A Korean Wedding Ceremony

A couple weeks back, Fiona, a friends of mine from yoga took the plunge and got married. Being very cultured as she is, and full of good taste, her and her husband decided to have a traditional wedding ceremony. I was so excited to hear she was having a traditional ceremony for two reasons, one being that I hadn't been to a real one yet (only saw re-enacted ceremonies at the folk village) and two, I had only been to the cold lifeless machine that has become a typical modern ceremony. Basically these days, Korean couples rent a hall in a wedding house and they have their 30 min. long wedding ceremony. As you are leaving the ceremony room, you are escorted to another room which is where there is a buffet of food (or sit down depending) andyour leaving, you can see the as you are entering that room you can see the next wedding party coming in (within 15min). It's such a machine and very impersonal. It reminds me of the Pink Floyd video for "The Wall". After you finish your meal, you leave. Thats it. Also, if you stay too long the workers will ask you to leave.
Well, thank goodness Fionas wedding was nothing like that. The wedding ceremony was at Korea House which is a traditonal house located inside a nice city park. As the weather is very beautiful in Korea during the fall, the ceremony was performed outside in a courtyard.
Before the wedding I was able to get a picture of Fiona and her mother. As you may have noticed, Fiona is wearing a traditional wedding gown while her mother is wearing a hanbok which is a traditional dress that all Korean women wear during tradional ceremonies. (Unfortunately, the younger generation looks to western style and the use of the hanbok is getting less and less)



While waiting for the ceremony to begin, I got a shot of my friends Rhea and Brian who I went to the wedding with:

Don't they look nice?
Well, once the ceremony began, Heather, with Brians digital camera in hand, began to wander around looking for the best places to stand to capture the ceremony as best as she could. And then the ceremony began~
A tradional band began to perform and Fionas husband to be came walking out holding a screen over his face.

(Here's the band)


He eventually removed the screen and walked over to the house where Fiona and her mother were waiting. Fionas mother came out of the house upon his arrival and he offered her a wooden duck (in the past it would have been a real duck). Then he bowed before her.

Shot of offering:

Shot of bowing:

Then Fiona gracefully emerged from the house in her beautiful gown. Along with her were two of her friends.




Here her maids of honor are slowly and carefuly escorting her to the table. As you may have noticed, Fiona is covering her face from the eyes of her husband and all others.


Almost there...



And now for a big bow. Hard work
with that costume and two other
people at your side.


Unfortunately I don't remember the whole ceremony
in detail, or the contents of the table. But they did have a chicken yes, a real chicken, bound up, (so much for the avian bird flu!) I do remember that the girls" fed "her red jujubes and she drank some tea. I believe the jujubes represent fertility. I put fed in quotation marks because according to Fiona, she wasn't able to eat anything, they moved through the ceremony quickly, which is the Koreans style.

Here is a picture that I just really like:

Here is a view of the lovely brides face:



I'll never forget Fionas lovely wedding and the great food that we ate afterward in peace. This was definetly the best wedding I have been to in Korea. Thank you Fiona!!!!!


Note: You keen observers may have noted that no name was written in red in this blog entry. Why you may have wondered. Well, in Korea they never right anyones name in red. If you see your name written in red it means you will die! For the safety of all those I have written about, I decided to take precaution.....