Review: Our Pre-Wedding Casual Photoshoot in Jeju Part 1 (With Jeju Core Travel)

Going to Korea for a casual pre-wedding photoshoot has been one of our highlights for pre-wedding preparation. I'm glad we chose Jeju Tour Information - Core Travel who gave us a very unforgettable expreience. Here is part 1 of our photoshoot experience, mainly I will cover the pricing logistics and the make up and hair services which we took up.

It all started since mid 2014 when we confirmed our trip to Korea in mid April 2015. I have always admired the Korean style of  photoshoot and make up so I wanted to have my photoshoot done there.

Mr OOPS, being the more budget person, started dissuading me from it as we have already paid for a bridal package in Singapore. To convince him, I did lots of research and got many quotations from various bridal studios in Korea. Sadly, the cheapest quotation I could get was at least $2200 sgd for a full day studio shoot. So a very disheartened (and rational) me decided that's too expensive and I'm going to give up on that thought.

Very timely, this advertisement images pop up on Facebook!

DATE SNAPSHOT by JEJU CORE TRAVEL!


Once I saw this, I told Mr OOPS, we must must must MUST go for this one. We were a little apprehensive since it seems like a very newly set up company. But because it's so affordable, comprehensive, all soft copies returned and includes transportation! So... yes! It was a YES from him!

We opted for Option 1: Date Snapshot Economy Package and Option 3: Hair and Make Up For 2 Persons. The 2 selections will come up to KRW 490,000, approximately $615 sgd. 

I contacted the travel agency and started communicating with Jin about taking up the package. Meanwhile, the other couple whom I'm traveling to Jeju with, Ricky and Grace, got convinced that they should try this photoshoot too. And that's how we both ended up taking the exact same package.

Knowing our intention and seeing that we have 2 couples doing the shoot on same day, Jin was really nice to propose some adjustments to our package. 

On top of what is stated in their package, they also made these concessions for us:
1) 1 main professional photographer who will be traveling along with us. He will be the assistant photographer to capture candid moments.
2) Shooting time was extended from 3 hours to 5 hours, with 5 locations instead of the intended 2-3 locations.
3) Each couple will have one car and one driver.
We were absolutely pleased with the arrangement because in that way, the 4 of us can continue to gossip and chit chat along the way.

1) Special Requests For The Photoshoot

The travel agency themselves do have some interesting props on their own, like cute sunglasses, sign boards and fake flower bouquet.

However, if you do have some special request in mind, they can help you to complete it. Basically, you name it and they will cater it for you. We asked for the following : rental of props, purchase of real flowers bouquet etc. In the end, we decided not to take up any! Haha. But Jin was still readily attending to all our questions and special requests accordingly.Kudos to him for that.

2) Accommodation and Transportation

As it is our first time to Jeju and we have absolutely no idea how different it is from Seoul, we did catch Jin and his team off guard with the location of our accomodation. Our accomodation was very far from Jeju city!

Side track for people who are looking for accomodation in Jeju:
  • We booked our accommodation with airbnb at the most eastern side of jeju ( literally at the tip), at this town called Seongsan. The perks of it was it is very near to Udo island and the famous Ilchulbong and you can see sunrise more conveniently, I guess.
  • For us, it proved to be a major disaster. Driving from airport or main towns of jeju takes a minimum of 1.5 hours. We had challenges getting taxis from central jeju to fetch us back home in the evenings. It was worse when our car booking had to be cancelled as we did not apply for the international driving license in Singapore prior to the trip. (*sigh*) So if you ask me, please avoid booking your accommodation at Seongsan, unless you are not intending to travel out of the eastern side at all. IMHO, very inconvenient.
And back to the photoshoot, I am guessing we gave Jin a huge shock by telling them we are staying at Seongsan. However, he kept to what was stated in the contract and accommodated us in terms of timing and transportation home although it is going to be a very very very long (and dangerous I feel) drive for them in the night time. 

After the shoot, we made our way back to Seongsan at about 8plus or 9pm. The drive from Jeju city back to Seongsan is probably the darkest car ride I have ever taken. Besides the lights coming from the car headlights, the rest is just pitch dark. (Phew, it really makes me appreciate Singapore's bright city lights!) We were also told that we can't really speed because jeju roads are not like expressways, there may be deers walking on the roads. Sadly, we didn't get to see any deers. Haha! Anyway, we feel so bad that both Jin and Hank will still need to drive back to Jeju city in the darkeness... (remember its a 1.5 hours long winding drive)We were very thankful and impressed in them keeping to their promise. Double thumbs up.

3) Hair and Make Up Services

Some people may be very good in doing their make up and hair. I can admit, I'm bad at it.  Therefore, for me, this is a compulsory service I will take up for any kind of photoshoot. Before we went to Jeju, we were just expecting a free lance MUA to help us do the make up. In fact, we were still commenting that it's quite expensive for us to pay more than $250 sgd for such services.

However....

We are in for a pleasant surprise! We were driven into a bridal studio to have our make up done. (I forgot to note down the name of the bridal studio).

Grace and I selecting our preferred hairstyles and make up together, through an iPad.


While one does the hair, one does the make up. Before applying make up, the MUA also applied skincare products.


Grace opted for the natural curls.

I opted for the bun hairstyle and its in the making.

You can see how the hairstylist created so much volume with my slightly longer than shoulder length hair. 

Next up, yes, the guys put on some basic make up. (evidence, haha)

And getting their hair styled like G-dragon. (hohoho)

One last photo.

In addition, the staffs also served us nice hot tea in pretty cups (seen in picture 4 above) and were really polite. It was also nice of them to help us iron our clothes and help the ladies to dress up. Our clothes were all creased up as they were stuffed into our luggage. So we really appreciate it. Jin and Hank also helped us to negotiate with the studio to lend us some matching hair accessories which we could use for the photoshoot.
In all, we are very pleased with the hair and make up services by the bridal studio.

And now a comparison of my faces before and after the make up is completed.
Both photos are taken using normal iphone front camera and zero edit.

My personal take is the make up by the Korea bridal studio is so much more natural than the one I had with Feline Bridal. My brows are also not too thick. General feedback from family and friends who have seen this new make up also commented that the make up is so much better.

Update: based on the latest update on Jeju Core Travel website at http://www.corejeju.com/, the pricing now is 170,000won per person and a 60,000 won surcharge for staying at Seogwipo, Jungmun and Seongsan. Make up for 2 pax is priced at 190,000 won.

In my part 2 entry, I will update with some of the photos from our photoshoot, the venues of our photoshoot, and some first hand experiences doing the photoshoot on a foggy day in Jeju during April.

Cheers,
Mrs To-Be OOPS

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