Wedding!

The wedding went fabulously and almost without a hitch.

On Friday, I got my nails done. I am happy to report that my nails cooperated and did not break in the two weeks before the wedding, so I had mostly uniform nails for the ladies to work with. I played around with the idea of getting interesting nails with glitter and such done, but I opted for simple French tips in the end. It was also a good thing that my nails were in good shape, because they don’t use fake nails here. I guess most women are just really lucky with their nails in this country. While the lady did my toes and painted them a nice pink color (I was not going to have my toes French tipped, and I wanted some color), I flipped through a Japanese nail magazine. I do have to say, they have some pretty crazy nail designs in Japan. They have everything from fake nails with jewelry attached to bows and buttons. Luckily, the magazine had a picture of a pretty basic French tip nail, because the ladies couldn’t understand what I was asking for. They do that style here (although not in the simple style we are used to); they just didn’t understand what I was saying. They took 2 hours to do my nails. 2 hours! And my nails weren’t even completely dry; they just took their time doing everything. Oh well, they did a really good job.

After my nails were done, Cody and I headed down into Shinae where we had some yummy Dak Galbi and some ice cream with Fallon and Susan before parting ways for the night.

On Saturday, I woke up bright and early at 7am to wake up and start getting ready. I used the first hour to mostly wake up and do basic hygiene things, and then Fallon, Susan, and Chris came over to hang out with me while I put on my make-up. Actually, that’s a lie. Chris came over because he was keeping Cody company for after I left the apartment to get my hair done, and so got stuck having to hang out and watch me put on my make-up. I’m sure he was so excited about that, ha-ha.

Anyway, so I hurried to finish my make-up so that we could be to the hair salon by 8:45, and made it just on time, barely. I usually don’t run late, but sometimes I take too long, and this day was coming dangerously close to being that way.

Anyway, so we show up at the salon, and the stylist was there waiting for me. I’m not sure if I mentioned it in the previous blog, but she was there 15 minutes before the shop was supposed to open just for me. She was very sweet and very helpful, and I tipped her pretty well for all of her effort, which surprised her because they don’t often tip in Korea.

I actually have to remember to get her e-mail address and send her pictures, because we were taking pictures of the process, and she was asking for the pictures. She wanted proof that she did a waygook bride’s hair, I suppose. She was really cute though, and I should really let her have the pictures. She quickly transformed my hair, in an impressive 30 minutes, which was wonderful. She was quick in the practice run, but I changed the style a bit for the day, and I was worried she would take a lot longer because it was the day of.

I then headed off with Fallon and Susan to get dressed and give them time to finish getting ready. Again, we finished getting ready to get to the wedding site exactly on time, and the driver didn’t drive too fast or too slow. We were even able to get there just before Cody, so that we could still kind of have a ‘reveal’ where he saw me. We didn’t take pictures of it, but it was nice to have that ‘here I am’ moment.

Cody also brought the bouquets, and I had a moment of being miffed, because the lady didn’t put the right flowers in the bouquets, but I decided it was ok, because they were pretty and it didn’t matter to me that much because she did a good job on them.

The next hour was devoted to taking pictures and trying not to die in the humidity. The weather cooperated by not raining and not being too sunny, but it was so humid that we were sweating even when standing in one place. I think it was 95% humidity all weekend.

People started arriving at 11:30, exactly when they were supposed to start showing up, and I was supposed to hide so that they wouldn’t see me until the ceremony, but we threw that idea out the window. It was so hot, and Fallon and I really didn’t want to hide in the hot bushes, especially because the ants and bugs were out in force that day.

Fallon and I being silly

We started the ceremony almost exactly on time, at 12:00. We ran into our first glitch, because Fallon couldn’t hear her music (Cannon in D, string quartet) at first, because the speakers we used were quiet, and so Cody and the boys had to get our attention so that we knew she had to walk. Oops. Our next glitch came like 15 seconds later. Cody had cut her song so that it was about as long as it took her to walk the distance, but be actually cut the song short on accident, so Fallon’s song didn’t play for very long, when suddenly mine (Mendelssohn’s Wedding March, also a string quartet) started playing. I had to wait a little while to let her get far enough, when I started walking. I walked at just the right speed, didn’t trip (although my feel almost betrayed me by making me almost lose my balance), and I remembered to pause when I was supposed to. I got to the stairs, in place, and handed off my flowers, to have the music end about 8 minutes later, so that was perfect.

Fallon wondering what happened to her music, oops!

Me just trying to walk slow, but fast enough to make up for the music glitch, oh, and not trip

The Ceremony was a mix of really serious and silly

You may kiss the bride!

Bubbles!

Everything else went off very well. Stephen put in a good number of jokes and humorous spots. He even included a part from the Princess Bride, which I loved since it is my favorite movie, but he didn’t know that, what was even funnier. He added a lot of good points, but accidentally mispronounced Cody’s middle name. Oops, oh well. Cody’s vows went well, and so did mine.

After the ceremony, we took a few more pictures and headed out to pick up the cakes and head to Waltz, the vegetarian buffet we had decided to have the reception at. We were a little late getting there, but I think it turned out ok. We had some yummy food, cake, and some speeches.

After eating, many of us headed out to Munich Ice bar to have a beer in an ice cup to cool off (and throw the ice at a target to try and win a prize, hehe) and we had a generally good time.

Cody and I departed from everyone’s company at 4:30, and while they kept on with the party, we headed to Hotel Hyundai, which is a really nice hotel in the area (probably 3-4 stars or so) to have a nice western buffet dinner and stay the night. The food was delicious, and much to the wonderment of the hotel staff, we stayed in the traditional Ondol room. For those who don’t know, this means we slept on thick pads on the floor instead of on a bed. It was pretty comfortable and very nice. We woke up the next morning to have a western buffet breakfast and play in the pool. We also bought a tea set from the cultural show because we had been meaning to buy ne, and we really liked the one there.

After we checked out, we went home, re-packed, and headed out to Seoul to get some errands done, and to get married legally the next day. Luckily, the marriage process was really quick, so we were able to go to a nearby museum and then head back to Mokpo to relax and pick up our wedding pictures from Wim.

This weekend was wonderful. I had a very good time, and am now happily married to my love. I am looking forward to going home now and starting the next adventure in our lives. Who knows what will come, and I am excited to see what happens.