few kilometers south of Patong. The sun drops behind the cape rather than into the sea, so Tri Trang is not a sunset beach. Its dawn colors are the ones worth planning around. At low tide the rocks and the coral come out of the water. Read the tide table for your day and choose the high tide.

Old Phuket Town on a weekday morning

Thalang Road is the most famous street of Old Phuket Town. Its shophouses are Sino-Portuguese, the style of Phuket's tin mining era, with narrow fronts, deep interiors and a covered arcade running the length of the street. Soi Romanee is a lane of about 125 meters joining Thalang Road to Dibuk Road. Come on a weekday morning, before the cafes fill. On Sunday evening Thalang Road generally closes to traffic for a walking street market from five until ten, and thousands of people walk it. That is a poor hour for a private question.

The season

Thailand's two coasts run opposite monsoons, so a date fixed in the middle of the year is better served on the Gulf side. Our article on our article on the best time of year to get married in Thailand sets out which coast is dry in which month.

What a photographer costs

Rates for a short proposal session are published openly. One Bangkok studio publishes about 11,000 baht (~330 USD) for roughly an hour of shooting and about 19,000 baht (~575 USD) for roughly two hours. Another publishes 12,000 baht (~360 USD) for one to three hours. That rate covers the mainland. An island such as Phuket carries an added travel fee. Those are other companies' published rates and not ours. Book in advance, because a photographer who is meant to stay unseen must choose a place to stand first.

The part we handle

The proposal is the part of this you should plan yourselves. The registration is the part that cannot be improvised from abroad. It needs documents from your own countries, a certified translation, legalization by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a district office that agrees a date. Pride Legal Thailand was created to become the platform for the LGBTQ community around the world looking to get married in Thailand. We make that 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.