The number of South Korean tying the knot has been decreasing. It is pretty easy to sense when you look around. There are many Korean singles in their 30s or 40s. According to a latest report from the Korean Health Society Research, definition of unmarried population is those who never married until they become 50 years old and this rate has been dramatically increasing. Unmarried rate was 3.8% in 2015 but it is expected to grow to 7.1% in 2020 and 10.5% in 2025.
This trend has created so called YOLO, "you only live once" lifestyle. It is getting common to drink alone, dine alone, travel alone and now have a wedding alone.
A single wedding in Korea is for those women who want celebrate their youth and beauty. The bride wears a white wedding dress with immaculate make-up but It is a bit different from the conventional ceremony because there is no groom and guests and the bride will be remained officially a single after all. The single wedding photo can help the bride in many ways. It can help to appease impatient parents pushing a marriage to her daughter and it can also show her willingness of a single life as well as independence.
The difficulty of juggling amongst career, marriage and motherhood is clearly existed in the conservative country where requires many duties to working mothers. As a result of that the more women opt out marriage option and instead of that they choose YOLO lifestyle.
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