South Korean Influencer Kim Nara Marries Longtime Girlfriend
“We don’t need permission to celebrate our love,” Nara said of the country’s lack of marriage equality.
South Korean stylist and influencer Kim Nara has tied the knot with her girlfriend of eight years.
Kim, who won the tvN fashion competition, Kill It: Style Creator Showdown, earlier this year, married her longtime partner, Yu-rim, on Sunday in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province, surrounded by supportive friends and family.
She shared pictures and video of the gorgeous ceremony on social media, calling it “the most perfect wedding in the rice fields, rain and all.”
The wedding came just months after Kim publicly thanked her girlfriend during her Kill It victory speech, calling her her “greatest partner and manager.” At the time, she also revealed that the couple had previously put off having a wedding because of the cost, and said she hoped to finally make it happen with her prize money.
South Korea still refuses to recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions, though there has been some progress in recent years. In 2024, South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex partners are entitled to dependent coverage under the national health insurance program. While it was considered a step forward for LGBTQ+ rights in the country, the fight for actual marriage equality continues.
But that hasn’t stopped these two—or many other same-sex couples before them—from professing their love and commitment to one another in ceremonies like the one Kim and Yu-rim held on Sunday.
“We don’t need permission to celebrate our love, and we’re definitely not waiting around for the world to catch up,” Kim wrote on Instagram ahead of her wedding. “We want to show what it looks like to build a beautiful life together, unapologetically, on our own terms. Not because we have anything to prove, but because we deserve to live and love just as loudly and freely as anyone else.”
“And if our little love story can give even one queer couple out there the courage to believe in their own future,” she added, “that would mean everything to us.”
