Preparing for a Korean Wedding

-->As I prepare to marry in September, here in Korea, I thought I would share some of the planning process with my readers. Perhaps some of you out there may be curious about Korean weddings and perhaps others of you are thinking about your own wedding here in Korea. If so, this will hopefully give you some insight into the process of planning a Korean wedding.

 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! 

Behind the scenes at a Korean studio wedding photo shoot

These days in Korea it is very popular to not just take photos on the day of your wedding, but to shoot some photos, either in a studio and/or outside, and publish them in a big photo album (not to mention all over Facebook, KakaoTalk etc. etc.). Before getting these photos done myself, I never imagined how much work goes into taking these photos, especially as the bride, but last month I learned for myself how much effort it takes to make one little wedding album.

Preparing for the studio wedding photo shoot 

First thing on a Sunday morning, we headed to the photo studio by 9am. I was immediately put in a chair and the hair and make-up artist spent over an hour doing my make-up and hair. I've never had my make-up done professionally like this before. After layers and layers of make-up and fake eyelashes, I couldn't even recognize myself. Then came the hair. She expertly straitened, curled, twisted, braided and hair sprayed my hair until it looked just right.

They also spent a little time on my husband-to-be as well. They quickly brushed his hair and styled it into place and put some make-up on him too, however, they only spent about 15 minutes on him compared with over an hour on me.

  

A book showing all the dress choices

Then it was time to play dress-up. They had a whole book of dresses and they asked me to go through and pick out four dresses that I wanted to wear throughout the day. It was too hard to choose from the photos, though, and in the end another assistant who was to be my personal attendant for the rest of the day just picked out several dresses she thought would suit me and let me try them on myself.

 Trying on my first long wedding gown

After I had picked out the first long dress, and my husband-to-be had been given a tuxedo to wear, we were set up for our first shoot. The most classic pose, sitting on a sofa with some flowers. But, getting the perfect pose is no easy feat. I had my attendant on one side tugging at my dress here and there to make it perfect, while the photographer continued to give commands, "turn your head left, tilt your head up, point your bouquet this way..." I can't imagine being a famous person who has to have people saying these things to them all day! I realized that all those natural looking poses I had seen in my friends photos were not so natural at all!

 

Adjusting this way and that for the perfect photo

 

Sitting on the floor in a dress this big is no easy feat

After more photos with the long dresses, I put on a short dress and we went out to the patio of the studio to shoot some more photos. It's amazing how some simple props can make for such nice looking photos.

 

Some outdoor photos

I must say, after nearly four hours of shooting photos, I must say that there was no end to the tiny photo studio's creativity in creating scenes for photos. While each scene was quite small, the whole studio fitting into the size of one two-floor house, the photos create an illusion of being taken in a really huge, vast space. Not to mention all the props and scenery they use, everything from giant balloons, to bicycles, to picnic tables to chandeliers, in the end the photos look amazing and as if we really went to many different places.

 Strange, yet interesting props

 

 

Got to love the astroturf...

But after hours of shooting photos, we were certainly exhausted and ready change into our street clothes and not having people adjusting  our our clothes, position and make-up every 30 seconds. Now we are looking forward to picking up our albums from the photographer and seeing the final results. While this tradition of dressing up in a wedding gown before the official wedding is quite different from my own American culture, it was quite fun to dress up and have people dote on you for hours on end, and get a book of nice photos after it's all done as well. I recommend getting wedding photo shoot!

We were exhausted by the end of the day

For those interested in the cost,  I think we got a fairly good deal, though I think they can personalize your photo package to fit any budget. We paid 1,500,000 for four albums: One album of studio photos, one album of photos from our wedding day (which they also shot for us), one small album of family shots, wedding shots, and paebaek shots for his parents and one larger album for my mother including some studio photos, wedding photos and paebaek photos. On top of that, they also will give us two framed 8x11 photos for free. Or we could have chosen one giant photo for free (which is usually put at the entrance of the wedding ceremony). We opted not to get that photo since we had no idea what we would do with such a huge photo after the ceremony though! Please visit the studio where we got our photos done:   

Aand Studio 

85-17 Nonhyun-dong

 Gangnam-gu, Seoul

Tel: 02-511-7350

Email: info@aand.co.kr

Long time no post

Hello world, it's been a long time, I know. I've graduated with my master's, gotten married, and spent a month in China (where Blogger is blocked)... I've been a bit busy. But now I'm unemployed (hopefully not for long, we'll see) and have a bit of spare time, so I'm hoping to get caught up on all that blogging I've been missing in the past few months. Hope to see you soon. 조안나.

신촌황소곱창-종로점 Sinchon Hwangso Gopchang- Jongno Branch

My my, it's been such a long time now since I left Seoul, but now that I have a little time, I'm going through some old posts I had planned and never got to write. Here is one about eating 곱창 (gopchang/intestines) at 신촌황소곱창 in Jongno. I have had gopchang several times before, but usually in Hwanghakdong where the most popular variety seems to be 양념곱창, a rather sticky sweet and spicy form of the gopchang, which I must say was pretty good as far as intestines go. However, one commenter, the author of The Seoul Patch blog mentioned, and I quote:

 "Technically, what you ate was gopchang. However, that gunk with the ddok, gochujang and sesame seeds on it is to gopchang as a Mickey D's burger patty is to a sirloin steak. I'm far from an expert, but I want to suggest you try again, and stay away from pojangmacha for it. Really, if you liked that okay, you'll love the unadorned item, cooked on the table grill, with other organ meat like liver and kidney, and onion, garlic and potato slices as well. Delicious!"

I always wondered about the validity of this statement after I read that, but never really was daring enough to try again until about a week before I left Korea. A friend of mine invited me out for dinner with her friend and they had already made plans to come to 신촌황소곱창. They asked me if it was ok, though I couldn't really have said no, even if I had wanted to...

We arrived here and were escorted to one of the only empty tables left available. Apparently this is a really popular joint for intestines consumption and they claim to be a 60-year old restaurant. However, it also seems to be a local chain, so it's hard to say how long this particular establishment has been around...

I let my friend order, since I'm clearly clueless about this particular cuisine. While waiting for our gopchang, out came a very interesting side dish: Liver (간) and tripe (천엽). While it wasn't terrible, it is certainly not something that I would order every day.

 

Next, they brought over our main meal beef gopchang with onions and green onions. The woman grilled it up for us on the table in front of us. I don't know why, but the thought of eating gopchang scares me a little, but I toughed it out, and, you know what? It wasn't bad.

This was certainly a dinner of new foods for me. They brought over another side dish of mussel soup. My friend laughed at me because I didn't know the difference between oyster and mussel. Apparently oyster shells are very bumpy and mussel shells are very smooth and black. I'm so clueless about seafood..

As usual, once we had eaten most of our meal, they then brought over the bap for some bokkum. Now who doesn't love a little bokkum bap, right?

신촌황소곱창 -Jongno branch is located in the Jongno nightlife area between Jonggak station and Jongno-3-ga station. From Jonggak station exit 4, turn left into the first street on right. Turn left on Samil-daero-7-gil. The restaurant will be on your right.

서울 종로구 관철동 12-23번지

 Gwangcheol-dong 12-23

Seoul Jongno-gu

02-735-6698

View 신촌황소곱창 in a larger map

Bike Trips: Yeoido - Ara Canal - Incheon Ara Park

Entry point to the Ara Canal

Last fall we rode our bikes from our house to the start of the Ara Canal, which connects the Han river to the ocean in Incheon. Finally, we got to do the second half of that trip in May. Starting from Yeoido station, we followed the Han River to the Ara canal and then made the 21 mile trek to the ocean in Incheon. We were pleasantly surprised how nice the ride was, however we do wonder what good the canal does (besides provide us a fantastic bike ride) since the only boat that seem to use it is the Ara canal tour boat.

Map of the 21km Ara Canal

If 21 km sounds intimidating, it shouldn't. It's about a 1 hr and 30 min bike ride and, since it follows the river, is completely flat. The canal was built recently, finished about two years ago, meaning that all the paths are new and in great condition! I recommend riding on the north side of the river, as there are way fewer bikes and people over there. We, however, rode on the south side, so at times it did feel a little cramped on a weekend afternoon.

Bike supply pop up shops along the canal

Waterfall halfway along the Ara canal

There are a few sights to see along the way. one of them was this waterfall, about halfway through the canal. Another are the windmills at the end of the trail. The windmill at the end is located at the park at the Ara west sea lock.

Windmills at the Ara west sea lock

Don't forget to bring your 4 Rivers Passport with you when you ride, you can get stamps at the beginning and end of the Canal! Look for the sign below which indicates that a stamp center (they call it a "certification center") is approaching.

Certification center 1km away

The only problem here, is that there is no public transportation from the Ara park. To take the subway back to Seoul, you'll have to go back to Geomam Station, a full 6 km back along the canal. OR you could just ride your bike all the way home!

Wireless Electric Buses

 Test run of Gumi's wirelessly charged bus

While Facebook's newsfeed is filled with stories of a Hyperloop bullet train which is years away from being used by real people, Korea has recently just launched it's own form of electric public transportation. Two buses which are charged wirelessly at bus stops and parking garages have been launched in Gumi for testing until December. 

The main characteristic of the bus is that the vehicle uses electricity converted from magnetic force supplied by rechargers embedded in the roads at bus stops and parking lots. Using a smaller battery due to its real-time recharging, the vehicle is comparably light. It can also operate on regular roads. (Korea.net)

 If this bus is successful, knowing Korea, we could be seeing it on the streets of Seoul and other major cities within a few years. Imagine how much less pollution and fuel would be used if every bus in Seoul ran on this? And who knows? Why stop at buses? Perhaps someday this could even be converted into car technology!

http://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Sci-Tech/view?articleId=111336

Bus stop plus battery charging area

Getting my MA TESOL

It has been one very long year, but I can now proudly say that I am now a proud owner of an MA TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from St. Michael's College in Vermont. I was one of three students in their pilot program which combines a mix of on-campus classes during the summer with on-line courses during the fall and spring semesters totaling 36 credits without teaching licensure (not necessary if you don't plan on teaching K-12 in the US or international schools).

Why choose St. Michael's? Well, besides the fact that it was my alma mater, it really was the best option for me. I didn't want a degree which was 'on-line', as many employers shy away from these kinds of degrees, but I wanted a degree from an English speaking country, didn't want to quit my job in Korea, and didn't want to go in debt again. Miraculously, I was able to do all of that through this program.

Last summer I was able to take time off from work (impossible with many jobs, I know) to take a 6-week summer semester on campus of 12 credits. It was intense, but since I didn't have to worry about working at the same time, it was very reasonable. Then in the fall and spring semester, I took one 4 credit course on-line for each semester while working full time. For the most part, this was very doable, with just an occasional stressful week here and there when big projects were due. This summer, between one 5-week on-line course in early summer and another 6-week 12 credit summer session on campus I was finally able to graduate on August 1st with my MA TESOL.

The grand total cost of the courses was just over $20,000, factoring in plane tickets, rent and food for the summer, the cost was probably around $23,00-24,000 for me to attend this program. I was able to do this completely debt free as I had a bit of money saved up after finishing paying off my undergrad loans several years ago, plus being able to continue working full time while taking classes let me earn another year's worth of salary before returning for my second semester on campus.

Was it worth it? Well, that is still to be determined, but I am hoping to be better qualified for jobs, particularly for teaching university here in Korea or in other countries. I am going to be looking for university teaching jobs in Seoul starting in the spring semester of 2014. I don't know yet if I will be able to find one, but I am hoping that the MA TESOL should let me stand out from the hoards of applicants which apply for these jobs. If anyone of my readers out there happen to know of anyone hiring, please let me know!

I have just two weeks left in the States, then I'll be back to Korea with a lot of excitement with a wedding and honeymoon coming up very soon. I'd like to say that I'll be blogging more now, but unfortunately I can't promise that for a little while longer. Who knows, I hope I find the time and motivation to blog sooner rather than later!

For those interested in studying at St. Michael's, please see their website: http://www.smcvt.edu/Graduate-Programs/Academic-Programs/Teaching-English-to-Speakers-of-Other-Languages.aspx