Wedding Bells

This past Saturday wedding bells were ringing in Seoul. Now before you get carried away with yourself, Eric and I did not get married; our friends Jimmy and Rachel did. Well technically, they got married on Friday, but the celebrations did not begin until Saturday.

In order to properly celebrate the nuptials of our friends, a group of eight of us made our way up to Seoul so we could have a makeshift reception on Saturday night. Wanting to shop and see some Seoul sights, Eric and I caught an early bus on Saturday morning. Once in Seoul, we spent the day shopping, eating, and drinking large amounts of coffee with our friends. We spent most of our time perusing Insadong, a street where you can indulge in some traditional Korean goods, and the H&M of Myeongdong.



After our day of walking and shopping was complete, the wedding festivities got underway back at our hostel. There we kicked the evening off with pitchers of Hite while getting ready for our night out in the Hongdae district. Hongdae surrounds a nearby university so there is an over abundance of restaurants, bars, and night clubs. In order to give Jimmy and Rachel a Western wedding reception, we started the night off with cake and a champagne toast. Nothing says “you’re married” like cutting a cake together, so we made them do just that. After the cake was cut and distributed, we held a champagne toast. Don’t worry a camera was flashing at all times so they got a true wedding experience. After this was over, the boys presented Jimmy with his “big papa” celebratory cigar; officially signifying that these two are married.

By western standards, a wedding isn’t a wedding without alcohol. To mend this we briskly walked over to Woody’s, a bar specializing in cheap, but strong drinks. After all the drinks were sipped and the cigars smoked, we decided it was time for the dancing to start. So we all meandered our way to a sans-cover dance club just a few blocks away. There Eric and I cut a mean rug and boogied the night away. And not to toot our own horn too much, but we were pretty fantastic. As the music and strobe lights continued to pulsed, our group slowly started dwindling down in numbers until finally there were only four of us still dancing. It was then, around 3 am, when we declared our makeshift reception over. As we made our way back to our hostel, a kebab stand caught our eye. With kebabs and coats in tow, the night was officially over. Overall, I’d say the Mcintyre wedding party was a great success!