Korean Wedding Traditions and the ACO

There is a small cafe in my office building run by a Korean couple. They are always polite and accomodating. After I told them I was going to marry a 1st generation Korean man, their attitude totally changed towards me. I'm now on the "inside". Today I ran down to grab some coffee and the woman said "Oh! So good to see you. How are you? How is wedding planning? When you get married?"

This got me thinking a lot about incorporating Mr. P's heritage into our wedding (ceremony and reception). Here is what I know so far:

1. The Bride is supposed to give the FIL (future in-laws) chestnuts and dates, which the FILs throw at the bride and she is supposed to catch them in the skirt of her wedding dress. The chestnuts and dates are symbols of children and the throwing and catching symbolizes good luck for fertility.

2. Vows are taken in a ceremony called kunbere. Bride and groom bow to each other and seal their vow by sipping a special wine poured into a hollowed-out plant similar to a pumpkin grown by the bride's mother. Mom-better start finding a spot in the back yard for your pumpkin patch :-).

3. A pair a carved wooden ducks represented the married couple, as it was believed that ducks mated for life. So are geese-we'll get to this later. The position of the ducks signifies the state of the household. When the ducks face nose-to-nose there is harmony in the marriage. However, when there is tension/ conflict/ fighting/ sticking out your tongue at one another, the ducks are tail-to-tail. I think this would be AWSOME as a cake-topper!

4. Cranes are a symbol of long life and may be represented on the bride's attire.

5. The Groom is supposed to give the MOB (Mother of the Bride) a live Goose. Wild geese mate for life, so his gift is a promise that he will care for her daughter for life. Today wooden geese are used. I have this hilarious image of Mr. P trying to wrestle with a goose to give to my mom.

6. Traditional Wedding Korean Attire is really cool. I'm considering buying a Hanbok for the rehearsal dinner although they can cost a pretty penny.

7. Hand lanterns were used for lighting the way from the groom's home to the bride's home on the night before the wedding. Maybe we can have hand lanterns on our dinner table? Or at the rehearsal dinner?

8. Entertainment is expected, but can range from classical Korean music to family members singing along with a karaoke machine. Um, I don't think I want karaoke at the wedding...maybe the rehearsal dinner as long as we can all sing along to "Piano Man" like Mr. P and I used to sing on Tuesdays at the "Stagger Inn" on 8th ave. OMG there was an amazing taco stand next door!

I'd also like to include some Korean music in the ceremony but am totally lost on where to look.

What traditions should Mr. P and I include in our wedding?

On a total non-wedding related subject, I went to a conference hosted by the Colorado Coaltion for the Medically Underserved (one of our clients) and saw the most hillarious video. If you aren't a total health policy nerd, then you probably won't think it's funny at all. In fact, you'll probably think it's really stupid. Since I was in the room with a bunch of wonky-nerds we all enjoyed it.

That's all for today. We are going to the venue tomorrow with Mr. P's mom, my dad and step-mom. Hopefully it's a beautiful day and we can look around the 30-acers of gardens :-). This time I'm taking pictures!