South Korean Museums Will Become Wedding Venues to Encourage More Marriages and Babies

Art-minded couples in South Korea will soon have dozens of public museums to choose as venues for wedding ceremonies. The announcement from the South Korean government is aimed at reducing the financial burden on young people planning to get married, and is intended to encourage them to have children, which would help raise the country’s low birthrate.

“We will open museums, art galleries and other popular exhibition venues run by the government and public organizations as wedding halls,” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choi Sang-mok said during a convening of economy-related ministers in Seoul on Wednesday.

The institutions include the National Museum of Korea in central Seoul, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in the southern city of Gwacheon, the National Folk Museum of Korea, and “dozens of other famous public museums,” according to The Korea Times.

While there are already more than 120 public buildings in South Korea available as affordable wedding venues, the Korea Times reported that they “offer little in the way of romantic and sentimental value,” prompting many couples to stay away.

“We focused on selecting areas where it is set outdoors, or the youth can customize the place, unlike private wedding halls,” a Finance Ministry official told the Korea JoonGang Daily, which first reported the news.

Between 2013 and 2023, South Korea saw a 40 percent decline in marriages due to higher costs of living, low salaries, and other factors affecting personal finances. Research by Statistics Korea found that the high cost of getting married and insufficient funds were the top reasons given by respondents in their 20s and 30s for why they chose not to get hitched. The country’s fertility rate, the world’s lowest, also fell from 0.78 in 2022 to 0.72 in 2023, according to a report from Reuters.