Western wedding or traditional Korean wedding?
Type of ceremony:
The trend these days
in Korea is towards having western style ceremonies wearing your typical white
dress and tuxedo. Interestingly, however, many multicultural marriages here opt
for the traditional Korean ceremony. I, personally, opted for this choice as
the lesser of two evils. The western style wedding here felt too contrived for
me (cutting a cake without eating it and pouring a champagne fountain that no
one gets to drink). That’s not to say that the traditional Korean ceremonies
are any less contrived, but as I don’t know how they were conducted in the
past, I can’t see their shortcomings. Plus, I look terrible in white ^^.
Venue:
White weddings take place both in churches and in wedding
halls. There is no dearth of wedding halls in Korea, so shop around and find
the one that suits your taste best. Hotels tend to be pricier offering meals
served individually to your guests during the ceremony. Wedding halls tend to
be the more affordable option of the two, generally offering buffets where your
guests will eat in a separate eating area, possibly with guests from other
weddings as well as yours. Be sure to check out public facilities such as courthouses
and even Seoul City Hall. These places tend to have very affordable rates for
weddings (however, your guests may be eating in a cafeteria or you may need to
find a restaurant to host your meal after the service).
Traditional weddings are offered in a number of places. In
Seoul, Korea House, Namsangol Hanok Village and the War Museum of Korea tend to
be popular locations, but do your research as you will find many others. Meal
offerings will vary greatly between locations.
As for price, you will find that the sky is the limit for
both types, however there tend to be a lot of affordable options for
traditional marriages. If you are willing to hold your wedding in a public
place, you could even have your ceremony
conducted for free!
Photography:
Perhaps you have seen some spectacular Korean wedding photos
and wondered how anyone could take the time to take those photos on their
wedding day. That is because they don’t take them on their wedding day! While
weddings here will always have a photographer snapping photos, the majority of
wedding photos that get shown off at house parties and on Facebook are actually
taken before the wedding. Visiting a photo studio can be a full day affair
which includes make-up and hair stylists and a variety of costume changes. Why
settle for one wedding dress when you could get your photo wearing five
different ones?
For the photos of the wedding day, many wedding venues are
able to provide their own photographer if you wish. The price may be
reasonable, however the photo packages may be fixed. If you aren’t happy with
your venue’s offerings, most photography studios also offer wedding day
photography as well. Shopping around for different photographer’s styles and
prices will help you get a better idea of what to expect.
Attire:
For those who don’t like the idea of spending huge amounts
of money on a dress that you will only wear once, there is good news. Women
rarely buy wedding dresses/hanbok but rather rent them. Same goes for men as
well. The bad news is that often times the rental price is often as much as
purchasing a new one (albeit, the quality would be much higher).
Another option is buying a
used hanbok. Hanbok, like wedding dresses and prom dresses, rarely are
worn more than once, meaning that any used hanbok you purchase is like
new. I chose to go this route meaning that I could get a nice hanbok for half the price I would have paid for a new one.
The wedding
attire is often supplied by the venue for traditional weddings. For my own wedding, the clothes for the ceremony are completely provided except for the skirt and shoes.
Paebek
What’s paebek, you ask? Paebek is the formal Confucian
portion of the wedding ceremony where the bride and groom formally greet their
parents and parents-in-law. During this portion of the ceremony, hanbok is worn by the bride and groom, and often the parents will also dress in hanbok as well. There are several traditions which
take place during the paebek including bowing to the parents representing
fielel piety, carrying the bride on the groom’s back, demonstrating both his physical strength and parents tossing chestnuts and dates and the bride and groom catching as many as they can, as chestnuts and dates
represent the number of children the bride would later bear.
This ceremony is viewed to be quite important in Korean
culture; however these days some people choose to opt out of this tradition. It is an
added expense and not all couples view it to be important. Most Korean parents,
however, will probably expect to have a paebek.
More information here: http://www.mybridestory.com/paebaek/
Reception:
Korean weddings do not typically have a reception as you may
be used to in the west with music, dancing eating and drinking. Korean weddings
tend to be short and sweet with just a ceremony and a meal. The meal may be
served during the ceremony or guests may file into a buffet hall serving
several weddings at once. If that isn’t sufficient for you, you may want to
look into holding your ‘reception’ after the meal at another venue. Plenty of
bars and restaurants are willing to open their space to group reservations and
many small bars with low traffic on weekend afternoons will even allow you to
book the entire bar without charge, as long as you bring a certain number of
people.
Photos and stories from my own wedding will be coming soon I hope! Just started teaching a new intensive course which will keep me busy for the next 7 weeks!
Photos and stories from my own wedding will be coming soon I hope! Just started teaching a new intensive course which will keep me busy for the next 7 weeks!
