Wedding goodness

Early morning, there was drama with Mom but I’m going to skip over that and just say that she left for the airport to go home as scheduled. Around 330pm, I left to go to Jennifer’s wedding. It was freaking FAR! I think it took me an hour to get there on the subway. Once I got off the train, I looked at the neighborhood map to see where I needed to go. *giggles bubbling dangerously near the surface* Well, I found the place.

Korean wedding are odd. It’s more of a production than anything else. There are facilities called wedding halls that cater specifically to providing you with the proper setting while you are tying the knot. Depending on the amount of money you want to spend, you can get less or more…stuff. Like a smoke machine. *laughs* You also rent your wedding dress which is awesome because, honestly, when are you ever going to wear it again.

Jennifer looked beautiful. The ceremony was long. The trumpet solo was exceedingly loud. There were people everywhere! And I’m not talking about guests although there were about a hundred of us. There was a photographer and a videographer and a lady from the wedding hall that kept rushing up to fix Jennifer’s dress or to tell Levi to remember to clench his fist or to tell the two of them how to pose for the photos. I felt like I was on a movie set. The funniest part was when they had to cut this fake wedding cake with a knife that looked remarkably like a samurai sword. *evil grin*

Oh, before I forget. Korean people don’t tend to give wedding gifts. It’s customary to bestow gifts of the monetary variety. To ensure that you do, the wedding halls have a genius system set up. Before you walk into the seating area prior to the wedding, there is a kiosk divided into two sections. (Let me give you a hint, Bride and Groom.) You hand over your gift/money in an envelope to the lady in the correct section in order to get your name in the guest book. Then they hand you a ticket. (Remember the ticket, it’s very important.)

After the ceremony, the guests were invited to partake in food while Jennifer and Levi changed out of their wedding gear. The mass of people were slowly funneled through into the dining area by a another wedding hall employee. And what was she doing? Collecting meal tickets! I told you to hold onto it!! I sat next to Rob. I hadn’t seen him since show choir days in high school. Misil was at the wedding too but she was downstairs helping Jennifer so she didn’t eat with us.

After a while, the married couple still hadn’t shown up so we went in search of them. I had forgotten that after the western style wedding, they then changes into the traditional Korean outfits to take MORE pictures. Finally, they were allowed to get changed into regular clothes and eat. I hadn’t met Levi before but he was super nice! Since they were leaving at the end of the week for their Peace Corps mission to Suriname, they were going to be really busy. But a group of us decided to meet up on Wednesday. All in all, it was a good wedding!