Nobody-in-particular's wedding

Dear Family,

We tried to go to Costco today. I wanted to have a quick look at it to decide whether to take you there or to the Korean equivalent when you're here. But it was so busy we couldn't even get in the car park! We shouldn't have gone on a Sunday. Oh well. It was about 45 mins drive in each direction as well.

We also went to the wedding venue, Korea House, to watch nobody-in-particular's wedding. It's okay, not quite as pretty as I expected but it will be fine. The ceremony seems a little easier than I expected, and today's Korean groom seemed to make a meal of it so I shouldn't make a fool of myself. The food looks quite good: it's a buffet and quite a few of the dishes are no-nonsense things you can munch without being too adventurous: meatballs, beef in BBQ sauce and so on.

There are plenty of pictures, especially of the guests so you can see what people wear. Most of the women kept their coats on throughout even though it was very warm today, I didn't wear a coat all day. For women, black trouser suits seem to be the order of the day. For men, dodgy asian-style suits. Quite a few people didn't even wear a suit, which is a bit below par, I'd say. You guys should knock them for six. There were lots of kids running about throughout the ceremony which I thought was nice -- there'll probably be quite a few at ours too.

This is the outside of the venue:

The guests beginning to arrive. The gentleman on the right with the cyan coat and the black broad-rimmed hat is the groom's friend who will carry in the two ducks.

This is where the ceremonials take place:

The duck-carrier man playing with the kids:

A wider shot showing the guests' seats with the ceremonial area in front:

More guests arriving, so that you can see what they tend to wear:

A closer shot of the ceremonial area:

The master of ceremonies begins to speak:

A closer shot of the guests:

The groom, dressed in purple, approaches the bride's "bedroom". He will now ask the bride's mother if she will come out:

The bride comes into view for the first time:

You can see that the bride's bedroom is off to one side of the "altar":

The guests watch all this with a little bemusement. Many of them have never seen a traditional Korean ceremony before:

The person in green with a large white cloth coming from her hat is the bride. Two of her friends are guiding her around the back of the altar and round to the left hand side where she spends most of the ceremony:

Nearly there. We wouldn't her to trip over or anything, would we?

Phew! She's in position.

The guests again.

The bride and groom are sitting on the floor for much of the time. The ceremony itself lasts around 25 minutes.

The next picture shows a really clear overview of where everything is (click here for a larger version). The two sets of parents are on the front row, either side of the aisle. The two mothers here are wearing Korean traditional costumers (Han-bok), but only because they are both Korean.

This is the house band:

Close-up of the bride. I do suspect that Jungwon might get the giggles.

And a not-so-clear close-up of the groom, in purple. The women helping him are two of the bride's friends.

And finally, the guests again: