You'd be correct in thinking that! We had always planned on having a smaller wedding in the UK with family to officialise everything, then having a larger one in Korea with Haeun's family, and friends as well! Sadly, Covid prevented our plans for a while, but now we're finally here!

Obviously, I understand that Korea is a far distance to travel, and it's not cheap either, so please if you can't make it, don't feel forced to or bad! It would be lovely to have you there, but I understand it just isn't realistic to expect people to be able to make such a trip!

In order for Haeun's parents to make arrangements with the hotel and catering, we must close the RSVP by 00:01 on 01/01/2025 UK time... sorry!

This will be a Christian-style wedding which will consist of hymn singing (don't worry, I don't expect you to sing in Korean!), and the usual document signing and aisle walking. Korean weddings are often quite quick and direct events, taking normally under an hour, as the venue will need to clear people out for the next wedding. Immediately after the wedding, guests will be directed to the banquette hall where they will partake in the activity of eating.
We're currently looking into options of translators or an English-speaking pastor, but don't have anything set in concrete yet, but as soon as we have a full itinerary and plan for the wedding, I'll update this FAQ, so watch this space!

A very important question indeed! For those that eat meat, there will be a Korean-style buffet available. For those with dietry requirements such as fellow Vegetarians/Vegans, we will receive a set meal, which we can't currently confirm what it will be until we know the quantity of guests coming... sorry!

Smart/Smart Casual I believe!

Traditionally guests at Korean weddings would gift money which helps cover the wedding costs, however, as you're likely travelling so far and having to book accommodation, please don't worry! You being there is a gift enough!

So, as mentioned before, the wedding is in Jeonju - a city placed towards the center of Korea. Unfortunately, flying straight to Jeonju isn't an option and you'll very likely need to get some form of land travel too. It seems that British Airways have also stopped doing direct flights to Incheon Airport (Seoul), so please prepare to use another airline or to fly indirect. I will also say that if you're planning on using Google Maps to navigate around Korea, that you take a look at the 'How do I navigate Korea?' question in the section below to avoid any surprises!

When looking into how to get to Jeonju, I highly recommend two applications:

• Skyscanner - An application for comparing flight costs to a destination.
• Rome2Rio - A great tool for helping plot routes and options of travelling when visitng countries.

When I last visited Korea, we used both of these tools, and ended up taking a Korean Air flight to Incheon, where we then caught a fancy coach (they call them limousine buses) to Jeonju coach station.

As mentioned above in the 'Where' section, Haeun's parents have managed to get a deal with the hotel where the wedding will take place, offering 40% off the rooms. This means each room will cost roughly £57 per night (₩102,000). You can choose whether you would like to spend 1 night or 2 nights at the hotel, and will pay in person upon arrival. If you would like to take use of this offer, please specify the nights you would like to stay when submitting the RSVP form! If you need to change your answer, please message me directly before the RSVP closes.

Alternatively, Jeonju also has many hotels and places to stay if you'd prefer to look around yourself, including the beautiful traditional Hanok Village in the city!

Completely up to you! You're far away from home in a foreign land, explore and enjoy a holiday! Me and Haeun will be travelling to Japan before the wedding as it's close to Korea, and my parents are planning to check out Seoul, Jeonju and Tokyo during their trip. Essentially, have fun! The next section will have lots of tips and trips for travelling around and staying in Korea.

When I previously visited Korea, they had three main mobile network providers: the confusingly named 'SKT' and 'KT', as well as 'LG'. I purchased a sim with them that would last a month and picked it up from the airport. Admittedly, e-sims have been introduced to the market since my last trip, and you might be able to find a better deal, so I suggest you to do some research too!

I haven't driven before as the public transport has gotten me almost everywhere I need to go. Koreans drive on the right, and you can normally pick up a car rental from the airport. Koreans are also less shy around using the horn than you'd hear in the UK, so be prepared to get beeped at a few times!

Korean public transport is often pretty good! Intercity travel is often done via coaches and trains, and city travel via buses or metro systems in larger cities.

Personally I tend to avoid trains for intercity travel due to how cramped they are, how busy they get, and how frustraiting the ticketing system is (you MUST buy a seat in the train, and if you want to sit next to someone you know and there's only individual seats available, well, better luck next time!)

When we last visited Korea, we purchased a T-Money card. This is essentially a national oyster card where you can purchase and top them up at most convenience stores (such as the 7/11 at Incheon airport), then use them to ride on most public transport, from metro lines in Seoul and Busan, to buses in other cities. Me and Haeun would normally get our coach tickets from the kiosk in the airport, but apparently, they also take T-Money cards as payment! So I would highly suggest people purchase one of these cards and top them up.

Ok, Google Maps in Korea is beyond useless, as the Korean government don't allow their mapping data to be shared with Google. For this reason, when plotting walking/driving/public transportation routes in Korea, I recommend using Naver maps for travelling and wayfinding. An alternate is Kakao Maps, but there seems to be less translation and it's a bit more frustrating to use.

On a side note, when getting taxis, KakaoT is a pretty good app over there, just be aware that apparently to use it, you need to verify an account with a phone number, so register with one you can get texts on (just in case you try to register with a data-only sim in Korea)

I've always been pretty surprised with the price of Hotels in Korea, with business hotels often costing less than a Premier Inn here. You can also get really cheap motels/love hotels for around £30 a night, but be wary of these, as there are lots of stories in Korean media of these hotels and motels installing hidden cameras in the rooms.

We've always been impressed with how cheap and good food is when eating out, so I highly suggest visiting lots of places! If the menu isn't in English, you can also use Google Lens to help translate. Sadly I can't recommend food that aren't vegetarian, but for those who are, a word of advice: many restaurants won't offer a vegetarian or vegan option as you would get here in the UK, more often than not I eat at vegan-only restaurants when in Korea. This avoids the complications and risks of the dish having fish in (as many Korean's may think vegetarians can eat fish, as it's not seen as meat there). I highly recommend using an app called Happy Cow to find vegan restaurants across the world.

Many Korean locations accept both card and cash, but rarely have I seen contactless terminals that work. Koreans also will often swipe cards rather than use chip and pin, and in restaurants, will take your card away to swipe.
I'd highly recommend Googling to see if anyone has had issues with paying the same bank card as yourself, and to bring two cards from different banks as a back-up (I've used Monzo and Barclays before).
Also, another thing to note is that ALL Korean ATMs will charge for cash withdrawals (unless you bank with the bank that owns the ATM).

I'm a bit of a nerd, so my answers will be quite nerdy - I highly suggest you to do some research into things that might interest you while you're over there! Regardless, as you asked so kindly, here are my suggestions:

• PCBang: These are all over Korea and are just big rooms filled with high-spec gaming PCs pre-installed with all the latest popular games that you can pay to use per-hour. You can also order food and drink from the PCs and they'll bring it over to you! These are great for killing a couple of hours if you need to.
• Norebang: These are small private coin operated Karaoke rooms. Often used by small groups to just kill some time together and have fun!
• Solbing: Those with a sweet tooth might enjoy this place, it's a chain desert shop in Korea that serves some of the loveliest shaven ice - if it's a hot day, I certainly recommend one of these to cool off!

Right, many things I've cocked up or found quite interesting, hopefully some of it will help you!

• Wearing shoes in houses/living spaces is a big no-no. Most, if not all, houses, guest houses, some shrines, and even hotel rooms will have a lowered lobby as soon as you enter the door. The idea is you take your outdoor shoes off here, and swap into indoor slippers for walking around (socks are also fine).
• When handing over money or a bank card to a cashier/wait-staff, ensure you present it properly. This means holding it with both hands, between your index fingers and thumbs, as if it's a gift. Best example I could find online is this (business card, but applies for cash and bank cards). They will normally take your card to swipe and hand it back.
• Tipping in Korea isn't very common, you normally just pay for your meal and go.
• It's not uncommon to call servers over or flag them down if you want to order or pay at a restaurant, servers won't normally come to take your order otherwise (nor do they check on you mid-meal).
• If eating in a café or such where you're given a buzzer to collect your food when it's ready (and served a tray to take back to your table), it's common practice and polite to return your tray when done before leaving.
• When crossing the road in Korea, pedestrian crossings will have buttons to press. Don't get fooled like I did, these aren't to trigger the lights to swap, but are for those with visual imparements, as pressing the button will summon a booming Korean voice.
• Disabled seats on Korean public transport such as trains and buses are specifically reserved for disabled passengers, you shouldn't sit in them even if they're free and there's no disabled passengers present (unless of course, you have a disability yourself).

I've hidden secret links to 5 images of me and Haeun across this site, can you find them?

Sorry! Reach out to me on any platform you normally would message me on and I might even add it here!