In South Korea, guests who cannot attend a wedding often send congratulatory money as a polite gesture.
However, actor Lee Seo-jin has criticized this practice, calling it “a flawed custom.”
He made these comments during a live broadcast on the YouTube channel Channel Fullmoon, after a viewer raised a common question.
The viewer asked, “A friend I had not spoken to in seven years had sent a mobile wedding invitation. Should I go, send money, or ignore it altogether?”
“If you haven’t been in touch for seven years, they should at least meet you in person and give you the invitation face to face,” Lee answered. “Sending it over mobile? What kind of friendship is that? There’s no need to go.”
He went on and said that he does not send congratulatory money if he does not attend the wedding.
“You give money as a way of expressing your congratulations when you show up,” he said. “Sending money without attending is a flawed custom. What kind of congratulations is that if you don’t even go?”
He also described what he considers the appropriate response when attendance is not possible.
If attendance is not possible, he said, the relationship should be close enough to arrange a later meeting, where an apology and gift can be given in person. Only then, he suggested, does the gesture have its full significance.
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