Holy Korean Matrimony

Well, "Hello" again everyone!  It has been a really long time since I've written in this blog, and I greatly apologize for that.  It seems that when you're working 6 days a week for 3 months, the last thing that seems to enter your mind is updating something like this.  However, here I am again in with hopes that the words I need will not escape my mind or my fingertips before I can finish this blog.  In my absence I have attempted to write an entry or two, but I haven't had much success, motivation, or content to include.  This time, I think I have found the cure.... Love!

Where to begin!?  The beginning seems like the most logical place, but that requires some thinking on my part, so let me try to do this....  Let's see...  It  all began about 2 months ago.  At work, we have what we CDI-ers like to call the "Share Folder."  Basically, in this folder we are able to access all of our important work documents such as tests, supplemental readings to hand out to our students every week, and sometimes we can find the schedule for future terms or special classes or what not.  Well, on this particular afternoon, two coworkers and myself were trying to be sneaky and look for the new Summer Term schedule....  So, we thought the most logical place to look would be in the "Assistant Director's" folder, which was affectionately and appropriately named after herself "LUCY"!

So, I double click the icon and of course the folder opens.... and we commence with what I'm sure is some sort of illegal snooping.  We see a bunch of files there, most of which are in Korea, but then we notice one toward the bottom of the file labeled "WEDDING INVITATION!"  Of course, curiosity got the best of us and I double clicked that file!  Inside we saw a mock draft of a apparent wedding invitation, so it turned out that we weren't being tricked with the title of the folder.  So, we read the invite and it was dated June 10, 2011!  Now, this may not seem like a shock to anyone, but to the three of us snooping employees, we were baffled because as far as we knew our Assistant Director was a single as they came.  So, to find out that she had been married almost a year ago blew our minds.

After I picked my jaw up from my desk, I decided that we probably shouldn't be looking into this woman's personal life like this anymore, so I snapped a picture of the invitation on my camera phone.... for evidence of course!  Haha!  I'm totally kidding about that!  We did however close out of the file and swore to never open it up again....until next week!

Now, of course, we had to discuss the invitation for the next 5 minutes, because we were so baffled by our discovery, and kind of impressed with our investigative skills.  Then we decided to actually do some real work in preparation for the upcoming work day.

Well, seriously no later than 10 minutes after looking into the file and at this invitation, I get a knock on my door.  It's Lucy, the assistant director.

"Jeremy, come here please!"  she says!  Immediately the word BUSTED flashes across my face, through my head and I felt a little faint.  So, I get up out of my chair and follow her into the hallway where she directs me into another teacher's room, where more of my coworkers are waiting, including the 2 who had helped me comb through the share folder.  Now I know we are in for it and we are about to be publicly humiliated in front of the rest of the office..... DAMN!

Then Lucy hands everyone in the room a small envelope... which I assume are my walking papers and makes the announcement: "I don't know if everyone knows this but I got married and I would like everyone to come!"

"HUH?"  Is definitely the thing that popped into my mind, as I'm sure it is yours!  She got married, and she wants all of us to come?  That makes absolutely no sense, right!  So, we all awkwardly look at one another until someone blurts out "CONGRATULATIONS!!!"  That is definitely a more appropriate response than the "what the hell?" that is going on in my head as I open up my invitation.

After opening it, I realize that this is an actual invitation to the wedding, and not an anniversary celebration like I was starting to believe!  So, yay!  A Korean wedding!  Since coming here, I've heard many people say that if at all possible, I have to attend one, so now here is my chance!!!

Anyways, the story simply doesn't end there.... there's more!  However, let me finish my talk about the invitation!  It definitely is an invite to her actual wedding, like I stated before, AND it definitely reads June 10, 2011.... which was last year!  However, I was able to put that aside because I'm sure I can blame Google translate for that problem since all of our invitations had a piece of paper stapled to it that had the invite typed in English!

Like I said before, the story doesn't end there....

Lucy: "I don't know if everyone knows this but I got married and I would like everyone to come!"
Us: Awkward silence with inquisitive looks on our faces...
One person: "CONGRATULATIONS"
Lucy: "Not only do I want you all to come, but I would like to ask you all to perform a song at the wedding!!"
Us: More awkward silence and inquisitive looks.....

So... let's recap:  We were invited to a wedding, that I was lead to believe happened last year, and we are now going to perform a song and dance routine for the bride, groom and all their Korean family and friends!  I don't know about you, but this seems like a set up!  We are going to be show monkeys..... But I am sooooo excited!!!

So, after about 2 months of debate we finally decided that the most proper song for us to sing during our performance would obviously be "Marry You" by Bruno Mars.  I think it's pretty appropriate, if you can get past the fact that the song is pretty much written about a one night stand, that just so happened to occur on a night in which both parties had been heavily drinking, and if you can get past the part about wanting to break up when they are both sober the next morning.  However, I digress!  It's clearly the most obvious song for a group of seasoned wedding performers to take on.

In order for us to perform this number, we have to have some fun, quirky, intricate, yet easily mastered choreography.  So we pick a random Tuesday night, before the wedding, to practice/choreograph this entire number.  I believe we practiced from around 11:30 p.m. or so until about 1:30 a.m. in the park down the street from our apartment.  I'm sure the Koreans who were walking/driving passed us wondered what the army of foreigners was doing dancing around on the public badminton courts, but we were bound and determined to make this the wedding performance of the decade!

Moving on.... After we spent hours rehearsing and choreographing this awesome number, Sean, our Head Instructor decides that he doesn't have enough "dance experience" to continue on with the performance come wedding day. So that means we are down one man already...and the lets just say that sparked a mutiny!!  We were so prepared for the performance, but once it came down to it, everyone essentially bailed and we were stuck singing and swaying on stage like a bunch of show choir students during their freshman year performance for the student body!  It was tragic, yet fun!!!

So, now I suppose I will actually start talking about this impending wedding, since in fact at this point of the story we are already at the wedding and performed our fantastic routine.

Now, I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the Korean wedding industry, but I'm pretty sure that it is one of the biggest money making industries in Korea at the moment.  These things are like productions for the people involved.... and most of them are held at event halls rather than churches!!  I don't think that weddings in this culture are necessarily seen as religious ceremonies so they aren't held in churches....and they are often held on Sundays as opposed to western culture in which a majority are held on Saturdays.  Anyways... onwards with the wedding and pictures!

I guess the first place I will start will be with the venue!  Most Korean weddings are held at event halls. The particular event hall we were at was probably about 8 stories tall, and had wedding halls on every floor.  Today, I think there were probably about 3-4 weddings happening at the same time as Lucy's wedding!


Here is a shot inside the wedding hall.  Obviously this is the aisle that the bride and groom are going to walk down.  Very swanky and very pretty on the inside!

ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS!  Sorry for the quality on this one.... It's a picture of a picture.  However, this was just outside the entrance of the big wedding hall!  The woman is Lucy, my assistant director, and that's her now husband, Mr. Lucy! hahaha!  They are wearing traditional Korean clothing called Hanbok!  

This cake was present during the entire ceremony.  However, we did not get to eat any of it!  Which was a huge disappointment to me, because I love cake!  Actually, I'm not even sure that the cake is actually real.  On the empty tier they placed a small pink cake, lit two candles on it, one pink and one blue, then had the bride and groom cut the cake in half with that sword you see in the picture!

Every wedding hall has a place to take formal pictures!  Here is Lucy in her wedding dress looking STUNNING!  All of us Chungdahm workers got to pose in a picture with her!  Her wedding dress was amazingly gorgeous, but this picture really doesn't do it any justice!

In this picture the mothers of both the bride and groom are lighting candles.  The man standing behind the altar-like thing is the man who lead the ceremony.  Also in this picture you can see a photographer, videographer and a helper that assisted the mothers with lighting their candles.  All of these services of course come with the rental of the wedding event space.

This is the groom.... I wish I could remember his name! :(  He's is a rather handsome man, but the more we all looked at him the more we noticed how much he actually resembles our real boss, Mr. Gil, who owns our branch of Chungdahm!  It was funny, and creepy at the same time, but way to go Lucy for bagging a looker!

Here is Lucy walking down the aisle to marry her husband!  Notice the people don't stand when she enters like we do in America.  Also, people were clapping and cheering during her trip down the aisle.

Here is Lucy and her father, handing Lucy over to her soon to be husband.  I think this was after Mr. Lucy bowed and then hugged Lucy's father!  Very respectful!  Oh, notice the cameraman in the background..... At one point he was moving around the stage and gets Lucy's vail stuck on his foot and yanks her head sideways, and nearly completely off, while he's trying to walk!  It was not a cute moment.... but Lucy never stopped smiling!  

There was never an actual kiss after the exchanging of vows.  Well, I don't think they even exchanged vows!  Either way, instead of kissing they each bowed to one another.  It was a precious moment... again, very respectful!

Here is the newly wed bride and groom paying their respects/appreciation to their parents for attending. They both actually bowed to both sets of parents and the groom got down on his knees when he bowed!  I'm assuming that's a huge sign of respect/appreciation in Korean culture.  However, when I first saw him go down, I thought he fainted!

I think this is Lucy's sister maybe.  She was the only woman wearing hanbok besides the mothers of the bride and groom.  This is a very pretty hanbok!  And I took this picture like a creeper because I didn't want her to see me take it!

We are happy wedding goers! Liz, Brad and myself... So happy for Mr. and Mrs. Lucy!

After the ceremony the bride and groom posed for pictures!  Here they are happily married!  Gorgeous dress!!!

Lucy's dress in all it's glory.... minus the part that is out of the picture! It was very pretty and very Lucy!  

Here are the bride and groom with their parents!  The mothers are, again, dressed in Hanbok!  Oh, and I'm not sure why everyone in the wedding wore white gloves...

After the wedding there was no reception, but there was a buffet!  I think I prefer that!  All you can eat and free booze!  Here are Liz and Natalie enjoying the buffet.... CHOW DOWN LADIES!

Finally here I am with Lucy in her Hanbok after we ate at the buffet!  I look a little strange, but it's ok!  

So, there is a brief glance into the Korean wedding process.  The ceremony was really nice, although it was unusual because the guests talked consistently throughout the whole process!  Nevertheless, I was honored to be a part of this special day for Lucy and her husband!  

I'm sorry there is no video from our show stopping performance.... I asked one of my coworkers who decided that he didn't want to perform with the rest of us to take pictures and record the performance for me and this is what I got:

We are in a group singing somewhere at the front of the hall - in front of the lady in the red dress!  Thanks a million, Leo!!!

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