- Jan 11
- Oct 23, 2023
- Sang Mee Ko
My Taekwonwedding
I meant to write this right after we got married. But I guess one and a half years later ain't so bad. Better late than never!
They really weren't kidding about how wonderful your wedding day is. It felt even more amazing because it was the first of three huge goals in 2022 - get married in April, graduate with my MBA in May, and test for my Kukkiwon 6th Dan in September. The year prior was a whirlwind of planning in the midst of pulling the dojang out of the pandemic AND taking a combination of Zoom and in-person classes at William & Mary. There were many spreadsheets and emails and countless YouTube videos. My fiancé became very familiar with Jamie Wolfer's voice and knew to automatically play one of her videos while I showered so I could multitask. My Instagram feed was filled with wedding photography and wedding keepsake ads.
My Taekwonwedding, as I like to call it, incorporated many meaningful details related to Taekwondo and my Korean heritage. Per Korean tradition, my mom wore pink and the groom's mother wore blue.
I also got a hanbok that I wore for engagement photos, but not the actual wedding. We opted not to do a traditional Korean ceremony because to do it properly would take too much logistics. We might have done it if we lived in California or near DC or another major Koreatown area that had a full rental service, but there are none in this area.
Of course, I made sure to find a photographer who understood that I absolutely needed kick pics and other fun Taekwondo shots.
I also hired a videographer right off the bat because I needed someone to film the dances. We didn't do the traditional order of dances because of what we had planned. First was the father daughter dance, where instead of a dance, we did Keumgang. We didn't have enough time to practice dancing anyway and this was more meaningful to me. Please note, this was before I learned about the changes in head direction for Keumgang, so don't come at me, bro.
After that, Owen had his mother-son dance, and then we finished with our first dance. Owen picked the song, Amazing You, by Han Dong Geun. I edited it, though, so that after about two minutes, we were interrupted. Check out the full video under this epic photo.
Fun facts about our fight skit:
One of our instructors got COVID a week before the wedding. So I quickly replaced him with Luke, who learned all the moved to our choreographed fight by watching a rehearsal video and ONE in-person practice. Such was the skill of our Demo Team Captain.
Practice for the fight skit was done in a $10 red thrift store strapless prom dress.
Owen learned exactly two moves for this. He doesn’t actually know martial arts. If you know anything about fight skits, really, it’s the “bad” guys who really need to know what they’re doing since they have to tumble safely and get hit.
It was really difficult to keep this under wraps so that it was a surprise at the wedding. Like, really hard. Maybe that’s why it took a year and a half to post this, because I had to try so hard to hide our practices and not tell everyone in advance!
The other major Taekwonwedding element was our table numbers, which were all poomsae numbers. I got it done through the Newport News AR Workshop, which is sadly closed now, BUT extra specially - they were made with broken boards from previous dojang demos that I saved. They are currently being used for Bairre’s monthly photos and will later be used if we ever need table numbers for another event! I guess I could also re-use them for each of Bairre’s birthdays…
Another very incredibly special detail was our wedding ducks. In Korea, couples ask an elder in their village to carve them a pair of ducks for their wedding. The carver must be happily married, in good health, wealthy, and have many sons. These blessings are imbued into the ducks as he carves them and must only make one pair in his lifetime. We were immensely honored and lucky to have Master Bozarth at our dojang carve our ducks. He has been a part of our Taekwondo family since I was a child.
The ducks are in our home and face each other when we are in harmony. You turn them away when there is conflict. However, they will always turn back again. After all, Mandarin ducks mate for life.
EVEN CRAZIER - during our vows, a pair of ducks flew overhead. Seriously. I actually didn't notice at the time, but my friends told me later how they heard the ducks overhead and wondered if we released them on purpose. My photographer got a shot of them quacking in the sky. It was super good omens all around and absolutely perfect.
Yes, I cried during vows, of course. It's okay, we laughed, too.
Our officiant, Gary, was our professor in the class where we met at William & Mary. The class was "Communications for Managers," so he got to know us really well. It was wonderful to have him as our officiant.
Other fun stuff:
This photo was actually taken by one of my bridesmaids and I am so glad she got it. I had worked with coach Tim Thackrey since November 2021 (5 months) to get into great shape for the wedding and also my 6th Dan for September 2022. It was so worth it. I got so many compliments on my arms, which was novel because I'm only used to compliments on my legs. I am still working with him now for postpartum workouts. The bandwidth saved for my busy schedule with dojang and the baby is incredibly helpful not just for my physical health, but mental health. I'm not saying that this kind of form is impossible without a coach, or that he is the best coach in particular - everyone has different needs and wants. I chose him specifically because he works a lot with Taekwondo people and understands supplementary exercises for Taekwondo.
This plate was a gift from one of my students and I totally ate my dessert off of it. It was so sweet of them and it came with a Pokeball ornament as well.
Our dessert table was by Indulge Bakery and Bistro. As always, I try to stay local for vendors. Also, I absolutely love their monster cookies. I know now that it's like, a thing, but I used to think they invented monster cookies. I actually wanted a different bakery originally, but they sadly closed during the pandemic. Anyway, we saved the top tier of carrot cake and ate it one year later and it was still DELICIOUS.
The symbol on the top of the cake was 3D printed by my husband! I created it and the center is Ko for our family name with an S through it for Sanborn. The emblem worked well with our hashtag #SanbornandKompany
Our venue was the Mariner's Museum and we took extra photos on the Noland Trail during cocktail hour. The Noland Trail was a big part of my childhood and means a lot to me. Also, how could you not enjoy a huge golden eagle presiding over your wedding?
The only thing that I might have changed would be more color in my flowers. I wanted a classy and elegant aesthetic to balance out the more unusual elements if my wedding, but more colorful flowers would not have been so bad. Otherwise, it was a perfect day to kick off an amazing marriage.
