Our Korean Wedding, Part 3

Around this age is when a fair few people choose to get married. A lot of friends have already been married, and some have weddings in the next few months. 27 years old seems young and I often ponder whether we should have waited longer. But in the end I always come to the same conclusion. And that is that when you're as sure as you'll ever be that you've found the right person, there's no reason to wait any longer.

Heather and I are both lucky enough to have great friends and supportive family. When I was younger, I thought I'd like to have a very quiet wedding with only a couple of close friends around. In the end, it's up to the couple whether they want a big wedding or a small one. Ours was medium-sized and turned out to be just the way we wanted.

Isn't she lovely?

All of the photos on this wedding post are taken by friends of ours. Lots of them are from Jef Robison, including this one, and there are some taken by Brandon Na. Thanks guys.

We started eating dinner around sunset. The Kitchen is our favourite restaurant in Korea, and we had met the chef a few months earlier to discuss the wedding menu. He's very talented and capable, with a good sense of creativity. Heather and I were probably the last to start eating, and a lot of the good things had been finished by that time, but it didn't matter.

You need to save space when you know there's champagne coming later.

In this photo I'm wearing a traditional hanbok, which Heather and I changed into. I don't have any good photos of us both wearing them, but we'll probably receive some from the agency photographer later, which I'll post sometime.
When people had finished eating, my Dad, my brother and I gave short speeches. While I quite like public speaking, the question is, what on Earth do you say at your own wedding?

Well, I thanked everyone else who made the day possible, and then I talked about how lucky I was to marry my wife.

And to wrap up the dinner, Heather's younger brother (Jang-Ho) and his friend performed a Korean song for us. They had been practising a fair bit and Jang-Ho had only started learning recently. The performance was quite humourous and had a good feeling to it.

Then it was off to Round 2. Jun is one of Daniel's friends, and is one of those Korean older brothers you have with an 'interesting' network of characters. He and Roman organised and decorated this wedding car for us. The car was brand new and actually had a sticker on the driver's seat that said "To Be Delivered". I think he had to return it to the car shop later.
Jun drove at around 15km/hr and had made a romantic playlist of 1980s classics for us to listen to. Thanks Jun!

We were lucky with the venue for the second round. A new bar called Paris had just opened on the second floor of Anthony's apartment. So Anthony and Rebecca went down to talk to the owner a few weeks before the wedding. The owner is a fairly young guy and offered to reserve us a section of the balcony for free. Even better, we were allowed to bring our own drinks with no corkage charge.
The bar is right on the beach at Gwangali and has a view of the bridge. A perfect venue for the second round. Thanks go out to the owner of Paris (Cavin), as well as Rebecca and Anthony!

If you're in Busan sometime in the future, consider visiting the Paris Bar on Gwangali Beach and giving them patronage. It's on the second floor next to the Homer's Hotel.

Two of Heather's bridesmaids, Ellie and Heidi.

These are the two folks I used to work with in the old HR department at Injung Education (CDI). On the left is Kelly, who is in the middle of traveling around the world, and on the right is Brandon, who now has a radio show on Busan eFM.

Here's Nathan Saler, Jennifer Pejic and Jef Robison.

Dad, Heather and me.

We're smiling for all the blog readers out there.

Our photographer had gone home earlier in the night and I haven't been able to track down many photos with some of the other guests. As a blogger, you know you had a good time when you are missing large chunks of the night in the photo record.

Here's Cavin, the owner of Paris Bar. In this photo he's pouring a special wedding fountain for us. After pouring the alcohol on top, he engulfed it in flames and then someone else made it sparkle with flint.
The flames were put out, and then Heather and I drank it together. It tasted fruity.

Our favourite celebration drink is Moet and Chandon. On the night we brought in 15 bottles with both brut and rose' on offer.

I remember clinking glasses, but the rest of the night is just a warm fuzzy memory.

We woke up the next day at the Aqua Palace Hotel and opened the curtains to a very fine day of warm sunshine. The day after you get married, it's fun reflecting on yesterday. It's also tempting to contemplate in what other ways the wedding may have turned out if such-and-such had happened, but this is a temptation worth resisting. In the end you take it for what it meant to yourself and others, and then it's time to focus on being a good husband.

I'll post some odds and ends from the wedding at a later date, but next up on Lee's Korea Blog is the 2-week honeymoon. We packed a lot into those two weeks, and it will take me around a month to get it all up on the blog.

Here's hoping that you'll find it interesting!