The Korean Wedding

Dennis and I were fortunate enough to get to attend a Korean wedding over the weekend. One of the officers he works with is a Korean-American and was getting married to a Korean girl he had met while stationed over here. It was a catholic ceremony that was all in Korean. I tried my best to follow along, since the structure of the wedding is essentially the same as someone getting married in a catholic church in America, but it was still tough. There we some interesting details that made it different from the traditions we are used to. First, the groom walks down the isle, wearing a tux with white gloves, and everyone claps. Next came the bride, in a traditional white dress, with her father, followed by some more clapping. In Korea you do not stand up for the bride as she enters and there are no bridal parties. The rest of the ceremony was pretty normal to the traditions of the catholic church. When you tell the rest of the members "Peace be with you" you bow instead of shaking hands or hugging. As for non-related parts of the actual ceremony, the photographers did not mind coming up to the bride or groom in the middle of the ceremony to fix something for a picture or wipe the sweat off their faces. As for everyone else at the ceremony the attire was very mixed from casual to semi-formal. There were people in cute dresses to people in jean shorts and heels (this is very big in Korea right now). I even saw a guy with a suit jacket and khaki shorts on and he was American and definitely knew better. I guess over in Korea there is less emphasis on how nice you dress for a wedding. Some outfits that were amazing were the mothers of the brides who wore the traditional Korean dress, pictured below.

The reception was held in a cafeteria right next to the church and sadly there was no music or dancing afterwards. They had tons of food but lets just say I did not grab the serving spoons to pick up most of it. There was lots of seafood, full squids, and this prickly looking fruit that was from Thailand. I passed on a lot but thankfully I found some noodles and something that resembled some spicy orange chicken. That was yummy. After the meal was over we were shooed outside by the photographer to take a group picture with the bride and groom. The strangest part about that was the tossing of the bouquet. They had already pre-selected the girl who would catch the bouquet. So there was no fun wrestling match like there sometimes is in America. Just a boring little toss that went directly to the chosen one. Overall, experiencing a wedding of a different culture was very enlightening and it was neat to see different culture's traditions are on their special days.

Dennis and I at the wedding. 

Our Wedding Plans...

Now you're probably wondering "what are your plans for your wedding?". Well, that's a great question. Here is what we are thinking so far. Dennis and I would like to have a destination wedding. We are waiting until we find out in October what his next assignment is to determine where the "destination" will actually be. We are praying for his next base to be in Northern Italy or Germany and we would have our wedding in one of those locations if that happens. Are alternatives are something in the Pacific ocean or Caribbean if our first plan falls through. So start saving up if you would like to come to our special day. It will be a memorable experience. As for our engagement parties, I think we might have one in New Orleans and one in West Palm Beach in December when we come home but that is all up in the air. We will let you know more details as we figure them out ourselves. As for now....we are just going to enjoy being engaged : )

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and thank you for all your love you sent Dennis and I on our engagement. We love and miss you all!