Monday, September 22, 2008

This Time - a Korean Wedding

Aside from the usual western weddings, we are blessed to have witnessed various traditional weddings as well, such as a traditional Indian wedding, Vietnamese, Chinese, Spanish, and this time - a traditional Korean wedding! Our bride and groom is Jihyun & Lloyd, another cute couple who we couldn't stop taking pictures of.

A little note about The Wedding Outfits, quoted from Weddings at Work (W@W) website taken from an article by Shu Shu Costa from the feature entitled: "Rituals of Bliss"

The two dresses worn by the bride were once the costume of the noble class. The simple lime-green wonsam and the more elaborate hwarrot, or "flower robe," are embroidered with flowers and butterflies. Underneath, she wears the hanbok, the doll-like traditional dress of Korea. On the bride's head is a black cap studded with gems. On her feet are white socks and embroidered shoes. Her makeup is simple, except for three red circles, yonji konji, the size of nickels. These circles, traditionally made of red peppers, but now often drawn on, are supposed to ward off evil spirits. The groom's faruotsu is also the dress of the nobility. It is made of dark green damask with auspicious symbols woven in gold. The headdress is the tall black cap of high-ranking officials made of silk.

For their photos, we wanted it to be cinematic in color to match the antiquity of the culture.















Quoted from Shu Shu Costa (Riturals of Bliss)
The highlight of the ceremony is the sharing of a special white wine called jung jong. Traditionally, this wine was poured into cups made from two halves of a gourd grown by the bride's mother. The bride and groom sip from their separate cups and then the wine is mixed together, poured once more into the gourd cups and sipped again. This is kunbere, the wedding vow. One ritual often seen at Korean American weddings is the peh beck ceremony. At this ceremony, usually only attended by family and close friends, the new wife offers her new in-laws gifts of dried dates and jujubes, symbols of children. They in turn offer her tea, a subtle but significant gift. At the ceremony's conclusion, they toss the dates and chestnuts at the bride, and she tries to catch them in her large skirt.










Aside from this traditional wedding ceremony, the couple also has a western ceremony which I'll share with you in the next blog. :)

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