Wedding Crashers!

Yeon-shil, the secretary at the school where I teach, invited me, my cousin George, and our coworker Jeremy to attend her sister's wedding, which was held yesterday at the unimaginatively named Hotel Airport (located - not surprisingly - at the Daegu Airport. I don't know Yeon-shil very well, and I'd never so much as met her sister, so I felt a little weird about going, but as she seemed so excited to have us attend, I felt I couldn't let her down. This wasn't the first Korean wedding that I've attended (I went to one back in 2006), so I pretty much knew what to expect.

George and Yeon-shil

The first part of the wedding ceremony is very similar to a traditional Western wedding, with the groom in a tux and the bride in a floofy white dress, although the parents and several relatives of the bride and groom wore traditional hanbok.

Following the ceremony, the wedding photographer assembled the friends and family of the wedding party for formal photographs... and decided that including the three random foreigners (who knew neither bride nor groom, remember) was an absolute must. So yes, George, Jeremy, and I feature in several of this new couple's wedding shots. While the professional photographer was shooting away, some random fellow I'd never met nor seen before picked up my camera and immortalized this bizarre event for me as well.

After the photography finished, nearly all of the guests bustled off to the dining hall to partake in a huge buffet, while the close friends and family stayed behind to participate in a second wedding ceremony, the traditional Korean ceremony known as paebaek. I'd already decided the day couldn't get any more bizarre when we were asked to come and watch the private paebaek ceremony. This was something that I hadn't ever seen up close before, and I was quite pleased to be welcomed (and encouraged to photograph) - even though I couldn't help thinking it was rather strange to be included!

The complete set of photographs from the wedding can be seen here.