An Indian woman working in a laboratory in South Korea has shared her experience of attending a Korean wedding for the first time, saying one custom left her surprised. The woman, who uses the Instagram handle jigyasa__.jd, recently attended her Korean labmate’s wedding along with two senior colleagues from India and Sri Lanka.
She said it was the first Korean wedding for all three of them.
She was surprised to discover that guests had to give their wedding gift or money envelope at the reception and receive a token before entering the lunch hall.
The group arrived at the venue on time and knew they were expected to bring a money envelope or gift for the couple. they received a message from a mutual friend saying that the wedding had started While they were having coffee. They then went inside and attended the ceremony. After the ceremony, guests started heading towards the lunch hall, and the group followed them. However, they soon ran into an unexpected problem. Watch the video here: A post shared by 🧜♀️ (@jigyasa__.jd) The group had not taken the money envelope with them. They thought they could give it to the couple later. But when they reached the lunch hall, security guards stopped them and asked them to show a token. The visitors did not understand what the guards were saying, as the guards did not speak English and they did not know Korean. They eventually called their Korean labmate for help. That was when they learnt about the custom. Their labmate explained that guests were expected to go to a reception counter before entering the wedding. They had to hand over their gift or money envelope there. In return, they received a token, which was then used to enter the lunch area. The group had not realised that the gift had to be handed over before they could have lunch. After their Korean labmate explained the situation to the staff, they were eventually allowed inside. They handed over the envelope and joined the other guests for lunch. She explained that in India, guests can give gifts or money to the couple, but there is no similar system where a gift is exchanged for a token that allows guests to enter the dining area.
Because she said the process was very different from what she was used to seeing at weddings in India, the experience surprised the Indian woman.
The wedding itself was over within about an hour, according to her. Calling the experience “very strange”, she shared the incident on social media to tell others about the Korean wedding custom.
However, as they had some time before the wedding started, they decided to go for a cup of coffee.
