Korean Wedding

We attended our first Korean wedding on Sunday. One of Curt's (hubby) co-workers got married. We arrived a few minutes late and the ceremony had already started. A Korean wedding ceremony can last 20 minutes to 1 hour.



The first thing you do when you attend a Korean wedding is to give your envelope (money) to the groom's family or the bride's family. That is also when you get your ticket to the wedding buffet. Curt only got one ticket so a co-worker took him back to get a second ticket.

We stood at the back of the wedding hall since all the seats were taken and I was surprised to see the family members already counting the wedding money. The money goes to the parents to help pay for the wedding expenses.



A recent article put the total cost of a Korean wedding at 186 million won ($164,000 US). This figure includes the apartment paid for by the groom's parents and the furnishing of the apartment which is paid for by the bride's parents. There is also the buying of gifts for the relatives like mink coats, Rolex watches and high priced handbags.



The ceremony also included balloon hugging between the bride and her father-in-law and the groom and his mother-in-law. They were told to hug each other to represent how close they felt to their new in-laws. Of course, the balloon was broken in both cases.

They also had a singer.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the wedding cake was brought out with the fog machine turned on and the couple cut the cake. They then proceeded up the aisle. They greeted everyone including Curt and I only to return to the front of the hall to begin taking pictures.

Some of the wedding flowers. A few of Curt's co-workers had eaten before the ceremony and by the time we got down to the buffet, everyone had eaten. The buffet had everything from mandu (Korean dumplings) to spaghetti. We ate and left in under two hours. It was so different than an American wedding.

It's pretty common to attend the wedding of a co-worker without your spouse. So we were surprised and delighted to see that others had brought their families. We met this little guy of one of Curt's co-workers.

He was a cutie patoodie. This is Curt and me with the little guy.

The wedding party.

Koreans like to do something funny at weddings these days. This is NOT the wedding we attended but you get the idea.