A Korean Wedding Experience

Today we attended the wedding of one of our colleagues. Gwang Ho is a biology teacher at the boys school and sits at the desk right next to mine. He is a good friend of Christine's (my other colleague) and through her (and proximity), I got to know him. We were the two teachers doing the neuroscience classes in the fall.

Gwang Ho invited us and, of course, JM and I accepted. We were thrilled to be invited, and even more excited to get a first hand experience at a Korean wedding. My students did a few presentations last semester about Korean weddings, so I had a bit of an idea what it would be like. Most commonly, Koreans get married in a wedding hall, where many weddings are happening at the same time. It is an afternoon event only. There is usually a quick ceremony and a (lunch) reception. A couple hours and everyone goes home. There is no dinner or dancing. Sometimes the bride and groom wear hanbok, traditional Korean clothing.



Me trying on hanbok (I'm dressed like the queen!)

Gwang Ho's wedding was a bit different. They had a full mass in a church with the wedding ceremony. They also wore western style wedding clothes (white dress and tux). When the Bugil crew arrived at noon, an hour before the ceremony, we were told to eat first. So before ever seeing the bride or groom, we all went downstairs in the church basement and feasted on the most elaborate buffet I've ever seen. Following lunch, we went upstairs to watch the ceremony. When communion time came around, JM and I decided to see what a Korean eucharist was like. I am happy to report that even on the other side of the world, the bread tastes exactly the same; mass produced edible cardboard. After the ceremony, some Bugil students, who are in the band with Gwang Ho, played some live music and sang love ballads.

Another interesting fact is that Koreans always give money at a wedding, never gifts, and always in a denomination of 3, 5 or 10. Acquaintances give $30, friends give $50, and family usually give $100. I gave $50 since I work with Gwang Ho, and JM decided to be anti-traditional and gave $37, just to blow someone's mind. He's cool like that. haha.

All in all, it was a very nice experience!

Jennika