It was the most beautiful weekend at Bella Sala celebrating Yejin and Vivek’s wedding. Do you remember their engagement story?

They met last November in Florida, where he lives and she was attending a medical conference. Vivek knew immediately, “on the first date”, that Yejin was the one. He was so certain, in fact, that he proposed the very next day. “Vivek asked me to marry him the next day after our first date which I found too crazy. I asked him for more time, like at least six months like normal people do. But he said it was too long. He said he would give me a month, which is too short (to anyone but him, I guess). So we settled on three months for me to decide. I told him at midnight on April 1st that I would marry him.”

That meant there were 3 months to plan a wedding, start to finish! When Emily from Soiree reached out to see if I was available for their wedding, I was immediately so excited. A multicultural wedding with three outfits and two ceremonies? Yes please!

They began with an Indian Christian ceremony outside on the lawn. With help from her friend and Vivek’s mother, she got wrapped and tucked and pinned into her stunning gold sari.

While guests enjoyed hors d’oeuvres, Yejin and Vivek changed into their traditional Korean outfits for the paebaek ceremony. This was my first Paebaek and I loved getting to be part of it!! The paebaek ceremony is an intimate Korean unification tradition historically performed after the main wedding ceremony to symbolize the entrance of the bride into her husband’s household. It features Korean historical traditions like formal bowing, a tea ceremony, and the couple catching chestnuts and dates to symbolize how many children they will have (chestnuts are the girls; dates are the boys).

In Korea, the bride historically would come to live in her in-laws’ household, becoming a permanent part of their family. For this reason, the paebaek traditionally involved only the groom’s family, the groom, and the bride. Modern versions of the paebaek have given equal footing to the bride’s parents, symbolizing each family’s acceptance of the new member into their families. 

After the paebaek, it was time for the final change into their Korean reception outfits.

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Photography: Emily Crall Photography

Venue: Bella Sala

Coordination & Design: Soiree

Cake Artist: Tip Top Cakes

DJ: Clife DJ Company

Catering: Bread Garden Market

Hair & Makeup: Beauty Op

Veil: Jocelyn Taylor Bridal & Prom

Paper Goods: Allegra Iowa City