Groom prepares for a year to surprise bride and her Korean family on wedding day: 'They're proud'

They say "Love knows no boundaries," and Ben and Sohee Carpenter are ideal examples of these world. Hailing from totally different ethnicities and geographies, they hung on to their relationship embracing those differences. Ben Carpenter—who goes by @bdccarpenter on TikTok—he displays his love and respect for his Korean wife, Sohee and her family by making a beautiful wedding speech in the Korean language.

Ben gives us a little sneak peek of his Korean-learning journey in the caption saying "For nearly a year, I have been keeping a big secret from my wife until our wedding day. I kept sneaking off for 30 minutes at a time for video calls she didn’t know about or pretending they were for work when they weren’t. In bed, I would often put one headphone in so she couldn’t hear what I was doing and turn my screen away so she couldn’t see either. I set myself a goal of learning just a tiny bit of Korean as a show of respect to her and her family on our wedding day." He starts his wedding speech by thanking everyone who had to travel to California for his wedding and, on a funny note, to those who didn't spend so much he said, "don't be afraid to keep those savings in mind when making a donation to our honeymoon fund."

He then informed the guests that he was about to make a speech in Korean and hoped that they would forgive him for not getting it completely right. "To everyone from Sohee's family, as a show of respect, I have been secretly taking lessons so I can finally speak to you in Korean," said the groom. "When Sohee and I first started dating, she told me that in Korean culture dating a foreigner is frowned upon by some people," he mentioned and added, "I was very scared to meet you because I felt like maybe I wouldn't be accepted."

Ben then gratefully mentioned "but I was wrong. You welcomed me with a warm heart. Thanks to all of you. We've made it this far," and ended the Korean part of his wedding speech by saying, "I'm thankful you've accepted me as a new member of the family and I promise to love and take care of Sohee forever." Once Ben thanked Sohee's family, her father and mother walked up to him and gave him a hug expressing their love for their son-in-law. While Sohee was attentively admiring Ben's heartwarming speech, she broke into tears towards the end. Ben lightens up the mood saying "For everyone who doesn't speak Korean, let's just pretend the pronunciation was perfect. It wasn't." The rest of his speech involved a beautiful narration of how their love evolved over time and everything that he adored in his wife.

People admired Ben's efforts in learning a new and complicated language lauding him for making an impeccable Korean speech. "I've been learning Korean while living in Korea for the past 2 years and it's not easy, like, at all. So impressed with your speech," wrote @itskimanna. "I don't think anyone expected perfect pronunciation. The fact that you made the effort is beautiful and it's easy to tell that they're proud!" commented @camillahurra. Another funny comment by @madscart1 read "Beautiful. But also, man's spent a year secretly listening to conversations the family thought he couldn't understand."