Our Korean Wedding Video

https://vimeo.com/176713121

Getting Married in Korea (timeline)

Just to give an idea of when things happened for us.  I know it can vary a little based on what kind of wedding you're having.  Personally, I think everything in Korea is generally a little last minute.  I don't know why we can't just plan things ahead of time.  Throughout the whole wedding planning process, I always felt like I would have liked something to happen at least a couple weeks earlier than it did.

Getting Married in Korea Pt.10 (when things go really, REALLY wrong)

The day before we left for Hong Kong, my husband called our venue to check on a few things since we hadn't heard anything yet.  This was 3 weeks before the wedding.  He had tried calling a few times before, but the manager didn't answer his calls.  She later said she had his number saved in her phone, so, if he had called, she would have answered..hm somebody is not telling the truth here.

Long story short, she finally answered and was surprised to realize that our wedding was scheduled for 5:30pm, the same time as ANOTHER wedding.  She double booked us.  She also didn't have a copy of our contract which was from October 31st.  My husband sent me a message calmly telling me this and asked me to send a copy of the contract to him to verify that the time was indeed 5:30.  At this point, we figured everything was fine because our contract would override the other couple, who must have booked after us.  However, we were told that we could just still have both weddings AT THE SAME TIME.  We had picked this type of place specifically to be the only wedding, unlike the typical wedding hall.

Getting Married in Korea Pt.9 (bachelorette!)

My friends like to travel.  Almost as soon as a wedding date was decided on, we started talking about taking a trip to a nearby country.  Then we all went out separate ways for Christmas.  When we came back, we had ALL told our families that we would be going to Hong Kong for the bachelorette party.  Now, we had to make it happen.  We got cheap tickets on Hong Kong Express, 170,000 won round trip!  We left on a Friday night, were delayed 2 hours on the runway, and came back Sunday night, delayed 1 hour in the airport.  HK Express advertises it's 80% on-time lol but you get what you pay for.  It was worth every penny!

Getting Married in Korea Pt.8 (cake)

My mother told me she would like there to be a wedding cake so I set out to find something other than the typical Korean fake cake for the ceremony.  The planner had one on their price list for 250,000 won, but I figured it would probably be very Korean and not very tasty.

Getting Married in Korea Pt.7 (shoes)

I didn't actually need shoes for the wedding because the dress company provided basic white shoes with the dress.  I wore them for the photo shoot.  However, I wanted to have something a little special to keep since the dress was a rental.  All of the wedding shoes I had pinned on Pinterest were bejeweled, but I had a hard time finding what I wanted here in Korea.  I didn't want to splurge on designer shoes..I have probably never spent more than $150 on a single pair of shoes ever.  I considered Aldo or Nine West, but those brands are marked up way too much here.  I took to instagram and naver to find some Korean brands.  Luckily just typing in 웨딩슈스 brought up a lot of results.

Getting Married in Korea Pt.6 (guestbook)

I knew I wanted a unique style guestbook to be able to display after the wedding was over.  At first, I wanted to do a globe, but then couldn't really find anything good and/or affordable.  So I started looking at Etsy.  I ended up finding an amazing map for only $35 and shipping to Korea was only $15.  I placed my order on March 23rd and the map arrived at my door in Korea by April 7th.  It turned out great and I couldn't be happier with my purchase.  We even trekked out to IKEA in Gwangmyeong to pick up a 50 x 70 Fiskbo frame.

It looked gorgeous.  The large writing directly across the plastic frame after the wedding, however, is another story.  FIL and husband's nephew apparently thought that would be a good idea.  We haven't gotten it home post wedding yet, but I'll either have to buy a new frame or try to clean the sharpie off with baking soda or a magic eraser.

Getting Married in Korea Pt.5 (invitations)

I googled and found a great blog about Korean wedding planning, Angie in the City, which you've probably already seen if you've found your way here.  Anyway, I perused all the suggested invitation sites she suggested and ended up at Barunson Cards and then proceeded to look at all the links at the top of that page.  The invitations that the above blogger had purchased were no longer available, but I was searching for a similar style postcard.

Eventually I found a couple on Premier Paper that fit the bill.  I ordered samples and then just had to decide between two, Holy White and Harmony.  I'm glad I got the samples because the quality looks similar on the website, but in person, the Holy White style was definitely a higher quality paper.  The Harmony style, while I liked the blue ribbon better, was a thinner card, and the edges were not glossy.  The Holy White ribbon was also a lot nicer.

Getting Married in Korea Pt.4 (studio photos)

The next thing on the agenda (and when things for the wedding really started to happen) was our studio photo shoot.  We had already picked the dress shop and photo studio at the wedding planner by briefly flipping through some books.  I did a little research ahead of time, but ended up just going with her recommendations that day.  For the dresses, I chose Atelier Ray, located around Apgujeong Rodeo.  With our package, I got 2 white dresses and a color dress for the photos and then another white dress for the actual wedding day.

We went to the dress store about 2 weeks before the photo shoot to pick the dresses.  At first, I didn't really know exactly what I wanted.  The wedding planner came with us and she knew my personal style is kind of simple so she kept telling the dress helpers that's what I wanted.  I tried on about 4 dresses that weren't so great and they were like..okay, so can you choose now?  I was like, um, no?  So they brought out some more and I picked literally the last 3 dresses I tried on, one ballgown, one lace mermaid, and one strapless silk (all white, no color).

Getting Married in Korea Pt.3 (rings)

After getting the clothing situation figured out, we moved on to rings.  I originally wanted to get a moissanite engagement ring from America, but that never ended up happening when I went home last since we hadn't really started planning the wedding yet.  In the end, I'm glad I didn't get a flashy ring.  Korean women rarely even wear their wedding bands so you can't even tell who's married and who's not.  I feel like I would have almost felt ashamed to wear around a big rock.

Getting Married in Korea Pt.2 (suit and hanboks)

after nailing down our venue and date, we didn't do much for the next couple months.  we had already booked a 스드메 (studio/dress/makeup) package through our planner during our first meeting.

around the end of January we met with the planner to check out getting a custom suit and hanboks made.  unfortunately we didn't really do our research so I'm not sure if we got the best deal on the suit.  it ended up being a little more than a million won, but looks great and is apparently is Italian silk.  a friend of mine had his wedding suit made for a similar price, but his also included some altering to change it from a tux to a suit.  we just got the suit and a custom shirt.  the store we got everything from is called Baton Kwonohsoo located off apgujeong rodeo.  although pricey, the service there was top notch.

Getting Married in Korea Pt.1 (getting started)

With the wedding coming up in just 2 weeks, I thought I'd share some of the process. 

Most Koreans plan their weddings anywhere from 4 months to a year in advance, but more in the 5 month range.  This sounds crazy to most western brides who plan for 1+ years.  The difference is that most weddings here are wedding hall machines.  You pick your hall and literally everything is included in your package.  No hunting down separate vendors of any kind.

These kinds of weddings are also huge, impersonal, and short..I'm talking in and out in less than 2 hours.  The couple will invite upwards of 300 guests, every person they or their parents have ever known.  The typical wedding gift is cash, which is given in return for a meal ticket.  So, in the end, the couple usually makes all the money spent on food back in gifts.

Christmas on Guam

better late than never..