Editors' Choice
A fairytale wonderland brought to life in Phuket, promising unique wedding experiences. Definitely not your ordinary dreamy resort but a cottage-like villas in the woodland surrounded by lush tropical rainforest.
Keemala is mesmerizing as it is with the resort designed to fulfil couples who love nature and adventure. Hitchbird recently got in touch with Keemala’s General Manager, Conor O’Leary to share with us about the resort and it’s villas, as well as what it’s like to have a wedding organised here.
The architecture of this resort is very unique. Can you share with us more about the resort.
When the owners developed Keemala, they want to bring in something unusual to Phuket instead of just standard hotels. So when we’re designing, we came across a fairytale story where four clans arriving at Kamala Beach. They then came into this valley and set up shops. So with that four clans, we have four different villa types with each villa being unique and very different from each other.
Based around four special traits of each clan we have our Clay Pool Cottages where everything is very earthy and agricultural centered while the Tent Pool Villas were inspired by the nomadic lifestyle of the wanderers of this clan who are always ready to move hence living in a tent. Next is the Tree Pool Houses that are more architectural and adventurous in its design. Bird’s Nest Pool Villas are more intelligent, designed with an inspiration by the community who loves gazing at the stars and sky. In total, we have 38 villas in this resort along with spa, restaurants, pool and bar.
Averagely how many weddings do Keemala uphold and what are your expectations this year?
Last year was our first year of operation, so we had about 11 weddings. We would like to boost it up to possibly 24 weddings per year. We want to keep the numbers small because when you have your wedding, it’s a special occasion. We try to keep it very intimate so when you have your wedding here, you are the VIPs in the resort. The moment the couples arrived, through to the preparation of the wedding to post wedding, they get all the attention and the special feeling that a wedding should be.
So, where do most of the couples come from and what’s the trend in Phuket?
It’s a mix now but the majority are still couples from Thailand. Then we have some coming from Hong Kong and Singapore. What’s always been sort of a trend is mixed marriages between European and Asian. Expats from Australia and Europe living in Asia need to bring their families so they meet halfway and this is a good place to catch up.
As the resort is enormous, where would the wedding be hosted?
We have a number of venues in the hotel. Obviously we’re not seeing seafront as we try to move away from the idea. In the past, a lot of people only come to Thailand because they want a beach wedding but now we find people coming to Thailand doesn’t mention for a mix continent. They meet halfway but also wanted to save cost obviously because it’s much cheaper. So we moved away from beach wedding as we have a few venues. One is the jungle where we have an enclosure in the jungle that allow us to do hill tribe fire setting. We have our garden and different areas like the rooftop on top of our restaurant and also a banquet hall.
How many people can Keemala cater to for a wedding?
I think for a perfect wedding in Keemala is about 20 people. We have done one wedding up to 70 people but when we do that, the area would be more internal especially for back up plan like raining. The perfect number for Keemala would be 10 to 20 people.
What are the top 3 restaurants outside of Keemala in Phuket that you would recommend to Hitchbird’s couples?
One of the better ones is the The 9th Floor Restaurant in Patong. It offers international cuisine and it’s a good fine dining place. I would say that it would be a nice pre-wedding place for the boys to get along before party in Patong. For something unusual when I got here 8 years ago in Phuket, I brought 50 Irish people to Laem Hin Seafood. It’s on the east coast and it used to be an oyster farm. So when they stop, they put the restaurant on top so it’s a floating restaurant. The seafood, view and location is fantastic. Everything is great especially for destination wedding, it’s one of the wow place to go! If you want something nice, you should go into Phuket town. When you go into Phuket old town, the heritage center, there’s a lot of small local restaurants from noodle shops to fine dining restaurants. If you have couples planning for something different, Phuket town is the recommended place.
Don’t you find them enticing? Wait no more! Book your dream wedding today with Keemala!
