Hongdae self wedding snaps with cake shots and a live monitor: U&I

What kind of self wedding snap studio is U&I Studio Hongdae Branch?

U&I Studio Hongdae Branch is a self-shoot studio in Hongdae where you can take self wedding snaps, bridal shower photos and anniversary photos. I was visiting Seoul for an anniversary after a long time and thought a self wedding snap would be perfect, so I read lots of reviews. I loved the vibe of the photos on Instagram the most, so I booked U&I and went!

U&I, a self wedding snap studio in Seoul

Location and what to know when booking

U&I Studio has several branches, including Hongdae, Seongsu and Yeonnam, and I went to the Hongdae one. It's on the 3rd floor of the Kyung Hee Pigy Oriental Clinic building, so just book and show up at your time.

Every time slot is booked solid, so even if you arrive early you have to wait outside the door. That means going early doesn't get you a longer shoot. If you feel short on time, though, there's an optional extra hour you can add.

As for the overall atmosphere, you walk in and a bright, sunlit interior greets you.

What props and backdrops does U&I Studio Hongdae have?

The studio has a big gift box, flowers for bouquets, head wreaths, bouquets, sunglasses, 2 kinds of celebration cakes, a frame for a falling-flowers backdrop and birthday sashes. I'd heard it has the most props and usable backdrops of any self wedding snap and bridal shower studio in Seoul, so I was really looking forward to it.

Since people often take lots of photos at photo studios on anniversaries, there was a big gift box prop, and flowers you can combine one by one into your own bouquet.

There were also head wreaths, bouquets in all kinds of colors, sunglasses of various types and 2 kinds of celebration cakes.

They also have a backdrop frame that makes it look like flowers are falling from behind you.

For a birthday shoot, there are cute sashes too, like "Today's Princess's Birthday," "Prince's Birthday" and "Everyone, Congratulate Me!"

Free dress rental at U&I Studio Hongdae: what's on the rack?

You can rent dresses for free, and there were 10 or more white dresses alone, plus a range from pink to black. The free dress rental was one of the reasons I picked U&I in Hongdae for my self wedding snaps!!!!

Free dress rental available

For men, there are suit pieces too, from ties to jackets, though no dress shirts. It felt awkward to show every dress one by one, so I made a video for the original post! Hahaha

Before going, I checked other people's blogs and Instagram posts to decide which dress to wear. In the end a different dress looked prettier to me than the one I'd planned, so I wore that, but the free dress rental made me so, so happy!

Can you rent baby dresses and men's and women's shoes too?

There are baby dresses too, so for a family shoot you can rent an outfit for the baby instead of rush-buying one on Coupang just to wear once. Even more thoughtful, women's and men's shoes are available by size and design.

We came with a "let's just borrow shoes too~" attitude, and they worked out fine! Men's shoes go up to about 275 mm, so unless your feet are bigger than that, you should be fine.

It's a self shoot, so how do you frame the shots?

At U&I Studio Hongdae you can check what the camera sees on a monitor in front of you in real time while shooting. This was the thing I liked best about the studio.

At other studios I could only see the shots after the session ended, so I didn't know how they'd turn out or whether the horizon was level until after I'd taken them, which made shooting hard. At U&I I could adjust the composition while watching the live screen, which was so convenient.

How good are the photos?

U&I Studio in Hongdae is a self studio set up with top-level lighting and equipment for Korea, and I'm told it's a 4-meter-high horizon (cyclorama) studio. So even though we shot ourselves, the results looked like they came from a professional photo studio.

You can pick concepts to suit your taste, so we shot in different moods, and because it's a self studio, the two of us naturally ended up with more relaxed poses and expressions.

Can you fit anniversary cake shots and a black concept into 1 hour?

Within the 1-hour shoot, I got both the cake-prop shots and the black-concept shots. That cake wasn't trendy when I took my wedding photos, and I'd envied my friends' wedding photos with that cake prop and really wanted one. U&I had it as a prop, so it was like a surprise gift, and I took these cake shots! I also didn't bring my own dress; I wore one of the dresses U&I had ready.

Then I thought, let's try a black concept too! I changed clothes in a mad dash within the limited time and shot that as well, and the results made me so, so happy!!!!

• Tip: You can zoom in and out, so try a variety of compositions and you'll come away with different concepts.
• Getting ready, changing clothes and shooting all fit within 1 hour.

How do you get the originals and prints?

U&I Studio Hongdae emails the original shots the same day, so you can retouch them yourself!!! Haha. If you email back the photos you want retouched, they also mail prints to your home!!

There are so many pretty photos that choosing is agony T_T. U&I was a self wedding snap studio in Seoul that I was really happy with!!!!