Korean Wedding

Today, after a long evening at Sponge that involved childrens hats and jumping on people, I went to a Korean wedding with Neo, Luke's friend from Seoul. We arrived to the wedding hall in Expo Park (which is also an amusement park) around 11:30 AM, both thoroughly hung over. I dressed as finely as I could, although Neo had assured me that jeans and a button-down would suffice. He was right: there were lots of people in attire that I wouldn't wear to my mother's birthday, let alone to a wedding.

We get in and it's extremely crowded. I see a large room in front of me with almost 100 people on a stage in picture-formation. Neo is looking for his friend the groom, because they are next-in-line to be married. Wedding halls churn out ceremonies at the rate of almost 1 an hour. And the camera work is inTENSE. Wall cameras, ceiling cameras, people with cameras, film and photo. The older people sit down while everyone else stands. The doors to the front hall are open the entire time, so the ambient noise constantly seeps in, but no one seems to mind.

The marriage is simple and quick: The mothers walk forward in Hanbok and bow to everyone, then sit. Then the groom and his dad walk, bow, and dad sits. Then bride and mom, bow, sit. The bride and groom walk up to a guy with a book who talks. They exchange brief vows, the man at the podium tells an important and relevant story for their success in marriage, and then it is time for some interesting stuff: a guy sings a song in English that is about the sappiest love ever, but it's a sweet sentiment...and a girl makes fun of them, singing a song that forces them to kiss every so often. Cute stuff.

BEST PART: During both the man and woman singing, they are raised on mechanical podiums of their own (cool), and the bride and grooms' feet are DRENCHED in dry ice (SUPER COOL). Little kids started running about and trying to kick the ice. It was adorable. The lighting was epic, the slide show was nice, and the cutting of the cake was insanely

After the wedding, we all walked to the buffet area, where we ate. Then Neo and I went home.

The whole thing took an hour and a half.