My husband and I decided that we would hold off doing fancy first birthday photos of our baby girl until we went to Korea. I am so glad we did.  The experience itself was quite unique and I’m happy we could experience it!

        Baby photos, much like wedding photos, are a big deal in Korea.  In most photo studios, when you schedule First Birthday Photos (Dol Sajin), you will receive complimentary pregnancy photos (Man Seok) and One Hundred Day photos (Baek Il Sajin).  Since we live in Canada, we opted out of this and received a few bonuses instead.  This type of package usually ranges from about $800-$1000, but I’m sure if you look around you could find something a bit less.  The package generally includes a photo album, 1 large frame from each photo shoot, a few smaller frames, and various little gifts like cell phone decorations and car frames.   Of course it will vary from place to place, and according to your budget.  You can negotiate a bit as well.  For us, my strong sister in law negotiated a Crystal Love Shaped picture frame, and a giant pull down window blind/roll screen.

         I packed a tonne of pretty dresses and outfits for Bobae’s photo shoot but I was pleasantly surprised to arrive and find a HUGE wardrobe assortment of clothing, shoes, accessories, everything!  It was so exciting!  A baby stylist pulled a few options and let us look through all of the clothes to compile a few “concepts”.

The photo studio consisted of two large rooms, with different scenes and props set up in different corners of the room.  It was adorable.

        The photographer had an assistant who made funny sounds, distracting the babies and making them laugh, while the photographer focused on taking photos.  The system worked so well, we breezed through our photo shoot, despite a severely jet lagged one year old, mommy and appa.

        When we were through, the manager of the photo studio asked our permission to use our sweetie’s photos on their web cafe as advertisement, so we received extra shots outside as well as, and more bonus photo products!  So fun.

        We were given a CD full of the unedited photos that were taken that day, to take home and browse.  Once home, we narrowed down all of our favourites and chose the best for the photo album and photo frames.  My husband emailed back our selection, and in two weeks, we received all of our products!

        Now, please enjoy the end results.  A few of my favourites, of our precious Bobae Lavender.