A Hanbok Made by Her Mother — A Korean Pre-Wedding Session at Larz Anderson Park
Larz Anderson Park, Brookline · Korean Pre-Wedding Photography · Documentary Style
Before we talk about the photographs, we should talk about the hanbok.
The bride's mother made it herself.
Not bought, not rented, not ordered from a shop — made. The pale celadon green of the groom's jeogori, the soft blush pink of the bride's chima, the white embroidered details on both — every piece in this session was sewn by hand by someone who has known this couple their entire lives.
That changes what a photograph means.
Why Hanbok, and Why It Matters
Hanbok is the traditional dress of Korea — distinguished by its high-waisted silhouette, voluminous skirts, and the quiet elegance of unadorned fabric that lets color and line speak for themselves. For centuries, hanbok has marked life's most significant occasions: first birthdays, coming-of-age ceremonies, weddings.
For couples planning a Western-style wedding day, a hanbok pre-wedding session has become an increasingly meaningful way to honor heritage separately — its own occasion, its own set of photographs, not folded into the main wedding timeline.
This couple chose to do exactly that. Before their wedding, they set aside an afternoon purely for hanbok — no schedule to keep, no guests to manage, just the two of them, dressed in clothing that carried their family's hands in every seam.
Why Larz Anderson Park
Larz Anderson Park in Brookline is one of the most quietly beautiful locations in Greater Boston, and one we return to often for sessions that call for softness.
The park's 64 acres include a willow-lined pond, open meadows, and a small classical structure known as the Temple of Love — but for this session, the willows were what mattered most. Hanbok moves. The sleeves catch air, the skirts billow when you turn, the fabric has weight and drape that responds to motion in a way structured Western formalwear doesn't. A location with movement of its own — water, hanging branches, tall grass — becomes a partner to the clothing rather than a static backdrop behind it.
The green of the park in late spring, set against the soft pink and sage of the hanbok, created a color story that needed no styling. It was simply what the season and the fabric did together.
The Session
We started near the water, where the light came through the willow canopy soft and dappled. There's a particular quietness that settles over a hanbok session early on — the clothing itself seems to ask for stillness. The groom's gesture toward the bride, the bride's hand near her mouth in a small laugh, the formality of traditional dress meeting something genuinely playful between two people who know each other completely.
Some of our favorite frames from this session came from letting them simply move. We asked them to walk, to turn, to react to each other without choreography — and the hanbok did the rest. The blurred, in-motion photograph of the bride's skirt catching mid-turn, her chima a wash of pink and white against the green hillside, is one of those images that could only happen with this specific garment, in this specific kind of motion.
There's also a stillness to the more intimate frames — the bride resting against the groom's back, eyes closed, his hand bracing into the air for balance. These are not posed in the traditional sense. They're held — the kind of closeness that exists when two people have stopped performing for the camera and are simply standing the way they stand with each other.
A Note on Photographing Cultural Heritage
We've had the privilege of photographing couples celebrating West African, Chinese, and now Korean heritage and traditions, and one thing holds true across all of them: the photographs that matter most are rarely about the fabric alone.
They're about what the fabric represents. A mother's hands. A grandmother's wedding day. A tradition carried across an ocean and kept alive in a Brookline park on a spring afternoon.
Our approach to sessions like this is simple: we ask questions, we listen, and we let the couple and their families lead. We're not the experts on the tradition being honored — they are. Our job is to be present enough, and curious enough, to capture what that tradition means to them specifically.
Summer St Films is a Boston-based documentary wedding and engagement photography studio serving couples across New England. We are honored to photograph Korean, Korean American, and multicultural couples celebrating their heritage. If you're planning a pre-wedding shoot, or a wedding that honors your family's traditions, we'd love to hear from you.
