An American bride hid her $200 vintage wedding dress from the groom at their South Korean wedding with a makeshift contraption

• Rachel Kwon, from New Orleans, married her longtime partner Jaehwan Kwon in June.
• Rachel said they followed South Korean wedding traditions, except she kept her dress a surprise.

An American woman who recently got married in South Korea said she created a makeshift contraption to hide her wedding dress from the groom before the ceremony.

Rachel Kwon told Insider she moved from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Gyeonggi-do, just outside of Seoul, South Korea, nine years ago. She met her now-husband, Jaehwan Kwon, there in 2014. Rachel and Jaehwan, who is from South Korea, married in Ansan (a city in the Gyeonggi Province southwest of Seoul) on June 18.

The couple's wedding mostly followed South Korean wedding traditions, Rachel said. For example, they had a photo shoot in wedding attire months before the ceremony, and used the photos for their invitations and to decorate a photo table at their venue. Rachel said she wore a variety of different dresses in the photo shoot — none of which she wore for the ceremony as she didn't want the groom to see her wedding gown ahead of time.

Though in recent years it has become more common for couples in the US to have a "first look" with their partner ahead of the ceremony, Rachel said she wanted to stick to the American tradition of keeping her dress a secret before walking down the aisle.

And she came up with a unique way to hide her dress before she walked down the aisle — using an umbrella and a lot of fabric.

Rachel hid her dress from the groom with a homemade contraption

Rachel said that in her experience of South Korean weddings it's common for the bride and groom to greet guests and take photos with them in their wedding attire before the ceremony. But because Rachel wanted her wedding dress to be a surprise, Jaehwan greeted their guests while Rachel changed into her gown.

After that, the plan was for Rachel to go to the private bridal waiting area to spend time with some close family and friends before the ceremony — but there was a bit of an obstacle.

"The private changing room available for me to use to change into my dress was on a completely different floor than our wedding hall," Rachel said.

"That means that I had to find a way to ensure that my husband — who was greeting guests right in front of our wedding hall — would not see me in my dress as I walked through a crowd of our guests from the elevator to the bridal waiting room right next to him," she added.

Rachel said she originally planned to cover her dress with a bedsheet before one of her friends came up with the idea to use an umbrella and white fabric. Rachel sewed it together the day before her wedding, and her twin sister and sister-in-law escorted her to the bridal waiting room ahead of the ceremony.

This way, she could surprise Jaehwan at the altar with her wedding dress: a silk, floor-length gown that she paired with matching elbow-length gloves, a veil tucked into a sleek updo, and dazzling earrings.

On June 23, Rachel shared a video of Jaehwan's reaction to her walking down the aisle in her dress on her Instagram page, @rachelheheh, where she has 94,000 followers as of Friday.

Rachel found her vintage wedding dress for $200 in New Orleans

Rachel said she purchased her wedding dress for $200 while visiting her family in New Orleans. On Tuesday, she shared an Instagram post about her experience.

She went for a decidedly more understated look than the dress she wore for her pre-wedding photos. "I had already worn a big princess dress during our pre-wedding photo shoot and didn't feel like myself at all," she said.

Looking back on the big day, Rachel said she has "no regrets" about hiding her dress from Jaehwan until the moment she walked down the aisle.

"I just wanted to [...] have my '90s movie moment with my husband, walking down the aisle to Sixpence None the Richer's 'Kiss Me,'" she said.

All it took to make it happen was a little creativity.