A Korean Wedding

So I had mentioned that last weekend I was headed to a Korean wedding. Well, I went and this is my description. I didn't know what to expect, but it certainly is different from an American wedding.

In very traditional Korean weddings, the bride will wear hanbok, which is traditional korean clothing (on the site, click the side tabs for various pictures and such). This wedding was not super traditional, but the mothers of the bride and groon each wore hanbok, and some other people did as well. The ceremony was held on the third floor of a rather large building that is connected both to Shinsegae (a huge up-scale department store) and the Incheon Express Bus Terminal. In terms of romantic wedding-like locations, this was not one. Incidentally, this type of place is the most common location for a marriage (big huge hall). The second and third floors are the wedding hall (2nd floor for the "reception" and 3rd for the ceremony).

When we first got to the wedding hall (I initially inadvertently typed hell, hahahah), we went to the bride's room. Now, American weddings usually have a bride's room, but they are for wedding party members and the photographer only. The bridal room at the wedding hall in Korea is pretty much just a chair and a pretty backdrop so you can take a million and one pictures with the bride. This, of course is exactly what I did. In the picture, it's me, my main co-teacher Yang Hye-sun (in the middle back), another English co-teacher (who is like my Korean mother, and whom I ADORE) Oh Yoon Kyung, and the bride, Cho Hye-jeong.

Then, you go around a corner to where the ceremony will be held. Basically, the hall is really really big, so there may be 3 or 4 weddings going on simultaneously (which is a sight to behold--so many people, so many brides!)

The parents of the bride and groom and greeting guests and shaking hands. The usual. You go up to a hotel lobby type registration desk (there is one for the groom and one for the bride), and you give someone who works there your cash envelope. In Korea, the traditional wedding gift is cash, which is easy but super impersonal. There was recently this article in the NYTimes which addresses precisely this issue. Interesting enough. Anyways, so you give them your cash envelope (my co-teacher and I put our money in the same envelope since I don't know what a wedding cash envelope looks like in comparison to a funeral cash envelope which could be problematic) and then the person working the cashier's desk writes your name down and gives you a food ticket. Yes, you read that right, a food ticket. More on this soon.

Then you go into the ceremony hall. It's quite pretty, looking not terribly different than a ceremony hall. It is decorated with flowers and an alter and there was a little orchestra off to the side. They also had this adorable slideshow of photos of the bride and groom running before the ceremony began. I guess before the wedding, most couples get elaborate engagement photos done, with dozens of different outfits and sets or locations. The pictures at this weddng were ADORABLE.

When I said you go into the ceremony hall, I really just mean that some people go into the ceremony hall. Let me clarify. Before we went in, one of my coteachers, Oh YoonKyung asked me, "Are you going to watch the wedding?" And I initially though that this was merely a Korean phrase lost in translation somewhere. So I just said, yeah, of course, and left it at that. Oh Teacher had to run an errand at Shinsegae or something before the wedding so she left, and my other co-teacher, Yang Hye-sun told me, "The reason she asked that is because most people don't watch the wedding. We said hello to the bride, so we don't really have to watch, but we can if you want." I hate to be a bother, but, yeah, I did want to watch the wedding.

So we took a seat and chatted a bit before the bride and groom took center stage. The wedding began and the parents walked down the aisle (mothers together and father together bowing to each other at the end of aisle). The song playing was a variation on "Someday my Prince will Come" which I thought was adorable. Then the wedding began. My co-teacher explained that they pretty much immediately do the I do's. Then this random guy off to the side started talking for a long time, and I was asking my co-teacher some questions about the wedding, and then I asked her what the guy was saying because he was talking for an awfully long time. My co-teacher just replied, "Um, I think he's praying" ooops. A minor faux pas. haha. Everyone in the whole place except my co-teacher and I were silent and had their heads bowed.

Also, I saw some students from my school who were not invited but came for foooood. SO korean.

We left a bit early because I didn't understand what was going on (obviously) and my co-teacher was clearly bored. We headed downstairs to the reception hall. And by reception hall, I really mean huge buffet room where all the guests from all the weddings in the hall congregate and eat together without any personal touch for one wedding. In fact, my co-teacher and I sat at a table with people that were not from the same wedding we saw. When we entered, we saw a couple tables full of other teachers, who had clearly never even stepped foot in the reception hall, which was hilarious. There was a TON of food (naturally, there were hundreds of people eating) and everying to choose from. They even had spaghetti, and some chinese food. Plus four soups, sushi, and a billion appetizers and salads. So we ate food for about an hour, and I never saw the bride again after we left from the ceremony.

It was very different and mostly just seemed highly impersonal. The bride did look positively stunning, and the ceremony, or at least what I saw of it, was very nice. Plus after the wedding, we were able to go down to Shinsegae and pick up some starbucks and relax in the food court. haha.

That's all for now!
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