Weddingbee boards

So just a little rant....

I'm a Canadian girl in Korea where concepts of etiquette and social interactions are much different from my cultural context.  Younger people (by just one year!) should comply with the views of older people.  This doesn't always happen with the younger generation, but often older people attempt to impliment the system.  FI also works for one of the biggest Korean conglomerates which is also known for it's strict military structure.  And since he spends, on average, 14 hours a day at work, his boss feels it is 'his duty' to give him advice that he 'should' take on a range of personal issues.  Because they see each other so much the team is supposed to be 'a family.'

We chose the date of our Korean wedding based on the fact that my sister is studying in Hong Kong and flying back to Canada in early June.  Any earlier, and I make her come to Seoul during final exams, so it has to be this weekend.  There is absolutely no way that I will have this wedding without her.

Well...in Korea, people think the summer is too hot to get married.  So as soon as we announced our wedding would be June 5th, it was madness.  Every single older family member complained that it would be too hot and unbearable.  I had to listen to the exact same 'NOOOOOO too hot! Too hot!! We will be sweating....that can't happen' from at least 20 different relatives.

Then, his team and division boss and all his coworkers (older) complained that they didn't want to give up their Saturday afternoon to come to the wedding.  I guess they wanted us to get married on a Tuesday night or something????? 

THEN his boss started to complain that the time we picked (3:30 because we would be the last wedding of the day and less rushed) would be too late because he would be eating at a strange time (not lunch or dinner...Korean weddings in Korea are super super quick! 1 hr. including dinner!) 

So then...we tried to compromise by making the wedding June 5th at 11:30 am...people could eat lunch AND it would be cooler in the shade.

Well...then his boss was upset because that was TOO early in the morning, and he didn't feel everyone would have enough time to get ready.

FINALLY we have settled (put our foot down...not moving) on June 5th 12:30.  The older family and work folks are still not happy (even though their opinions all conflict with one another...so I can't see how everyone can me made happy), but we feel we've done all we can.

The funny thing is...this is not considered bad etiquette on their part.  WE are the bad ones because we are not listening to our elders...and I'm specifically bad because 'I don't understand Korea or Korean culture.' 

grrrrrr