EJAE’s wedding to Sam Kim was always going to be personal — this is a couple who kept their engagement secret for over two years. But the details of their Oct. 17 Seoul celebration, reported by Vogue, reveal just how deliberately the KPop Demon Hunters star stitched her family’s past into her future.
The Venue Was Her Grandparents’ Home
Celebrity weddings usually chase the most exclusive venue money can rent. EJAE did the opposite: she married at Stage 28 in Seoul, on grounds where her grandparents once lived and where she spent long stretches of her childhood.
The singer has said she passed much of her childhood exploring the venue’s garden and walking with her grandfather in the hills behind the house. That grandfather is no ordinary family figure — he is Shin Young-kyun, one of South Korea’s most respected veteran actors and a noted patron of the arts. In a very real sense, EJAE’s artistic inheritance began on those hills, which makes the choice of venue read less like a booking and more like a homecoming.
Born in Seoul in 1991, EJAE moved to Fort Lee, New Jersey, as an infant, then returned to Korea at eight years old. Her childhood genuinely unfolded between two countries — and the wedding honored the Korean half of that story at every turn.
A Paebaek, Not Just a Party
Alongside the main ceremony, the couple held a Paebaek, the traditional Korean rite in which newlyweds, dressed in formal ceremonial attire, bow to their parents and elders and receive their blessings — often while the older generation tosses dates and chestnuts symbolizing children and prosperity.
The welcome party took place at Congdu50, a Korean Fusion restaurant, extending the heritage theme into the food. For a global pop star whose Oscar-night performance deliberately showcased pansori singing and gugak — traditional Korean music — on Hollywood’s biggest stage, the through-line is obvious: at every peak moment of her career, EJAE has made a point of bringing Korean tradition with her. Her wedding was no different.
The Gown: Danielle Frankel, Made to Measure
EJAE wore a custom Danielle Frankel gown in Tulle, cut with a Bubble Hem and a strapless neckline — romantic, architectural and just offbeat enough to feel like her. She finished the look with delicate family Heirloom Jewelry rather than a borrowed showpiece, again choosing sentiment over spectacle.
The singer said she had followed Frankel’s work for a long time, loving how the designer gives the classic bridal silhouette a modern, slightly twisted edge. Her own brief — “ethereal, modern, chic, and timeless with a twist” — could double as a description of the entire wedding.
What We Know About the Guest List — and What We Don’t
True to form, the couple has not publicized a guest list, and no official wedding album has been released. Given EJAE’s world, informed speculation points to a gathering that mixed Seoul family elders — central to the Paebaek — with the creative family she built through KPop Demon Hunters: the songwriting collaborators, producers and fellow Huntrix voices she has repeatedly described as her support system.
Observers also noted the timing. Mid-October in Seoul offers the couple the mild, golden autumn weather the city is famous for — a fitting backdrop for an outdoor garden ceremony at a venue whose hills the bride has known since childhood. If a single image defines this wedding, it is not a step-and-repeat wall; it is a bride in couture tulle walking ground her grandparents once called home.
A Masterclass in Celebrity Privacy
Perhaps the most remarkable detail is how little of this fans knew in advance. EJAE and producer Sam Kim met in 2017 when they were paired for a songwriting session. They got engaged in the fall of 2023. And then — silence. The engagement only became public in January 2026, when EJAE slipped photos of the milestone onto her Instagram without fanfare.
In an era when celebrity couples monetize every milestone, the pair did the reverse: nearly a decade together, an engagement hidden for more than two years, and a wedding revealed through a fashion-magazine report rather than a sponsored reveal. Even Kim’s sweetest contribution to her career is hidden in plain sight — his voice is layered into the harmonies of “What It Sounds Like,” the climactic anthem of KPop Demon Hunters, recorded in their Brooklyn apartment.
Fans Are Piecing Together the Clues
Because the couple shared so little, fans have spent the days since the report happily playing detective. The January Instagram post that quietly confirmed the engagement has been re-examined frame by frame, and the couple’s rare joint public appearances — including a Los Angeles press event for KPop Demon Hunters last November and an outing this past March — are being recirculated as the few official glimpses of the pair together.
What supporters keep landing on is the consistency of the story. This is not a whirlwind celebrity romance; it is a nine-year partnership between two working musicians that survived her anonymous songwriter years, the pandemic and then one of the most intense fame explosions in recent pop history. The wedding’s modesty, by celebrity standards, only reinforces that image.
A Dress Designer Having a Moment
The choice of Danielle Frankel also places EJAE inside one of bridal fashion’s defining recent trends: brides choosing sculptural, fashion-forward gowns over traditional princess dresses. Frankel’s studio has become a favorite of style-conscious brides precisely because her dresses treat tulle and silk as architecture. EJAE’s bubble hem — playful, voluminous, slightly surreal — is the kind of detail that photographs like a dream and reads unmistakably modern, a neat fashion echo of a singer whose own artistry mixes classical training with pop experimentation.
Paired with heirloom jewelry instead of a red-carpet loan, the look sent a message stylists have been quick to note: the most luxurious thing a bride can wear is something that already belongs to her family.
Why This Wedding Hits Different
Context matters. EJAE spent almost ten years as a trainee at SM Entertainment after joining at age 11, and left in 2015 without ever debuting. She rebuilt herself as a behind-the-scenes songwriter before KPop Demon Hunters turned her into the voice of a generation — “Golden” at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, a Grammy, a Golden Globe and an Oscar in a single run.
A wedding at her grandparents’ home, in a handmade-feeling gown, beside the producer who believed in her before the world did — it plays like the closing chapter of that long comeback. As she told PEOPLE earlier this year, Kim kept her “grounded” through the fame explosion. On Oct. 17, in a Seoul garden full of ghosts and blessings, grounded is exactly where she chose to be.
Also read: From a 2017 Songwriting Session to the Oscars and the Altar: EJAE and Sam Kim's Love Story
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