Hello Muse Review: Part 3/3

Click for Part 1

Click for Part 2

After what felt like forever... It finally came!

For some reason, I expected the package to be a small parcel, but it ended up being about 3 ft x 2 ft! The "photo frame," which I thought would just be an A4 paper-sized frame, was actually a super large and lovely piece of wall art, in the most perfect style fitting of our photo aesthetic!

Just a corner!

Inside were a photo album with our pictures in a pleasing order, and a CD in a nice case with all of the retouched pictures!

I'm sure the experience differs depending on the studio and the dress/tux rental places, but Hello Muse was perfect each step of the way. I'd give them 5/5 stars for sure.

Sposa Monique (the bridal dress shop)
Several dresses from the online sampling were gorgeous, but maybe because I was a size 4 instead of a 0 or 2, they wouldn't have fit me? I wasn't blown away by the selection, but there were a couple of dresses I thought were very pretty. Out of the 5 I tried out, I really liked 2, and didn't like 3 at all.

I was asked about the general aesthetic I was looking for, and they picked dresses that were suitable, but I didn't see the ones from the online sampling for some reason. And I guess I would rate them 3.5/5 overall.

Arco Baleno (the tux shop)
Supposedly this is where some celebrities go to rent tuxes, and even though the interior isn't the most posh, they do have a crazy selection of blazers/jackets, some plaid, some checkered, and in tons of colors. They also include several bowties, but the selection was supplemented by Sposa Monique's bowties (we rented a tux from each shop), and for that I tip my hat to Sposa Monique as well. My husband isn't a super picky guy, so we'd probably rate it a 3.5/5.

Soon Soo (hair/makeup salon)
It was very, very crowded, and they shuffled us around quite a bit. I don't get bored easily, so I was fine just sitting and waiting and looking around at the other people getting ready for their own weddings. They didn't do what I would have liked for my hair, but I blame myself partially for not being a more bossy person, and I sort of just trusted them instead.

Just like I do at most hair salons.

The makeup was pretty heavy, but in the photographs, it turned out well :) 3/5!

White Africa (photography studio)
They were definitely patient with us. They made us feel at home and we enjoyed the experience overall. I can never be as glamorous and as gracefully dignified as most of the people they photograph, but I am as God made me.

I'd rate the photographer at about 4/5! or 4.5/5!

Hello Muse made it all happen! They get a solid 5/5, of course. I would love to go back and get more pictures taken someday, maybe for an anniversary years from now. I would go with a different studio and different wardrobe rental boutiques, just to see what else is out there, but I would def book with Hello Muse again!

Hello Muse Review: Part 2

Click for Part 1

So as soon as I received word that the raw files were ready (about a week and a day after the photo shoot), I had to leave on a week-long business trip, which went really well, but I was so impatient to get back to review the photos!

Anyhow, part of my review from before was that my husband and I were very easygoing about everything and let them weigh in much more regarding our hair, makeup, pictures, etc., and at one point during the middle of the shoot (during an outfit change), the person doing my hair put it in a ponytail, which was nice and all, but ponytails in general are just not the best look for me.

I asked her if she could leave it down, but she said it looked better up.

WELL, when I got the pictures back and scrolled through, I saw the ponytail pictures, and let's just say I respectfully disagreed.

Also, I didn't know this until yesterday, but they posted my husband's and my photos on their Facebook and blog, as I'm sure they do with all of their customers, but since I pride myself on being virtually (pun unintended) un-Googleable, it came as a shock since it wasn't discussed in either the contract or through e-mail. I have no doubts that they would take down the pictures if I asked, but had they asked me in the beginning, I would have declined.

Something wonderful that they did do was Photoshop the hell out of my arms!! Yiss! So I'm not really upset that they put up our pictures, since they worked a miracle on my unphotogenic figure. It's like the equivalent of a friend tagging you in a series of pictures on Facebook, but instead of leaving them as is, they Photoshop them ahead of time to make you look good.

So while most of our raw pictures had our goofy smiles and my fat arms, occassionally I would stumble across one that, if processed appropriately, had potential to be THE one.

And the photography studio did what they could to do what I could not: slim this girl down! And for that I thank them.

Our album should be arriving in a couple of weeks, so Part 3 will be posted soon after!

Click for Part 3!

My Experience with Hello Muse Pre-Wedding Photography: Part 1

From Hello Muse's website

When I was first looking for pre-wedding photographers, I was very wary of potentially being scammed. There are a ton of companies that handle these types of shoots across various countries in Asia, but of course, my heart was set on Korea.

I did as much research as I could to see what the prices were among the different coordinators like Ido Wedding, Wedding Ritz, and more, and settled on a (now defunct) company that was very kind, attentive and flexible. The entire package cost around $2500 USD (in early 2015). Unfortunately, they went under a couple of months after I had paid my deposit, but they were very forthcoming about that information and returned my deposit to me right away, which was nothing short of a miracle.

I then researched a bit more and found another place, Hello Muse, which had a lovely website interface and seemed to have good community engagement on Facebook. After e-mailing back and forth with them, I really felt great about the experience and decided to settle. Unlike some of the other coordinators I had talked to at other companies in the past, they were very helpful and provided several options for each part of the process (studio, hair/makeup, dress shops) and also provided prices for each. I'm not sure if I can actually disclose the price I spent on the entire package, but I will say it was between $2500 and $3000 USD.

That price included:
- Pre-wedding shoot coordinators/translators
- Indoor photo shoot at a studio of our choice
- Transportation to and from studio/salon locations
- Hair and makeup for the bride and groom
- 2 white dresses
- 1 colored dress
- 1 mini-dress
- Various wedding shoes to use
- Various hair accessories
- A bolero (which I didn't use)
- 1 tuxedo
- 1 additional tuxedo (+$$)
- Tons of bow ties
- A 20-page album with edited photos
- A frame
- All original (raw) photos downloaded digitally
- The 20 edited photos on a CD
- Mini lunch!

They broke down the itinerary into specific sections so that there would be no question as to what to expect. The only thing that wasn't specified in the contract was the ending times for the wardrobe tour and the photo shoot, which I'm guessing is because the nature of both of those events is such that it really depends on what the person is looking for. Since I wasn't particularly picky about the dresses, I allowed them to choose dresses based off of my height/figure, and my husband did the same as well, and we were in and out in about three hours.

For the photo shoot itself, between the time we started and the time we ended, only about 3 hours had passed, but we were told that things were often dragged out much longer with pickier brides. Same with our hair and makeup. Our coordinator said she had never seen hair and makeup be finished an hour and a half early, but my husband and I basically shrugged and figured, "What's there to complain about?"

Because of the way the flights were arranged, and because I didn't really think too much of the start time, and also because both my husband and I had lived in Korea for some years, I figured we could land, run as fast as we could to the bus, and make it to our appointment in time, although I was pretty nervous about any unforeseen events.

This is basically how it went down. Our appointment was scheduled for 1:30 in the afternoon (since our flight was coming in at 11:35 AM). Calculating the average time it would take to get through Customs (around 30 minutes), I had hoped we would be at the bus stop by 12:05 PM. We actually made it to the bus stop at 12:08 PM, and I went to the ticket counter to ask for our tickets into Gangnam, but as it turns out, Bus #6006 into Seoul wasn't a bus with purchasable tickets at the kiosk; we would have to pay the bus driver directly, which we did! 15,000 KRW per person for an approximated 70-minute transit time.

Luckily, the next bus came by at 12:15 PM, but because of some pretty heavy traffic, we didn't reach Hotel Riviera until about 1:45 PM, 15 minutes after we were supposed to have met with them. If I had my old phone or wifi, I would have tried to contact them to let them know, but I kept thinking we would make it in time. We crossed the street to where the Aloft Hotel was located, and went into the building right next to it and hoped it was the right one.

Since I didn't have the printout of their instructions, we looked for the Hello Muse name in the building directory on the 12th floor, but after knocking on that door and calling the phone number printed outside for about 15 minutes with no response, I had almost given up hope when I checked my phone to see if I could still locate the e-mail with their exact instructions. Thank God e-mails are downloaded and accessible even with the absence of wifi! It turns out the instructions said to come to the 8th floor, and so we did. A happy Anna was there to greet us, and she is really the sweetest person ever. She let us leave our luggage in the office and assured us that we were right on time (even though it was almost 2 PM). We took a walk (about 10-15 minutes) to the tuxedo rental place, and in the same building was the dress shop. For the second tuxedo place, we took a taxi there, and then another one back to the office.

When everything was finished, she informed us that another person would meet us downstairs the following morning at 10:10 AM, and that this person would take us to get our hair and makeup done (my husband was very surprised that he would have makeup on as well), and the following morning we came by about 10 minutes early just to be sure, and Haeng was already there waiting! We took a taxi to the salon and after about 2 hours, we were all done! Since there was still time to kill, Haeng said we could go grab some coffee at the nearest cafe since it was late August and too hot to just stand outside, and that she would meet us after about an hour. "Don't sweat," she advised. "And don't touch your face." All we could do was laugh.

My husband and I were able to spend some time like we used to, just sitting in that coffee shop by the window and talking. He said that was his favorite part about the experience since it was one of our favorite things to do back when we lived there.

Natural individual lashes

Afterwards, we met Haeng again downstairs and she walked us to the studio where we were able to hang out for a bit and look through pictures before speaking with the photographer, who was very attentive and asked us what kind of photos we wanted, and what we didn't want, and whether there were any specific poses/body parts we didn't want to draw attention to.

The bridal assistant was also very kind and really went out of her way to make sure both the dress and I looked good for the pictures, actually stopping the photographer sometimes so she could jump in and readjust a tiny part of my skirt or my hair. I really appreciated the attention they gave to us, and Haeng even bought us some vegan kimbap! It still tasted amazing, and I'm incredibly grateful she took our dietary preferences seriously.

At the end of the day, we were all pretty tired, and I was ready to buy some makeup remover at the nearest Face Shop, and Haeng suggested instead that we go to Olive Young since it was right nearby, and she was exactly right! We picked up some food before heading back to the hotel, and we really could not have asked for a better experience.

We should be getting back the raw pictures in a week or two, so I'll be posting a Part 2 to this post eventually!

Click for Part 2!

Click for Part 3!

Exchange Money, or Use Your Debit Card?

Japan and Korea are two countries I've easily found a 7-Eleven to withdraw cash straight from my debit card with no hassles at all. (Once my card got stuck in an ATM for about 5 minutes, but this was in Korea at a non-English ATM, and I sort of knew things would go wrong since none of the logos on the machine were Visa or Mastercard. Unfortunately, I thought I could somehow circumvent the rules, and when the ATM asked for my PIN number, I thought I was in the clear.)

Another thing I've done in the past was exchange a little emergency cash with my bank before I left, set up travel notifications with my card companies, and used my debit and credit cards for spending while I was abroad. It'd never been a problem for me in the past, and living in Korea made me even more confident that I never had to bring cash with me unless I wanted to buy headbands on the cheap.

A lot of the cutest places I frequented were cash-only, at least back in 2012..

But on my most recent trip, both South Korea and China were listed as Fraud Alert countries with Chase Bank, and the rep I spoke with said that he couldn't set a travel notification for me, but that if I had any trouble with my card abroad, I could call them collect and they could help me out.

What ended up happening was that I had to rely on my emergency stash for my trip, which was alright, but a minor inconvenience. Just because I could use my debit card in Korea before didn't mean anything now, but fortunately I didn't go to any place that was even slightly tempting to my wallet.

A lot of people suggest that to get the best interest rates, you should order an international money order at your local post office, and exchange it at a post office in your destination country. You can also suck it up and exchange it at your local bank, which won't yield the best exchange rates, but will be convenient and (in some banks) fee-free. And that's only if you're traveling to countries that are Fraud-listed with your bank. Otherwise, heading to your destination country and withdrawing cash from an ATM will usually give you the best bang for your buck for cash transactions, and using your credit card for electronic transactions is an even better option. Make sure your card is set for traveling, and take some time to look into credit cards with great points reward systems.

At the very least, you should have some cash on you just to be safe. And if you don't end up spending it, it won't be a total loss; just exchange the rest back after your trip!