National Palace Museum opens courtyard for traditional weddings, drawing 10-to-1 competition

A historic heritage site is being transformed into an outdoor wedding venue. The National Palace Museum of Korea is opening its outdoor courtyard — long reserved for viewing — to give the space new practical value and bring citizens closer to the country's cultural heritage.

The National Palace Museum, under the Cultural Heritage Administration, will host "Gogyeol" — a program supporting outdoor weddings for 28 couples beneath the ginkgo trees in front of the museum — from Friday through Nov. 8, with two ceremonies per day (at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.) every weekend and public holiday.

On Friday at 4 p.m., Mai, an Estonian broadcaster who has been promoting hanbok and Korean traditional culture abroad, will hold her wedding ceremony at the venue. Mai made headlines as the first foreigner selected as Miss Chunhyang, and has since run a video channel introducing Korean culture after coming to Korea as a student. Cultural Heritage Administration Commissioner Heo Min and Estonian Ambassador to Korea Tanel Sepp are scheduled to deliver congratulatory remarks at her ceremony.

The 28 couples taking part in this year's outdoor weddings represent a wide range of backgrounds, including multicultural families, international marriages, military personnel, firefighters, police officers, youth, and workers in the cultural heritage and arts sectors. They were chosen from 293 couples who applied in a public competition the museum launched in April. The museum is opening its outdoor ginkgo grove free of charge as a wedding venue to ease the financial burden of marriage on younger generations and to let the public experience the value of national heritage in everyday life. Based on the response to this inaugural program, the museum plans to expand the initiative in 2027 to 80 outdoor wedding ceremonies held across both spring and fall.

The museum will also make its annex building, decorated with traditional dancheong paintwork, available free of charge as a reception hall for wedding guests, and will manage on-site operations to minimize inconvenience to regular visitors while developing the outdoor weddings as a tourism resource.

The National Palace Museum said it will continue to draw on the results of the outdoor wedding program and public feedback to develop a range of cultural heritage utilization initiatives, and will provide ongoing administrative support to help people experience the value of national heritage in their daily lives.