A few weekends ago in May I went to a traditional Korean wedding, which was much different from the Korean wedding I went to back in September. It was for one of my co-workers, Zach, who is from North Carolina but married a Korean girl. The wedding was held outside at the Korean War Memorial in Seoul. It was a really interesting place and the wedding was definitely completely different from any I've been to! Here are some pictures to help explain:
Zach, the groom, is the one sitting in the chair holding the red banner. His friend Tyler is standing in front of him holding a painted wooden duck, which he gave to Zach later in the ceremony. It symbolizes something, not sure what, maybe prosperity? So the couple will never be hungry? Don't know!
And then here is Hyunju, the bride, inside her wooden chair. What are these things called anyway? I'm sure theres a special name for them, but I cannot for the life of me think what it is right now. Zach and Hyyunju actually met when she was studying abroad for college in North Carolina. They've been living in Korea for 1 1/2 years, but will be moving back to the states at the end of July.
Bowing and doing other symbolic things during the ceremony.
Hyunju! They're all wearing Hanboks, but hers was really beautiful.
The bride and groom with their parents. Zach's father wore a tuxedo but his mom wore a Hanbok.
Some video of the beginning of the ceremony.
After the wedding and reception we wandered around the war memorial, it was such a big place! They had tons of planes, helicopters, tanks, boats, and guns from different countries who had fought during the Korean War. I would have never gone there if it hadn't been for the wedding, but I would have really been missing out!
Creepy fake soldiers they had put inside the plane:
Steering the ship
Cassy trying to figure out how to drive the thing
Cassy and I on the top of the ship
Only just one part of the place- times this picture by 4 and that's how many machines they had!
Mosaic depicting the Korean War. It was really beautiful but this picture doesn't do it justice.
This monument was also really moving but once again, hard to capture it on camera!
Some close ups of the monument:
Went to the Hongdae area in Seoul again (I love it so much!):
They make stores out of tiny closet sized spaces like this:
Street Craft Market that was going on there, I found some really unique jewelry there and a few souvenirs for the family:
There are also some pretty interesting fashion choices happening in this area:
Really random street performance going on:
Cassy at a really cute chocolate shop we stumbled upon:
And of course we had to hit up the Hello Kitty Cafe again:
They have these Big Toast Dessert things at most coffee shops in Korea. It is literally a giant thick toast with sweet toppings like Caramel, Chocolate, Honey, Ice Cream, Mocha, etc. We split a Big Toast with chocolate, raspberries, and strawberry ice cream on top! It was AMAZING.
Cassy was really excited about it, she's a sugar-a-holic.
Ok this post is getting long so I'm going to make a new one for the other stuff!
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