A Seoul Wedding

Photos by the most wonderful photographer Lorryn Smit

Mothers of the
Bride + Groom

신부 어머님 Mother of the Bride

신랑 어머님 Mother of the Groom

Our venue
Tra de Noi
트라디노이

First Look

Greeting Guests

In Korean weddings, the groom and families are out in the entrance/lobby to welcome guests and take photos with them. The Bride usually has a ‘bridal room - 신부대기실’ where she is seated, and guests come to take photos and congratulate her. In our case, I chose to be out welcoming guests together with Cedric.

Korean weddings usually don’t have an officiant. Instead, an emcee or 사회자 runs the show. But for us, my good friend from high school was our emcee, and we also had my father be our officiant :)

Thanks, Jam Jam :)

Our flower girls
wore matching hanboks.
These adorable hanbok
were from 미숙이네 in 광장시장!

The Entrance
입장

Here comes the
ring bearer

And my father made
the official declaration
‘We now pronounce you
Man and Wife’

We prepared a special video
to thank our parents for raising us.
We’ll share that soon.

My friend Axel from the Philippines came as our special wedding singer! He is a very talented and well-known singer in Cebu, and it was an incredible honor to have him perform. He sang a beautiful filipino ballad and then in the second verse suddenly switched to Korean. This was such an unexpected and touching surprise. Truly, Axel is one of a kind.

Then we bow to our parents,
who embrace and welcome us
into our new families.

After the ceremony, the Bride & Groom take photos with their families, friends and guests. Lorryn and I worked out a list beforehand so that she knew exactly what we wanted. While this is happening, other guests start heading to the buffet. The amount of food Tra de Noi prepared was ASTONISHING. They went above and beyond in excellence and care.

RECEPTION

Tra de Noi was the perfect place for our reception. Axel came back to thunderous applause to perform a few more songs - we also sang a surprise duet together :)
the one we sang when we first met at my best friend’s wedding in Cebu years ago - made toasts, and celebrated together.

폐백 - Pyebaek

We held a ‘mini-pyebaek’ during the reception. Our parents tossed chestnuts and dates into the traditional cloth we held between us - each one we catch indicating how many children we will have. To our chagrin and our parents’ immense delight, they tossed every single chestnut and date in at the exact same time. Looks like we’ll be having 16 children.

and in one quick, sparkling moment, the day we thought would never come was over.

Walking into that sunlight room and seeing the faces of our loved friends and family was a moment I’ll never forget. It was like seeing a garden of gorgeous flowers, blossoms of friendship that had been watered and cared for over the years. I’m immensely grateful to all that we could celebrate this day together.