Korean Wedding? 9-3-11

Theater production?  Circus?  This is a wedding?  Take your pick.  All three are extremely accurate. 

Joseph and I had the wonderful experience this weekend to attend a Korean Wedding.  You really have not lived in Korea until you are able to experience one of these.



Weddings are performed in places called Wedding Halls.  The one we went to was called Beautiful Wedding Hall (our research did not yield church weddings but anyone with further information please let us know). There were maybe 5 or 6 rooms on the first floor and one room was the ceremony room and the other rooms were very small and decorated beautifully to seat the bride and to take pictures with and of the bride (the second floor was apparently identical to the first).  Outside each of these tiny rooms was a table with a fake wedding cake, candles and various pictures of the couple so you would know whose room it was.  All around were different families and brides, grooms, etc. talking and looking in at "their bride."  In one area of the hall was a space where a woman was taking video of grooms asking about how they felt, etc.  Some women were dressed in the traditional Korean attire called a Hanbok (http://weddingbellsblog.com/wedding-dress/korean-wedding-dresses-the-hanbok/).  Other women were wearing nice dresses.  Men were wearing suit and tie, tuxedos, or jeans and a shirt.

Apparently one wedding ceremony is performed right after another has ended [we noticed that almost all parts of the wedding are staged to get great pictures.  we saw a bouquet being thrown to the same woman 3 times to get a good shot.  This was done immediately after the ceremony ended.].  Workers went around the room straightening out chairs, the runner the bride was to walk on, flower arrangements, etc.  Everyone for our wedding came in and claimed their seats then went around talking with various people. 

The ceremony:
The mothers of the bride and groom were wearing the traditional Hanbok and stood on the platform at the end of the runner waiting to begin.  They walked together to the alter and bowed to each other. The groom stepped onto the platform at the end of the runner and called greetings to various people around the room.  A video came on over the alter playing various photos of he and his bride taken in wedding attire in various settings and locations.    His bride behind him having her makeup retouched.  Strobe lights start going around the room and the groom calls out a greeting and strolls down the aisle looking similar to a high school graduate.  The lights stop and then focus on the bride.  She is still having her makeup retouched and  another woman is fixing her dress and veil (an American style wedding dress). She steps up onto the platform with her father and holding hands, they walk together down the aisle while the 4 strobe lights follow her.  When they reach the groom, father and groom bow then the father transfers his daughters hand to the grooms hand then he hugs his daughter (lingers for a few photos) and then sits in a chair.  The couple proceed to the alter to begin.  During this time the doors to the ceremony room are not closed.  Other families and weddings waiting to go next are right past the doors and can be heard during the ceremony.  Not sure if this is normal or not. 

After about 10 minutes Joseph and I are told that Koreans traditionally do not sit through the entire wedding unless you are close friends or family.  As we are coworkers we are able to go to the building next door to the buffet so we left one by one and met out in the central hall.  Korean weddings to not have receptions as American's know them--as far as we can tell.  There is a connected building next door and upstairs and down holds long tables and chairs with white linen tablecloths and chair covers and a never ending line for the buffet.  It smelled wonderfully like a Chinese buffet from back home... :-)  People attending the same wedding usually do not sit together and the bride and groom do not join the guests.  After we were eating and talking awhile the brides father came to us and thanked us for coming.  We left soon after. 

We had a great Korean experience and were happy we were asked to be a part of this one. 


**Disclaimer:  Joseph and I are not certain if this is how all Korean weddings are.  We know they are not exactly the same this was just our experience.  This blog was a lot longer with more detail but because of space and not wanting this to be too long, details not important to the main idea were left out.

table outside the brides room

brides sit in a room this small for the express purpose of picture taking

rotunda with all of the rooms

The hall itself

Bride and Groom's mother's

Mayhem behind the bride about 4 other weddings waiting for their turn

Touch up for the groom

Left to right: Paul, Lana (Paul's wife), Liana, Jin, Elizabeth

notice the spotlight? lol

bride's parents

groom's parents :-)

A Korean Wedding