Nuptial Eeyore

I’m kind of downer at weddings. After spending so many weekends of my life playing Pachelbel’s Canon and Bach’s Air on repeat, I’ve sort of been soured on the whole romance part of the affair. Luckily, Koreans agree with me.

See those people in the back? They never stopped talking
the ENTIRE time. Kate (who is awesome and will get her
own blog post later) says they stand back there so they
can catch up with everyone they haven't seen since
the last wedding.

Sunny—one of the women working in the international office—invited all of us to her wedding last Saturday. Her ceremony took place in a marriage hall—an entire building devoted to small chapel-esque rooms with spray-painted gold chairs swathed in white tooling (sp??). Unnaturally white trees lined the short, elevated aisle—white, lacy— of Sunny’s chapel and the pulpit bulged at the front, drowning in flowers. Across the hall, two other halls mirrored hers with disconcerting exactitude.

My favourite part of the wedding was the groom. Grinning from ear to ear, he practically bounded down the aisle alone. No groomsmen or bridesmaids slowed things up so he was able to make it from door to pulpit in a round three seconds. At the front, he bowed first to Sunny’s parents, then to his own. Each time, he got down on his knees and touched his forehead to the floor.

There is much less touching in Korean weddings, much less kissing, and much, much more chattering from the audience. In fact, the fifty or so people who were crammed into the back never stopped talking the entire wedding. We could barely hear the pastor speak. Really, the only thing that was particularly clear was the groom shouting “네!” (Yes!!)—hilariously loud—in answer to what I assume was the obligatory, “Do you take this woman...?” question. The whole ceremony was in Korean, so it was a little tough to follow.

Mommy and Daddy of the groom. Mom's wearing a Hanbok

To finish the ceremony, the cameraman staged us all into pictures surrounding Sunny and her new husband. First family, then friends, then work friends, then foreigners, ect. Afterwards, Sunny and hubby greeted all the guests at the reception while wearing Hanboks, traditional Korean dress. There was a fake throwing of the bouquet and then a not at all fake and completely delicious buffet. And you had better believe that my second bowl of ice cream mixed with cookies and a little coffee made me much less of a nuptial Eeyore.