Thursday, October 4, 2007

Italia-Korean Nuptial

We were invited to a friend’s wedding this past weekend – the groom an Italian, the bride a Korean. Since both of them are raised here and being so ‘Canadianized’, I have no reason to expect anything other than a typical western style wedding.

The first hint came during the church ceremony, when we listened to one speech in Korean by the brother, followed by the next speech in Italian by the father, then another speech in Korean by the uncle, and ..... now you get the pattern. So between the 'Bonjourno' and 'Anneohaseyo', it didn’t leave much clue for the English speaking guests to decode their speeches. You would think being a bonafide BYJ fan and after logging in over 1000 hours of Korean drama training, I would at least have a faint idea. I tell you, my dear sisters, other than catching ‘sarang’ and ‘hyinbok’ repeatedly, I was scratching my head as hard as anybody else in the church.

A delicious Italian meal was served at the reception dinner - antipasti, pasta & rice, veal with asparagus and gelato crepe for dessert. hehe sorry, the pasta & rice looked too tempting, so I gobbled it up before giving it a 'Kodak moment' :)





The surprise came when we noticed the Korean relatives from the bride’s side started spreading out a folding screen, mats, cushions on the floor and assembling fruits and wine on low tables. Am I in the ‘Untold Scandal’ set or ‘Dae Jang Geum’? Being an avid Korean fan, I immediately sprang up and started clicking my camera here and there. The MC announced that the bride and groom would change into traditional Korean Hanbok and served wine to the elders. Wow, what a treat! The guests got quite curious and all shifted to the front trying to get a glimpse of the ceremony.





The bride and groom entered in their extravagant wedding Hanboks with traditional Korean music in the background. The MC explained every act that they did – the bowing, drinking, chestnut catching and the ‘carrying’. It was truly an eye-opener to witness these beautiful Korean wedding customs. I wish the beautiful newlyweds ‘hyinbok’ forever!




5 comments:

xiaoyi said...

Dear jaime,

Thanks for sharing! What a great experience! I believe it must be a great experience for the Italian groom too...he he

Love, xiaoyi

jaime said...

hi hi xiaoyi,

hehe, the groom did trip on the long robe a few times. I watch him growing up since a student, a very nice young man. Thanks for reading :)

love .... jaime

bbmag said...

hey, sounds like a wonderful wedding! i've not seen a traditional korean wedding, would love love love to see one. hehe, heck, i would love love love to be in one :p

hehe, did becoming a blogger make you click away with your cam more?

thanks for the sharing, jaime!

jaime said...

Hahaha princess, me too me too. I hope you will be in one too (anyone in particular you have in mind? ;) I think you'll look very cute in a wedding hanbok w/ the hairdo, so beautiful!

hehe, you're right. I think I am learning from you (though I always forget), I tend to be more sensitive to catch a good shot of everything I experience now. Aye....the responsibility of a blogger?

love ... jaime

bbmag said...

when i first started blogging (and oh boy, that's 2.5 years ago!!), i would always forget to take pics of food before i ate... so it's always the leftover that i took :p

i'm so much better now... actually i sometimes think i didn't get better... most of the time, my friends would be asking me if i need to take the pics before they can eat, haha!