Saturday, August 18, 2012

EunYoung & JaeHa's Wedding - August 18, 2012

Yup, another wedding. Several of my friends have gotten married this year (3 weddings in June) or are soon going to be married, but these are the only 2 I've been able to attend. Eunyoung's wedding came as the biggest surprise - I came back from Jennifer's wedding and Eunyoung tells me she's going to get married in August o_O. We had joked that she needed to get married before I left Korea so I could be there for it, but I wasn't expecting it to be so soon.

I met Eunyoung shortly after starting at Samsung. Since we were on the same team and she spoke English, people would have her ask me questions. We soon developed a friendship that involved us picking on each other and me pissing her off by saying negative things about Korea. She would always soon forgive me if I gave her chocolate or coffee, though. She would also graciously help me with things in Korean if I asked her nicely. Then last year, when I seemed angry all of the time, she sort of became the liaison between the rest of our team and me (except for the lovely Yoon Yi) since everyone was apparently afraid to talk to me - I guess they figured I wouldn't murder Eunyoung since we were friends. It was kind of amusing really: I'd get a messenger message from her saying, "So-and-so wants to know if you can review X for him/her." I'd respond, "Yeah, of course. Why didn't so-and-so ask me? He/She speaks English." "Because you look mad," would be the response. Couldn't argue with that logic.

So, seeing Eunyoung get married and seeing the whole process up to it was like watching my sister get married and it made me a little teary. Sure, I pick on her and give her a hard time and she makes fun of me when I wear socks with sandals, but it's because I love her like family and couldn't be happier for her. I informed her that when she has children, she has to send them to the US to see Aunty Libby and Uncle Dougie for vacations, or if she wants them to live overseas for a bit, they're welcome to stay with me. She said no to that...I can't imagine why...I'd return them (mostly) without tattoos and in one piece.

At any rate, Eunyoung looked beautiful in her wedding gown and in her engagement photos. Jaeha looked very handsome in his suit. I think I can maybe remember his name and stop calling him "chocolate guy" now...maybe.

Eunyoung with Sukyoung

Korean weddings are very interesting events. If you get there about an hour before the ceremony, you can go meet the bride and have your pictures taken with her. The groom is usually at the entryway greeting the guests. Korean weddings also seem to have more of the parents' friends than anything else, so this wedding was full of old Korean men :). Korean weddings are also very short in comparison to American weddings (I've been to a few Korean weddings). The groom comes in, then the bride is escorted in, the officiator reads some stuff (I don't speak Korean), they exchange rings, more stuff is read, people sing, then they present themselves to the their parents then to the guests. Then they will go change clothes then come back and greet the guests at each table. Afterwards they go have private traditional ceremonies with their families. The reception usually consists of either a buffet or a catered meal (this wedding had a catered meal).

I wish Eunyoung and Jaeha a long and happy life together filled with lots of cute little Asian babies that I can steal borrow :)

So, here is the video clip of the early part of the ceremony.

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