My sister just got her dream recently in South Korea. She just had their wedding ceremony with her Korean husband in Jeonju Province, South Korea. Our “Filipino” family traveled from the Philippines to South Korea to attend the ceremony. Though their wedding style is modern-traditional, there are a lot of things we have noticed that our country differs.
First, the bride and the husband stayed in one room before the wedding!. Which is Filipino Tradition does not allow because according to the culture it may trigger to cancel the wedding ceremony if the bride and groom see each other before the ceremony.
The groom and bride choose close relatives to pin a flower (like a carnation) to our chest area.
The bride has to wait outside the ceremony hall to welcome guests and families while wearing her glamorous wedding gown.
I have also noticed that attendees don’t have any gifts or presents with them. Because in the Philippines attendees bring gifts from smaller wraps to the biggest ones which usually contains appliances or house tools. My sister said that most of the Koreans just gave money as a wedding present. I think it is much better!
There is also a part in the ceremony where the bride and groom take a bow to their parents as a way of courtesy and respect. My mom doesn’t know this and we have no orientation before the wedding, so we just sat on the chair and stare at them while they’re bowing on us. But when they went to the Korean parents of the groom, the parents also bowed down, hugged and kiss them. I wish we also did that if we just knew.
It is a little bit strange for us (Filipinos) to have the ceremony inside a Hotel. Because we usually held the ceremony inside the church and the reception is also in the other event area, a restaurant or hotel. But I believe they have different religions because the priest doesn’t wear any priest’s clothes during the wedding.
After the ceremony, we have picture taking with the family. My sister also changed her dress from the wedding gown to the Korean Traditional Clothes which is Hanbok. The reception also celebrate inside the hotel where the ceremony was held.
This kind of event is one of the many ways of binding and respecting each other’s culture and traditions. We may not always understand what they say because of the language differences, but we always feel the love Koreans shared with Filipinos like us.
