My First Korean Wedding.

On Saturday, I met Lisa at the subway at 7am!! We were dressed in our new dresses, all ready to experience our first Korean wedding! However, we had to attend a seminar for school first. Lame, I know. The seminar was from 9am-1pm, and the wedding began at 3:30pm. We had no time to go home between the seminar and the wedding, so we had to wake up early and get all dolled up! What's even worse is the seminar was very informal attire, so we were prepared to stick out like sore thumbs.

We rode the subway to Bangbae Station. It was only 8am, so we had plenty of time to stop in a bakery and get coffee and breakfast! Ian, our coworker, was supposed to meet us at the subway, but he slept through his alarm or something, so he was running behind. We decided to wait for him in the bakery. We relaxed and enjoyed ourselves, until Ian got there. When he arrived, he grabbed some coffee and we headed to the Seoul Training Center for the seminar. (Lisa was smart and brought her heels in a bag, but I was wearing my wedges...I didn't appreciate the hills we had to take to get to the building...)

When we arrived, it was just as we expected. Everyone was wearing jeans and hoodies, and we were wearing fancy dresses and heels. GREAT! We collected our books and paperwork they gave us and hung out in the lobby. Eventually, we all filed in and found our seats. The seminar was SUCH A JOKE!! We learned about REALLY important things, like the Visa process (Hello! We already made it into the country! I'm pretty sure we know how all this works...), Korean culture (I'm going on my 15th month in Korea, so I'm quite certain I've got a good grasp on the culture...), how to teach English in a foreign country (really??), you know. Really important things like that! Basically, we were miserable. But it was a required seminar set up by the government, so attendance was mandatory.

We FINALLY got out of the seminar at 12:50pm, and decided to find food somewhere. Lisa spotted a Subway (what?!), so we had subs for lunch. Delicious. We walked around the area for a bit, and then decided to head to where the wedding hall was. It was only a few subway stops away, which was convenient. When we got there, Lisa and I went into the bathroom at the subway station and got ready: re-applied make-up, fixed our hair, and Lisa swapped her shoes out, while Ian waited outside. :)

We met Angie, another coworker, at the subway station, and the four of us walked to the wedding hall. When we got inside, we were instructed to go up to the third floor. When we got inside, we went into a side room and took a picture with the bride! EEEEE!! The bride is the Director of my school. Her name is Cindy, and she's just wonderful. :) The four of us took a picture with Cindy, and then we waited for the wedding to start. Lisa and I were bursting at the seams when Cindy gave us invitations because we LOVE weddings, but we were warned by pretty much everyone that Korean weddings are much different than Western weddings. Whatever. We were still pumped. When the wedding was about to start, we realized that there were no more seats left! About half of the guests didn't have a place to sit, so they just stood around in the lobby and talked and played on their phones, while kids were running around screaming. The person leading the ceremony had a microphone, so his voice projected into the lobby, but everyone was just talking and chatting amongst themselves, not really paying attention at all to the ceremony. I was shocked. This is what people had been telling me would happen, but I couldn't BELIEVE it!

The ceremony was really quick, only about 30 minutes. After that, it was picture time. They called up family first, and then called up friends. Cindy had asked me if I would catch her bouquet, and I eagerly agreed! However, I had been given no instructions on what I was supposed to do or when this would occur. When the friends were called up to take pictures, I was told to stand next to Cindy. Everyone was speaking to me in Korean, so Cindy was whispering to me what to do. Then, it was time to catch the bouquet. I was moved off to the side, and Cindy counted and threw the bouquet behind her, while the photographer snapped a bunch of pictures. Thankfully, I caught it! Whew! Then, everyone filed out to the next room for food. I was asked to stay and take pictures with the bride and groom, so that was pretty cool! Lisa was nice enough to wait for me while I did this. When the pictures were finished, Lisa and I went out into the lobby to look for everyone. No one was there.

We had NO idea where to go! We called our friends, but they didn't answer their phones. This was a massive wedding hall, so tons of weddings were taking place at one time. We could only recognize a few people from the wedding we attended, so Lisa and I were lost for a good ten minutes. Finally we made our way to the basement, where we saw the big room of people. This was where the food was. We gave our meal tickets to the lady and went inside. There were hundreds of people inside, sitting at different tables eating. All the wedding guests were mixed together and sitting among one another. We eventually figured out that we were supposed to put our stuff down to reserve a table, and then get in the buffet line. The buffet was a pretty incredible spread! They had Western food, Korean food, Japanese food, Chinese food...so much food! They had lobster and other seafood, steaks, soups, salads, pasta, pastries, so many different choices! It was great! The foreign teachers all sat together, so that was good. We chatted for a bit, and then headed out.

Ian, Lisa, Angie, and I all went into Gangnam for food and drinks. We were all dressed up, so we wanted to make the most of it! Angie eventually left, and my friend, Abby, joined us. We went restaurant/bar hopping. I had my pack of cards with me, so we played card games and just chatted. It was a really fun evening. :) Eventually, we all parted ways, and went home. I've now experienced my first Korean wedding. I'm glad I went (and was honored to catch the bouquet!), but I don't feel like I need to go to another one while I'm here... :)