Hee-Won Han Gets Hitched

The bride's family also enjoyed themselves tremendously. Hee-Won's father told reporters that it had been a great few months for him, as first Hee-Won's older sister had recently had a child, and now Hee-Won was getting married. Hee-Won's grandmother had been one of the chief culprits egging Jeong Jang and Soo Yun Kang on during their pop numbers!

Meanwhile, Jeong Jang had the appearance of being infatuated with Hoon Lee. However, she was sitting next to baseball player Chi Hoon Kim. So she announced that she wanted to 'make a trade' (probably traumatizes a baseball player to hear those words!) and tried to sit down next to Hoon Lee, to the amusement of all. Then the bride's friends arrived with a fur coat, and demonstrating mock kindness, suggested Lee sit on it instead of the bare floor to avoid getting hemorrhoids (!).

After torturing Hoon Lee all night, the ladies were
kind enough to give him something to cool down with!

After one more number by the ladies, a rendition of the pop song 'Ten Minutes', the Hahmdari, which had gone on for about two hours, was over. Baseballer Won Ki Hoong said that he felt the men should have gotten higher denominations of money in their envelopes from the ladies, but that getting the money from them was harder than any salary negotiation he had ever done. Even Byung Hyun Kim, who seemed the most stoic of the bunch, finally started to enjoy himself towards the end, and when talking about it later, was laughing broadly. It had been his first Hahmdari, and he enjoyed it a lot!

The Wedding
The Wedding itself took place in a wedding hall at the Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul at 5 PM on December 20th, 2003. The number of people who showed up in the end exceeded 1000! The press were also out in force to cover the nuptials.

Among those in the Groom's party were the aforementioned Byung Hyun Kim of the Red Sox, who got there quite early, and TV star Hoon Lee. Many other baseballers from the Korean leagues and Japanese leagues were there as well, and one other player from the Major Leagues, Hee Sop Choi of the Florida Marlins. The bride's party included all the other top Seoul Sisters: Grace Park, Se Ri Pak, and Mi Hyun Kim, as well as Soo Yun Kang, Jeong Jang, Ara Koh and many others. Also invited was LPGA player Beth Bauer, who was there in the company of Hee-Won's Australian caddie, Sean Clewes; apparently Clewes and Bauer are now dating. Several other noted performers, movie actors and pop singers were present as well, though none familiar to American audiences I would guess.

The Hall where the actual wedding took place was only prepared to seat 700, and a half hour before the wedding itself, it was full. Hopefully the Seoul Sisters all got seats! Doubtless the excess was in part all the friends of friends who showed up to be part of this big event. One sports reporter commented that he had never been to a wedding with so many guests before.

The Seoul Sisters at the wedding:
(L to R): Mi Hyun Kim, Grace Park, Soo Yun Kang, Se Ri Pak
Note the photographer taking Se Ri's picture

Here comes the bride. Hee-Won has said that
Son is a terrible golfer who would have trouble
breaking 100!

Hoon Lee was the emcee of the ceremony, and the Chairman of FILA Korea, Hee-Won's chief sponsor, presided (presumably he did not actually marry the two of them, unless he is an ordained minister!). And who caught the bouquet? Soo Yun Kang! Somehow fitting, considering all she had done to help Hee-Won earlier!

How will the happy couple cope with their newfound status? Will it be tough to be separated so much of the year? How long will it be before Hee-Won gets tempted to abandon her career for motherhood? Or will she be a new type of Korean woman who mixes, a la Juli Inkster, marriage, motherhood and golf? Time will tell!

Congratulations tot he happy couple!