Wedding Blog

….the photo booth bandwagon, that is!

Photo found here, via the ever-awesome Oh Happy Day

I stray away from a lot of wedding trends simply because they’re trends and I want to be a little bit different, but the photo booth bandwagon is one that I am quite happy to have jumped on. Not only does a photo booth go along with the vintage vibe that we hope to infuse throughout our wedding day, but, quite simply, it’s an awesome treat for our guests.

When I brought up the photo booth idea to my mom early in the wedding planning process, I wasn’t sure what her reaction would be, but she thought it was a great idea. However, she felt very strongly that if we were going to get a photo booth, we should stick with a traditional, old-school style booth with strips of 4 black & white photos. Although I LOVE the looks of these photos, I was also torn because I wanted the photos to be favors for our guests and I wanted to somehow leave our “mark” on them, like the digital photo booth photos from Mrs. Hibiscus’ wedding:

However, for the sake of authenticity, I decided I could do without having our “branding” on the photos like those from a digital photo booth, and knew I could find another way to make these a unique favor. After doing my research, I found a local photo booth vendor who rents classic photo booths, and after a lot of price comparisons, this was definitely the best deal I could find. I found other more affordable booths, but they were in NYC and would charge higher delivery fees, so I decided that staying local was best. They were also prompt to respond to my inquiry and the many questions I had, which is always a good sign.

We will have our photo booth for 4 hours, from the beginning of cocktail hour until an hour before the reception ends, and our guests can take unlimited photos during this time. There will also be an attendant nearby to help guests if there are problems. We paid a little extra to be able to have all of the images burned onto a disc for us to take home, since we want our guests to be able to take their photos home with them. And, bonus — they gave me the dimensions of the frame that is on the outside of the booth so I can design and print my own large-scale poster to insert. I haven’t gotten there quite yet, but I plan to design something that still looks like the retro photo booth signs we’re all used to seeing, while making it personalized for Mr. Cupcake and me (and letting our guests know that the photos are free and available until 10 p.m.!).

Since we can’t brand the actual photo strips with our names and wedding date, I came up with the idea of creating little photo mats for our guests to place their photo strips on. This makes them a little bit more of an interesting favor and gives it that personalized touch that I’m always trying to infuse into the wedding details.

I got out my handy Gocco and printed a little design at the bottom of a 2″ x 9.5″ piece of cardstock. (To make the most out of my Gocco and my time, I printed 2-up, which means I actually printed 2 designs side-by-side on a 4″ x 9.5″ inch piece of card stock that I later cut in half to be only 2″ wide). The silver ink on the teal and green card stock really came out beautifully (we’ll have two different types of mats to choose from, hence the two different colors):

Once the printing was all done and everything had time to dry, I cut the pieces down to 2″ wide by 9.5″ tall, and mounted them (with double-faced tape) to 2.5″ x 10″ pieces of card stock in an alternating color to create a pretty border. I am also going to add little strips of adhesive with tabs that guests can remove to expose the adhesive and place their photo strips to the mats. To illustrate how their photo mats will look in the end, I used an old photo strip that Mr. Cupcake and I had from a trip to HersheyPark a few years ago:

This project didn’t take long at all, and I love the way it will spruce up our favors. I will have these sitting in a basket directly next to the photo booth with a sign instructing guests what to do with their mats, so hopefully they’ll take advantage and these memories will last on fridges for years to come!

Are you getting a photo booth, creating your own makeshift booth, or foregoing this trend altogether?