Korean Fusion Wedding: Brandi and Yong Suk Choi

When I first arrived in Korea in March, my co-teacher, Brandi, invited me to her wedding that was going to be taking place on July 16th. She and her husband, Yong Suk, were legally married late last year at a courthouse in the US, while she was home for a few weeks and he was visiting briefly from Korea. They still wanted a proper wedding, so they decided to plan the event to be a fusion wedding that would incorporate both of their traditional customs.

In the USA, the traditional wedding consists of the bride walking down the aisle in a white wedding gown to meet her groom at the altar, who is preceded by bridesmaids and flower girls. There is a ceremony at the altar where vows, rings and a kiss are exchanged in front of a priest or justice of the peace, and then they run off back down the aisle to make a grand entrance at the reception a short while later. Gifts purchased from a gift registry (which is a business entirely on its own) are brought to the reception and displayed beautifully on a table, along with guest book and other pleasantries. The reception starts with a meal and is followed by dancing, drinking, lots of photos, and it can stretch on for hours. Following the reception, the bride and groom custumarily depart on their honeymoon, which is a welcomed vacation and usually lasts a week, although sometimes longer. Although mostly for show, this tradition also shows the romance between the couple and is a much anticipated custom for both bride and groom as well as their family members.

The Korean traditional wedding consists of the bride and groom dressed in the traditional attire, the hanbok, and formally greeting and presenting each others parents with gifts. Prior to entering the room where this short 10-minute ceremony is held, wedding attendees give monetary gifts ('celebration money') in envelopes to a wedding staff member outside of the room. The hanbok ceremony is entirely for show and photo-taking, yet only for family members. After the ceremony, friends and family alike gather in a reception room to eat. Eating can take up to 30 minutes, and as each party who arrived together is done eating, each leaves separately and the wedding is over. If the married couple has plans for a honeymoon, it is usually very short and takes place during the weekend, which is usually the only vacation allowed from work without having to quit the job.

The fusion wedding combined elements of the two traditions and showcased them rather beautifully to friends and family of the bride and groom.

The wedding took place on the top floor of this building, floor 30, and it is probably the tallest building in downtown Gwangju.

Prior to the wedding, there was a table set up with two attendants in which to give your celebration money for the couple. 

The bride was on display, quite literally, in a beautiful room of her own, so that family and friends could have their photo taken with her. The groom was allowed to see the bride prior to the ceremony, and was even bringing guests in to see her, as she was not really allowed to move until the ceremony began. 

Brandi, the bride

 I took my seat in the ceremony hall shortly after saying hello to Brandi. The ceremony hall was beautifully decorated, neon lights and all. It sounds garish, and they were changing colors, but it was actually quite pretty.

 I would have liked it more if the lights would have stayed on a single color instead of constantly changing and transforming into the next color, but se la vie.

The bride and groom walked down the aisle together at 5pm, and then stood at the front of the room, facing their family and friends, while someone was speaking about the couple in Korean. The translator was quite good, and she just described that the ceremony that day was going to be a mix of American and Korean customs, there would be two songs preformed by friends of the bride and groom, followed by the hanbok ceremony, and then by a meal.

Bride and Groom Entering

Narrators

Bride and Groom facing each other during narration

Facing friends and family during narration

After the narration, the two songs were preformed. The first was by two students that Brandi taught while teaching in Korea last year. It was very cute, although all of my photos of it are somewhat blurry. The lights were down and I didn't want my flash to distract the girls.

They sang "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz

This performance was followed by another song, this time from the groom's best friend. It was a Korean pop song, but I don't know what it was called. He was a very good singer.

Following the two performances, the cake table was wheeled to the bride and groom and they cut the cake. With a short samurai sword.

Cutting the cake

 

After this, the bride and groom bowed to each other, and then to their friends and family, and then posed for photos with family and friends.

Groom's Family

Bride's Family

I should point out that professional photos were being taken the entire time, and wedding attendants (people who were staffed to work the wedding from the building staff - not people anyone knew personally) were constantly rearranging the hair, clothing and props of the wedding 'set' so as to get the best possible photo. Constantly.  

After the western portion of the ceremony, everyone went down to another floor to eat, except for the bride and groom's respective family members. (Because only three of the bride's family members were able to make the trip to Korea, myself and three other friends of Brandi's were invited to witness the hanbok ceremony.)

The family members anxiously waited inside another, much smaller room, for the hanbok ceremony to begin. I was sitting in the back of the room, and most of the groom's family was standing in front of me, so I was unable to get many photos or really see what was going on. Once the bride and groom were changed into their hanboks, the ceremony lasted only 10 minutes. Each was photographed presenting the groom's mother with gifts, beside the groom's mother, and standing with the groom's mother. Not much was said and there was no English translator.

Yong Suk and Brandi Choi

The groom's mother and Brandi

Told you it was a photo op

The lady in the pink hanbok was constantly fixing everyone's hair and clothing to look perfect in the photos.
Same with the lady in gray standing in the back.

After this ceremony, the family members who witnessed it went into the eating hall and had dinner before departing. The food was served buffet style, but there was a ton of food to choose from, on six long and well-stocked tables. There was a mix of American and Korean style food, including, but not limited to, various kinds of rice, pork, chicken, seafood, salad, bread, meatballs... everything. Plus Pepsi and soju on every table.

When most of the crowd had left, the few that were invited to the after party gathered together and made plans to meet up downtown later on that night. We met at German Bar, a foreigner bar done lounge-style, then later moved to Yong Suk's friend's restaurant nearby. After that some of us walked over to another bar downtown, Speakeasy, and enjoyed more drinks and dancing, and then we finally ended the night at Mix Lounge. It was a great night, and I'm happy to say that I don't have pictures from that portion of the evening.

Much love to Brandi and Yong Suk, and may they have a wonderful life together filled with happiness and love.