People get ready for the day of love

This Valentine's Day, a 70-year-old man is preparing to declare his everlasting love for his wife of 45 years at a mass wedding ceremony in Trang.

"Trang people are very hospitable. We have been here before," Suchart Chawanaphuthorn said yesterday as they arrived at the airport.

Though Suchart and his wife Suporn will not be diving into the ocean with the 30 other couples, they are prepared to take part in all other activities.

Trang's underwater wedding programme continues until tomorrow under the theme of "Sea Trough of True Love". Four couples have flown in from Australia, Malaysia, the United States and China to participate.

"One of our sons and his wife have also joined this colourful event," Suchart said with a smile.

He attributed their happy married life to honesty, sincerity and commitment. Meanwhile, people across the country are buying up romantic gifts and the scarcity of roses has forced some florists to have the flowers shipped in from overseas.

In Songkhla, flower shops were busy dealing with orders, selling bouquets for between Bt1,000 and Bt4,000 and a single rose at up to Bt150. "Some customers also want chocolate bouquets," florist Panuwat Bulan said.

"He has up to 5,000 roses in stock, including some that were shipped in from overseas.

In Ratchaburi, the central prison has arranged for marriage registration for its inmates, and some 72 couples are scheduled to sign the dotted line as man and wife at 9.09am today.

Chief warden Surachai Phum-kaew said a religious ceremony will also be held or the newlyweds.

The institution hit on the idea of civil registration because some convicts were not allowed to meet their partners without a marriage certificate.

"Some have lived together for years but are not legally married, so they can't visit their spouse behind bars. We wanted to help such couples," he said.