한국 결혼식 (Korean Wedding)

Last weekend, one of my Korean co-workers got married. I've been in Korea almost 2 years, but I'd never been to a Korean wedding. Actually it wasn't much different from a western style wedding, but a few things were a little different.

Korean weddings these days almost always happen at a wedding hall. These are pretty giant convention style buildings with multiple halls where tons of wedding happen every day. I went with Boyfriend. When we got to the hall, we signed in our names and got tickets to the after-ceremony dinner. Then we went to the "Bride Waiting Room" and saw my friend and took a picture together.

After that, the actual ceremony was about 45 minutes. It was all in Korean (obviously), so my understanding was limited, but some of my other co-workers did a little song and dance at the end which was pretty cute. Then all the families and friend groups took pictures with the bride and groom. Finally, they threw the bouquet, a kind of funny twist on the western idea. The bride selects the woman who will catch the bouquet, and only that woman stands and waits for it. After she catches it, she's got three months to get married. Talk about pressure!

The reception was really different from most of the western wedding I've been to. The dinner is included in the use of the wedding hall. After the ceremony, all the guest pile into one of many banquet halls and chow down on free buffet and alcohol. The catch: instead of dancing and drinking into all hours of the morning western wedding style, you've only got two hours in the banquet hall. This seemed a little strange in the light of Korean social convention which usually involves long meetings and lots of alcohol. Anyway, the whole experience was pretty cool, and as Boyfriend said, it was "good experience" for me to see the Korean wedding process as that might be us in a few years.

Congrats to the bride and groom! They are living it up in Hawaii until next week.

결혼해서 축하합니다!

Ashu