Sue's Wedding

One of the Korean teachers at my school invited us to her wedding. It was super beautiful-- SHE was beautiful. Sue comes from a very traditional family, so she had a big church wedding. When we arrived, we signed an attendance book, gave a wedding envelope with 50,000 won in it (standard wedding gift), and we were given a program and a ticket for the lunch buffet afterward.
At Korean weddings, the bride and groom face the priest up on the dais, so the audience (for lack of a better word) can only see their backs. So, the wedding is filmed and put up on projector screens, so everyone can see what's happening. The photographers are constantly circling around them, so that they get a variety of shots. The priest gave a very long, personal sermon for the couple. Then, the father of the bride and groom each got up to the microphone and said a few words. Then, Sue and her groom got off the dais and faced two professional singers who serenaded them with a song that I assume Sue picked. This is a staple of Korean weddings--also if you are connected to the entertainment world, you can get a famous person to sing at your wedding.
Then, they got back up on the dais, the priest said something else and blessed them and their union, and then the Confucian part of the wedding happened. Sue and her husband bowed and hugged his parents, then they both bowed and hugged her parents, then both parents and the couple bowed to us-- the people who came to the wedding. Then, the priest said a few more words and then they all processed outside.
Outside of the church, everyone got together for a group picture and there was a guy who was doing video messages for the couple-- it was chaos. So, Jeff, Lucy, and I all went on to the buffet (after giving Sue the lamest video message EVER!!!).
The buffet was super nice, as you would expect. I think there were over 100 guests, so the buffet table went on forever. After a while, Sue and her husband reappeared in hangbok (traditional Korean dress) and went from table to table thanking everyone for coming. The parents of the couple did the same, although they all decided to skip the foreigner table (even though we had some of the Korean teachers at our table as well). Lol~ So, we all quickly took a picture and I had to skedaddle to my Saturday musical class. But, all in all, it was beautiful and wonderful and I was so happy that I was able to attend. ^.^