Wedding Bells

Saturday was a big day for the Avalon staff. It was the day of two weddings for two of my co-workers: John-Sook and Grace (both marrying different people). The weddings were roughly one hour apart so the timing was fairly rushed.

We arrived at John-Sook’s wedding first. The wedding hall was not similar to one in North America. There were many people crowding around in the large area but I later learned that there were multiple weddings happening at the same time, so these people were not all there for the same wedding.

The bride was seated in a small room with a fancy chair and people would stand with her and take photos. After a small while, everyone who was there for this particular wedding, gathered into the ceremony room.

This room was well decorated and looked very ‘wedding like’. The ceremony room stays decorated this way for everyone’s wedding… it is mainly a continuous circuit with people moving in and out on a regular basis.

The wedding ceremony began with the mothers walking down the isle and lighting candles. There was a lot of bowing and things said in Korean. Then the groom came and finally the bride. The ceremony did not last too long and it wasn’t as formal as a typical North American wedding (there was a fair amount of chatting and noise coming in from the main room).

One of my American co-workers surprised us all by singing a love song for the happy couple in the middle of their ceremony… it was very nice!

Before this ceremony ended, we had to rush out and make our way to Grace’s wedding hall.

Grace’s wedding was very similar. Her hall was a bit bigger but it was the same style as the previous one. This wedding was very crowded and it was slightly difficult for me to see what was going on. Grace’s wedding was a Christian wedding, so I could recognize many of the hymns they chose to sing…. although I couldn’t understand their Korean verses.

The ceremony wasn’t too long and after it ended we all went into a big dining hall for lunch.

This was a different custom than I am used to because it had a restaurant layout and you found a seat wherever there was an empty table. There were people from different weddings eating there as well so it was more informal than the wedding’s I’ve been to before (ie: no head table or speeches etc).

The food was very good and I sat with some co-workers so we were able join in some good conversation with one another.

I must say that I’m so glad that I was able to partake in the events of the day. It was a great experience to be able to observe different customs and share in the joy of two new marriages!