Rarely am I surprised anymore about how different things are done in Korea relative to America. Some are strange, some are, in my opinion, quite better here. Others, well, just different. A pattern has begun to emerge for me, though. It seems that when style matters, nothing is left to chance and no holds barred. When they go hiking here, they dress up in high-tech, fashionable sports wear as if heading out for a multi-day hike in the wilderness when really they’re walking up a well-worn wide path, usually a road or stairs. When they go road or mountain biking, all of their biking gear must match, from the shoes to the helmet.
Wedding photos follow the same rules. It’s all about how you look. The pictures are not of the wedding itself, but a modeling session on par with the best fashion mags of the day. Sometimes, they are done before the wedding day. In our case, we did ours nearly two months after. That was best we could schedule. It wasn’t until later I learned why.
Yesterday we were both subject and subjected to the wedding photo ordeal. We started at 10:30 a.m. and we were whisked into the dressing room to prepare. MyeongHee had two, sometimes three girls prepping her makeup and hair and clothes. I had a girl or two on me as well, although my makeup was significantly less.
I have to admit, it was a little fun to be pampered and taken care of. Being a guy, its rare to get the treatment most women get regularly when they go for the whole beauty treatment spa. MyeongHee doesn’t get that treatment herself much either. Being a hairsalon owner, she’s usually doing the hairdo rather than getting. It was fun and cute – at first.
A little fun, however, turned into an interminable wait as more and more layers of makeup, touch-up and fine details were fixed on MyeongHee. The split mirrors made a nice frame for her face. I amused myself taking pictures of the transformation process. She was not amused. She’ll likely kick my ass when she sees I’ve posted this. I’ll calm her down when I tell her the other, worse pictures remained on my hard drive, to be kept in reserve for a rainy day when we need a laugh.
Part way through, she developed the Texas big hair style. Not knowing what the end result would be, I kept snapping away.
After my own, minimal coiffing and makeup, (Yes, I’m wearing lip-gloss) I emerged with a suave 007 look.
After what seemed like days later, MyeongHee emerged a queen. She was radiant. I think she’s a beautiful lady anyway – of course I do – I married her, for heaven’s sake. But I was completely stunned with the job those girls did with her makeup, hair and dresses. Yes, dresses. Plural. Multiple wedding gowns, multiple evening gowns, and multiple hair-dos.
Above is just my cheap (relatively speaking) Olympus camera photo. Its the best that I took, but I stopped trying to take photos of her or I. I focussed on the process and not the end result. The studio was complete with professional lighting, props and backdrops. None of that church background or occasional stray guest popping into the photos. Every one of the hundreds of shots was carefully lighted and choreographed.
MyeongHee’s friends came to the studio to help share the day. UnZung, dressed in a pink hanbok gown. They helped dispel the boredom of waiting out the set changes, new hair styles and dresses. But at various times throughout the day, they succumbed to the waiting and boredom. I likely would have napped as well, but in the set in the above picture I found some English-language books and contented myself with some light reading.
I can never remember this one’s name. It’s common in Korea for a woman MyeongHee’s age to just call a woman older than herself “Oni” which means “older sister.” I only know her as Oni. She crashed on the sofas a couple of times.
UnZung Oni had her own little nap in a chair
Half-way through the day, we stopped and had food delivered to the studio for lunch. It was a much needed break from the bright, hot lights and constant smiling. MyeongHee relaxes with a sample of poses in a dressing gown while the cameraman and his helpers setup for the next shots.
All told, it was a grueling NINE hours of dressing, makeup, photos and smiling for the camera. I was led to believe it was going to be closer to 3-4 hours. We finished at 7:30 p.m. Given that we took up the whole studio for a day, its no wonder the waiting list is so long. Nearly my entire Sunday was spent in a studio. Afterward, we all went out for some kalbi and beer. By the time we got home at 10pm, I was exhausted. I fell into bed and read a couple of pages of some books I’m reading and promptly fell asleep.
I have to admit there are some advantages to doing wedding photos this way. We weren’t limited to just the single tux and gown a couple might wear for their big day. MyeongHee was able to try many dresses and hairstyles and the pictures will be well lit, fabulously posed and, I’m sure, gorgeous! In addition, the stress of having all the pictures done on the “big day” was gone. Moreover, there was no making the guests wait while the bride and groom posed in all their finery. Of course, that still happens in a real Korean wedding, but to a far lesser extent, and includes all the family and friends not at the studio.
We likely won’t get the real photos for a couple of months, and I’ll post what I can when they do come.