Sara & Brendan Hodge — A Layan Beach 10th-Anniversary Vow Renewal with the Children as Witnesses

In August 2016 Sara Hodge wrote to Unique Phuket to plan a vow renewal for her and her husband Brendan on Layan Beach the following February — a family celebration for their 10th anniversary, with their two children as witnesses, a pre-ceremony Thai monks blessing to honour Sara's late father, and a third colour of sand carried into the unity ceremony in his memory.

The first email — a family anniversary, ten years on

Sara Hodge first wrote to us in August 2016. She and Brendan had met at fifteen and married ten years earlier; the vow renewal she was planning for 24 February 2017 was as much for their two children — Ryder, aged seven, and Harper-Rose, aged three — as it was for the two of them. From the first exchange the brief was consistent: a beach ceremony on Layan, small enough to feel like a family day, with the children woven into it rather than watching from the side.

Honouring Sara's father — a temple blessing before the beach

Sara's father had passed away the year before, and the trip to Phuket had been made possible in part by his memory. Around that quiet fact, the planning grew a second ceremony. Paul and Supparin arranged a pre-ceremony Thai monks blessing at a local temple so the whole family could pay their respects together before walking onto the sand, with Supparin as guide and translator through the offerings and chanting.

The blessing carried into the beach ceremony too. When we drafted the unity sand ceremony we added a third colour of sand alongside Sara's and Brendan's — a colour for her father, poured in with the others so he had a place in the ritual as well as the day.

The children as witnesses

Ryder and Harper-Rose signed the vow renewal certificate as witnesses. The music was theirs too — Harper-Rose chose “How Far I'll Go” by Alessia Cara for the aisle walk, and Ryder chose “Dangerously” by Charlie Puth for the recessional. Small decisions on paper; the shape of the day for the two of them.

The day itself — 24 February 2017

The itinerary was set to leave room to breathe. Hair and makeup began at the couple's hotel at 15:00; the family arrived at the temple at 17:00 for the monks blessing; the vow renewal itself opened on Layan Beach at 17:30 with the unity sand ceremony and the exchange of vows; and at 18:20 the day closed with a sunset portrait session on the sand with Chalong Loysamut. The photographs were delivered in mid-March, a few weeks later.

What the record shows

Sara and Brendan's day is a good example of the shape a Phuket vow renewal takes when a family is doing the celebrating. The ceremony sat on the sand at Layan; the temple visit sat quietly before it; the children signed their names beside their parents'; and a third colour of sand held the memory of the grandfather who was no longer there to watch. It is the sort of day we plan often — private, personal, and organised around the people who are actually in the room.