To be honest, few things make me feel more adult than receiving a personal invitation as a guest to special events, particularly weddings. In my time in Korea, I have attended two (three if you count the one I accidentally crashed) already, both of which for my Korean tutor and Korean instructor from Yale! 이정화 선생님 got married and already went off to her honeymoon in Hawaii. Color me envious, but she and her newlywed husband pulled off quiet a show.
The first wedding I attended here was that of my former tutor, 전유진, who held hers in a church and event hall. My 선생님 did the other common venue and style choice: hotel banquet reception. Admittedly, I did not feel mildly troubled inside here as did at Yujin’s wedding with all the crosses everywhere around me. (I understand the religious sentiment but having dead Jesus on a cross and using it as decoration seems morally questionable to me.) The banquet hall actually felt more like a concert hall with the large projection screens, the raised procession runway, the in-your-face decorated stage… our tables were decked out with candelabras. Up until that evening, I had never had a meal with a candelabra on my meal table. Speaking of which, the meal contained six courses of delicacies, but I’ll highlight the Australian steak and raspberry mousse below.
The procession consisted more performances and silly stories of their relationships than religious verses and prayer. I’d definitely say that both newlyweds have very talented company as all the performances were done by their good friends and family. Talk about convenience because looking around I couldn’t help but think this must have cost a fortune, which often is the case in Korea and has actually been causing a bit of trouble with singles in Korea. Nevertheless, I think Frances and I attended the shindig in style.
However, this wedding was not entirely similar to your American standard. Frances and I thought that as her only students in attendance, we deserved extra perks and attended the ancestral bows she and her husband were offering to their parents and grandparents in the special room in the hotel designed just for that. It was quite intimate and made us kept thinking how much weight the 한복 definitely added to both of them since the wedding planner had to actively help up and help down my 선생님 in order to not mess up the ceremony nor attire.
Well, we found after a while that this ceremony would not proceed as quickly as the procession. Our efforts were not in vain though as we were offered some very traditional, special 떡. We were basically family.
