My Korean Wedding Studio Experience
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Read my previous post (Korean Pre-wedding Photoshoot) if you don't live in Korea and want to know more about Korean wedding studios.
I was very nervous when first deciding to do these type of photoshoots, so I hope this post can help ease some of your questions and concerns about what to expect! The studio we picked was ChungdamStudio, (located in Gangnam, South Korea. Public transportation is very easy in Korea. We took the subway there and walked a few blocks. Somehow I did not find the Korean website for them when I was searching more about them last January! And now after my shoot is done, this website is the first thing that shows up in my google search >__< I am actually browsing their website now and looking at their new 2014 sample photos. Looks like they made a few updates to their backgrounds (my favorite green window room: looks like they painted it into a white window). When I booked them in 2013, they also had a few changes (for example, their blue grand room turned into a yellow grand room, addition of a industrial library sign room, removal of some sweet and floral rooms). I liked ChungdamStudio backgrounds prior to their 2013 samples, but I was still happy enough with the scenes overall to book with them. So that is something to consider if you fall in love with a studio. Do your research to find out what their most recent samples look like and if any changes have been made with backgrounds you like, because they might not exist anymore. You don't want to wait until the PS day to be disappointed.
So after browsing through countless studios in Korea, I liked ChungdamStudio the best. I was originally planning to book with a 3rd party agent that deals with this studio. I was able to communicate in English, asking all the questions prior to booking. But during our research we stumbled upon the contact information (cdstudio@hanmail.net) for the actual studio in Korea and decided to ask my fiance's parents for help. We didn't want to bother his parents at first, and also didn't want them to think I was crazy to be taking wedding photos so early in advance hehe... but I am so glad I did! We emailed the studio in korean and got a great deal. From what other brides have told me, if you are an overseas customer, you would be in contact with an English translator (package may differ). I cannot disclose the information, so please contact them for their current packages and prices:
My package included:
1 tux
3 wedding dresses
hair & makeup, accessories, bridal shoes
1 casual
1 royal costume/hanbok
20R (20"x24") framed photo
20 (14"x12") page album
4 hour shoot
400~ photos
2-15 days for photo selection
*please note that this may have changed and not use this as comparison
Since this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I added on some upgrades they had:
+1 more dress and 10 more album pages
+CD with all 400+ high resolution unedited pictures
To book them we paid a deposit and we paid the remainder on the photoshoot day. I understand not everyone can go this route if you are not fluent in Korean and English is also not prominent in Korea. This post is to help give a better understanding how these photoshoots work. You can try contacting them or working with a 3rd party agent to help you. If you aren't too picky, just let the studio lead you through the process. I couldn't communicate with them, so I just pointed to hairstyles I liked, and showed pictures of dress styles I liked etc.
We arrived at our appointment in the afternoon. This studio does everything in-house. Which means you don't have to pick out from a selection of salons and bridal shops (again, I am not too picky as long as they do a good job). They had a book of hairstyles, and told me to selected 2 looks: I pointed to a half up-do and an up-do. They will change my hairstyle when we change dresses and scenery. For the half up-do the hairstylist added curly extension to make my hair fuller. The Korean style make up was also very pretty and natural. I almost couldn't recognize myself. Since this was for photos, I felt like I had a caked face with all the makeup and foundation that was applied.
For my first dress, I said I wanted something really dramatic, with lots of ruffles! And the dress helper instantly knew what I wanted and brought out this dress. I loved it! I thought I would get to look at their entire selection of dresses and pick what I liked. But I never got to see any of their dresses (I did for the evening gowns, their selection was small). I only told them what I liked and she would bring it out. Which is disappointing, but I was happy with the choices. Browse their samples and customer samples to get an idea of some of the dresses they have (blur out my face if you use my pictures as example! <3)
They added a cute tiara for my first look. Throughout the day, they would change the earrings and headpiece to give a different look for each background.
For the second dress, the dress helper suggested to go with a different style, something sexy and slimming. She brought out this simple satin mermaid style dress with a big bow in the back (which I really liked) and then this beaded A-line dress which had a huuuge ruffled train in the back. The first dress was more my style but the helper convinced me that this 2nd dress would look better in pictures, and she was right! I did not like all the beading and the halter tie at the neck, but the ruffles of this dress made my pictures look WOW. They also changed my hairstyle into an updo for this dress, with a flowery headpiece.
The dress helper used my phone to help take some behind the scenes shots :)
Here is our photographer helping us pose. He did not know much English, and would guide us to pose by saying "Look here" "Foot here" "Small smile!" "Big smile!" "and motion the gestures. Suck in my stomach, stick out my chest, and smile! We had a really good time working with him.
We went up to the rooftop when we changed into my short wedding dress. We pretty much followed the guidance of the photographer. He didn't ask if we wanted a specific pose (there were many I liked from the samples! Sometimes he did take them the same way) or if we wanted any shots at a specific scenery. Such as below. The scene on the left was the garden cafe look. He only took pictures at the right, Italian cafe look, and we started going back inside already before I could ask if we could have pictures on the other side :( And there are scenes which I don't care for pictures at, such as the new industrial library sign room. But I am not a picky person, so I let many of those things go. There is sooo much that needs to be done in 1 day that everything feels rushed and its go! go! go! So I understand that they work like this to make things more efficient.
Also, included in our payment was money for them to buy us and the crew lunch. So they ordered kimbap. We had some and gave the rest for them to eat.
When we had some downtime, I took a panoramic view of their main room. Every corner is a backdrop!
We told them we don't have time to select the photos on the same day, so they burned all the photos onto a CD for us to take home. When we got back, we made our selection and told them the 32 pictures we wanted in our 30 pages album. (We selected 2 extra photos to give some variation to the pages, 2 pictures one 1 page.). I was worried about how they would make the album layout. But 3 months later, they emailed us the album layout and it looked perfect! They really know what pictures go well with each other and which pictures to give a full spread. The album and framed canvas was also of high quality. I definitely recommend working with this studio, the staff is very friendly and accommodating. They take great pictures and really know how to make you look your best.
And finally, here are some of the shots after retouching (Some of them are cropped a little to fit in this collage).
And finally, here are some of the shots after retouching (Some of them are cropped a little to fit in this collage).
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| Our Casual Outfit |
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| My favorite |
**Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the studio. This is 100% my honest opinion. Please DO NOT mention Me or my blog as comparison if you contact them**
9 comments
Love the pictures they did a really good job! You guys look great in them. Would you be posting more pictures since I think there are more than these right?
ReplyDeleteCame across your blog while googling on couples that did their pre-wedding photoshoot in Korea. Will be doing mine in sept! :)
Glad you found my posts helpful :D Ido seems like a good and safe choice, best of luck with them! I have the rest of my pictures in an album on my facebook if you'd like to see: https://www.facebook.com/reeni615/media_set?set=a.10103796187287129.1073741833.8847868&type=3
DeleteIt was so hard deciding on a studio! What studio are you picking?^^
Hey dear! Thank you for the sharing of photos! it got me excited even more about korea prewedding! ��
ReplyDeleteMay i know if the dresses do not fit me, how will they do the alteration or adjustments to the gowns and dresses for me?
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ReplyDeleteDear Irine! Thanks for the post it's really informative! may i know how much was the package? It's difficult getting a good deal because seems like some people got cheaper by using agents. Can you please PM me the price what you paid for?
ReplyDeleteThanks so much
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