Weddingbee

Mr. Caramel and I debated a few times on whether or not we wanted to do the traditional Korean ceremony.  We kept thinking that we would do it for the few relatives traveling from Korea to see us get married. But after going to my cousin’s traditional Korean ceremony and seeing the big headache of arranging a whole other event on top of the wedding– we basically said “heck no, please.”  Our parents were okay with whatever we wanted to do–they knew that we weren’t very traditional so they left the decision to us. (Yeah lucky us we had very non-demanding parents!)

At the last moment we decided to have one if we only invited very close family members. We held it at my parents’ house and it ended up being only about 25 people, which was perfect for us! It wasn’t crazy and it was comfortable and pretty painless. The whole thing took about 30 minutes and we got to eat delicious food afterwards! Plus we made a lot of extra money, which was helpful for our honeymoon.

If anyone is teetering on the idea of a traditional ceremony, I would really have to say that I’m glad we did it. You only get married once in your life– what’s one more thing? Plus you have pictures to remember the event and it might mean a lot to your relatives. We even got to tweak things around to make it more comfortable and less stressful.

Most people do the traditional ceremony before the wedding, but Mr. Caramel and I wanted to do it after since we had one day to spare before the honeymoon. I was relieved of this because I was more nervous about the Big Wedding and less nervous about the traditional ceremony, since it was smaller and just family. So I felt very relaxed and happy during the traditional ceremony! (Although I was POOPED.)

Some pictures of the ceremony day:

My dogs were there to support me

And of course, we had to take a picture of my mom’s ceremony picture too since people say we look so much alike!

We had NO idea how a traditional Korean ceremony worked. We were pretty much walked through the whole way. It’s amazing to realize that you don’t know that much about your culture, and then you find out that it’s very different and a bit bizarre! Basically the ceremony goes like this: you pour sake/alcohol to family members, they drink it, then you bow and they toss money & nuts into my little white blanket that I carry over my arms. Sounds weird to me, but hey– whatever makes the parents happy.

Here’s a good shot of what we were wearing that day underneath our “gear.” My dress was a gift from my new MIL. I think it’s tradition for her to buy me a new traditional gown and for my parents to buy Mr. Caramel a suit. Luckily I was able to choose my dress colors and I chose these watermelon colors — I thought it was young & fresh and I loved it!

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