Wedding Date September 14, 2024
Julie An and Ryan Kim met as students at Catonsville’s UMBC through mutual friends but went all the way to Japan to get engaged.
Eight years after they first started dating, they experienced their first international trip together in October 2023. The three-week excursion with friends included time in Japan and Korea. Ryan kept trying to find a perfect moment to propose. They had booked a night at a luxury ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn) in Kyoto with a private onsen dinner (a multi-course meal), but Ryan accidentally booked their reservation at a later time than the rest of their friends. It ended up being the perfect accident because Ryan realized their friends could use that time to strategize their hiding spots and record the proposal. Julie was so surprised that she was actually speechless. (She did eventually say yes.) “I think it felt extra special to me that we were engaged during this trip because we went to Korea after Japan and I got to introduce Ryan as my fiancé to my grandparents,” says Julie.
The following fall on a sunny Saturday, Julie, a nurse, and Ryan, who works in IT, were married in front of the pond at Glen Ellen Farm, her bridesmaids in soft pastel hues including pinks, yellow, champagne, and blue. Later at their reception, they incorporated the traditional Korean Paebaek ceremony. “It involves us bowing to our parents and serving them tea. It also involves the parents throwing chestnuts and dates toward the cloth Ryan and I are holding together,” explains Julie. Chestnuts symbolize sons and dates symbolize daughters and the number of those caught by the cloth are playful, symbolic predictions of the number of children the couple will have.
Other highlights included a Hawaiian-style ice cream truck that provided ube/matcha soft serve with various toppings and halo-halo, a shaved ice dessert, and a ramen bar.
But for Julie the most special part was the ceremony. “We thought we would be so nervous to say our vows in front of 160 people but during the moment, even in the midst of everything and everyone, our vows truly felt like it was just a moment shared between us,” she says. She also did not expect Ryan to cry. “Ryan usually never cries and is just not an emotional person. But even before I walked down the aisle to see each other for the first time, he said he became emotional and had difficulty keeping it in to the point that he couldn’t even look at me as I walked down the aisle,” says Julie. “He teared up during our vows and I think that moment made me and everyone else cry even more.”
BEAUTY Shine Tina CATERER Eleven Courses Catering FLORAL DESIGN Scentsational Florals GROOM AND GROOMSMEN Suitsupply HONEYMOON Japan and Korea ICE CREAM TRUCK Bmore Mochichi LOCATION Glen Ellen Farm, Ijamsville MUSIC RJ Best Events OFFICIANT Tri Le, a close friend Photographer Jenny Wagner VIDEOGRAPHER K & A Photo and Video WEDDING COORDINATOR Wed with Steph WEDDING OUTFITS Maggie Sottero gown at The Bridal Boutique (wedding dress); Rachel Gilbert “Lyla” dress bought secondhand from Still White (second dress); Insadong Hanbok (Korean traditional outfit and rentals for Paebaek)