Well, well, well, Stacey said 'I do' and we now have rings on our fingers!

Since Hong Kong, we visited possibly the sleaziest place on the planet in the form of Pattaya. It's hard to put into words what the place is like unless you actually visit. The nightlife itself is excellent with a million bars and restaurants all crammed into this popular package destination. It's even more popular for middle aged to OAP single men looking for a good time and although it feels slightly wrong, the place itself filled with go go bars, strip clubs and ping pong shows actually has an honest feel to it! It's even more brash than it's counterpart in Phuket and yet it seems to know what it is and therefore doesn't hide it. The fact that parents continue to bring their kids here simply amazes but maybe it's because other countries aren't as prude as us Brits!

So we arrived back into Bangkok for a 2 day wait for our family and friends to arrive, with Stacey both eagerly excited and yet slightly anxious (more at the fact that the wedding was nearly here), the 2 days dragged by very slowly. But alas, the Saturday came and the new recruits to Thailand finally turned up. They must have thought 'oh s**t' upon arrival as the locals had decided to restart the government protests the very same day. After trying to get taxis we were informed it was all blocked off meaning their first sky rail and tuk tuk experience would have to happen a little too early after their 15 hour journeys! However just like any other holiday it's nothing a few beers couldn't cure and so after copious amounts of alcohol the swimming pool had its first 4am drunken Brits abroad residents.

The next day was shopping shopping shopping at the huge weekend market followed by a true introduction to Bangkok on the world famous 'Koh San Road'. After an actual fried scorpion was eaten once again (you can probably guess who) and a shake that shimmy dance to the ground by Stacey's mum Jacky, buckets were again dived into leading to us trying to get into the pool yet again in the early hours of the morning. This time though a 'maintenance' sign tried to stop us but after best man Jimbad had tipped the night porter a couple of quid, the sign was removed and 4am pool antics could recommence!!

The next day or same day just a few hours later we moved to 5 star luxury where we first got engaged at Chatrium Riverside Hotel. Even the hungover taxi ride there had its moments with a vomiting memory into a flower bag, I mention no names.....Chloe Taylor! We then soaked in the bliss of the afternoon sun in our robes before heading out for 1 last Bangkok beverage, and where better to have it but at one of Asia's highest al fresco bars - the sky bar, which gained its notoriety in 'The Hangover 2' film.

So the next day people got a further taste of travelling as they had to endure a flight, bus and boat and taxi to our next stop, the wedding venue of 'Lipa Lodge'. The place we had chose was tiny with its own private beach and was perfect for what we wanted with its own pool looking out onto the sunset 10 yards from the sea and a feeling as though we all owned the place. After best man no. 2 Munro and Sarah had turned up the group was now complete or so Stacey thought.

You see the next 4 days were filled with a lot of laughter with such memories as watching my dad trying to get on a lilo for about 20 minutes through to Stacey instructing us to get her an air guitar on the wedding night, but there was also a lot of tears shed, the good ones I must say but it all started the night before the wedding when unbeknown to to her, Stacey's chief bridesmaid, cousin and best mate Dionne and Stacey's surrogate mum, Auntie Trish were jetting in all the way from home for an unbelievable 2 night stop. The video of their arrival the night before the wedding still brings drops to the eyes as Stacey simply could not believe what was going on!!!

And so to the wedding day itself which started with the 2 of us in the sea together and to say it was as relaxed and chilled out as possible would be a bit of an understatement with the both of us still in the pool 2 hours before the ceremony. Me and Munro even grabbed the football headers title with an impressive 58, making my dad n brothers measly early record of 13 look shambolic (hahaha). Anyhow after a walk down the beach to 1 of Stacey and her dad's songs 'My Girl', I turned to see the stunning future Mrs Gisbourne approach the flower laden aisle in her beautiful dress complete with nothing on her feet! After we had completed our vows and my bro had read his brilliant made up reading (including many lyrics from songs of our youth) we then took some pics and it was time to get the beers flowing. As inevitable the hours flew by, speeches were tearful (that's a lie, it was just my speech that there were tears and they were all bloody mine!!) and then as lot of dancing commenced. This included a 1st dance to Dire Straits' 'Romeo & Juliet' followed up by many requests such as 'boom shake the room' (I defo won the rap battle with our kid), 'time of our life' (where Stace was hoisted in the air) and 'Money for Nothing' (which included the Gisbourne tops off, ties around head dance off)! Stace even ended up with a tie around her waist holding the front of her dress up, 1 around her neck and a 3rd around her head, proper rock n roll!! The early morning hours came around too quickly but still left us time to run in the sea (Stacey finally listening to her mum by taking her dress off) before last drinks in the pool. It was a tremendous day and 1 we would have loved to do again and again.

Next up we had 7 nights to spend over in the Chaweng part of Koh Samui. Being the lively part of Samui it was only ever going to end up 1 way...beach parties and nights out in the green mango. Throw in a million massages for the new Gizzy and a brilliant day spent out on our own private speedboat including snorkelling, Ang Thong national park and something I'd never done before in fishing (still didn't catch anything like but bloody Sean and Chloe did who didn't let us forget it!); and our time with family & friends came and went like all good times do...far far too quickly.

Once again a few tears were shed saying goodbye but this time around it's not for much longer. It then felt quite weird being just the 2 of us again as we hit KL to get our flight onwards to Sydney but then we've gotten this far so I'm sure we'll be fine. With our honeymoon now consisting of Sydney, New Zealand, Chile, Peru and finally Brazil we still have lots to look forward to but now as Mr & Mrs.

Lastly we would like to thank everyone who came to make our day so special and to our parents for giving us the cash to have the wedding we wanted, we hope you all had a great holiday and we can't wait to see all family and friends upon our return, especially for wedding tear up part 2!

Ps. There won't be wedding pics on this blog as Stacey is still in negotiation with Hello magazine over publishing rights!