Backdate: Korea Seoul Jun 2019 Day 7

23/6/19 Sun: On the morning of our wedding photoshoot, we went around Insadong looking for breakfast at 10+am, but most eateries and restaurants were still closed. Finally, we found a place that sells porridge on the second floor. *The young waiter is quite handsome-looking sia~*
Looked like a family-run business to me. It was a small place, and pretty packed since there weren't much choices for breakfast in Insadong anyway. I had the oyster and mushroom porridge (9000 KRW)... delicious and filling. Quite a gem of a place we'd found I think.
We were supposed to meet Mr Choi, the driver from Sum Studio at 11.30am whom will drive us to Sum Studio located at the outskirts of Seoul, which was also where the 6-hours of photoshoot would take place from afternoon onwards. It took us a while to locate him, as he parked his van at the MSCP carpark next to our Airbnb and walked over to us. *He doesn't speak much English, but luckily we had a interpreter Daniel later at the shoot.*

We passed by the pretty Han River on the way too! Anyway, I compared Wonkyu (recommended by YY) and Kohit too before deciding on Sum Studio (found online) as I thought the overall price and package was the most value-for-money. We bought their 1-day 6-hours' shoot package (30-page album) which was 2780K KRW. *I already wired 30% of the cost as deposit (834K KRW, which was S$1017.61) to them in December.* In the package, we have 30-edited photos in our "Bittersweet" album as well as soft copies inclusive, 300-400 original soft copy photos, 2 white gown, 1 vintage or mini dress (I went for vintage), and 1 traditional hanbok or your casual clothes (we went for the latter). Potato was entitled to 1 full set of tuxedo and 1 extra jacket (white shirt, jacket, pants, bow-tie and tuxedo-belt) but he had to bring his own black formal shoes and black socks. *Album extra pages at 30K KRW per page, and there's 2 free pages with every 10 extra pages requested. Rental of extra tuxedo would be at 50K KRW per set.* Both of us had full make-up service (I had one time free-hairstyle change), a dedicated interpreter, photographer and auntie helper that follows me during the shoot. There was also lunch and free EMS shipping of our albums to Singapore. 
There was also a promotion when I confirmed the package, so they included a Korean-styled house shoot (200K KRW), café shoot (200K KRW) and night view shoot (200K KRW) for free for us. Also, since I upgraded our big wedding frame to an acrylic one (80 by 60cm, 200K KRW), they threw in free round pick-up service to and fro our Airbnb and three 5R acrylic frames.

The lady boss came to greet us when we were with Daniel. We sat and were being briefed in the café.*She looks so much like이태란, the actress in "Sky Castle" la!*  
Wore a thin robe over my dress for the make-up. *I was stunned by the sheer amount of make-ups in front on the dressing table omg.* It took two young ladies to help do my make-up and hairstyle at the beginning, and halfway through, I could also go to the bridal gowns room just beside to choose the gowns I want to wear for the shoot. *Korean bridal are amazing in the sense that they have all sorts of clothes accessories to pair with your sleeveless gown and so you looked like you'd worn many gowns in the shoots lol.* Oh, and as someone who doesn't wear and didn't know how to put thick make-up in daily life, I really don't know what kind of look I wanted when the stylist asked me? Honestly, I'm pretty interested to know how I'd look in a "Korean-style make-up", and that's partly the reason I chose a Korean wedding photoshoot haha. The verdict? Nah I can't and I don't look Korean at all. Not a bad thing I reckon. :p

The auntie and Daniel then brought us to a small room at one of the indoor studios, and she adjusted my gowns, accessorised and even re-did my hairstyle a little as she did not like the fringe that the hairstylist did for me (me neither). Potato took a much shorter time to finish his make-up, hairstyling and wearing of the tuxedo, so he had some time to talk to Daniel. Daniel, whose uncle was the boss of Sum Studio if I did not remember wrongly, could speak English pretty well having studied abroad. He is a few years younger than us, and was planning (at that time) to marry his girlfriend and get a proper place for themselves too. 

Posing was tough man! At first, our photographer told us not to smile, next smile and then laugh for our shots, but it wasn't long before we all realised we don't look good nor natural if we don't smile at all, so he dropped the first pose and told us to grin at all time la haha. Also, we did not have lunch but dinner instead, and it was some waffles served with ice-cream in the café setting, which we also posed for some shots afterwards.

The helper auntie was very nice and rather attentive when it comes to adjusting my gowns and poses etc. *The sunburnt patch on my left shoulder was very obvious in those unedited photos haha~* The candid shots here are taken by her and Potato. *I think she has some talent when it comes to capturing angles!* 

And uh a cat called "noon" (Snow in Korean) running about in the photoshoot area caught Potato's attention too keke. 

Our shoot continued into sunset, and then into the night too~ There were just too many corners at the studio that one can take photos man!

There were a few other couples also doing their photoshoots on the same day, so we'd walk past them a few times. Once in a while, we had to wait for a bit till another couple finishes their shoots at one location before we could proceed with our turn, but all in all, it was rather smooth (though it did rained a little while when I was touching-up my make-up near evening time). It was also a bit awkward at first for us, but I learnt to "let go" more in front of the camera just so we could wrap up the shoot asap lol. *原来这就是当新郎、新娘的滋味啊！过过瘾了！人生大件事：拍婚纱照是一定要的啦！*
After everything was done, we met up with the lady boss and paid up the rest of the amount (1946K KRW) and also chose the red colour cover for our album. It took a few months for them to edit the photos, show it to us and I requested for one re-edit to a photo, and further time for the album to be produced and shipping to Singapore, which arrived only in November. 

Maybe I over-calculated the cost of the package, but it felt like they forgot to include the cost of the bigger frame into the final amount... but we're not complaining lol. It was kind of late by the time Mr Choi drove us back to our Airbnb, so even if it was with our make-ups still on, we walked over to the same fried chicken place for supper~ I had the kimchi fried rice (6000 KRW) and Potato ate their curry chicken rice (6000 KRW)... and all I can say is that Korean food cannot go wrong in Korea haha!