Wedding Blog
Have I mentioned yet that we are planning to have a photo booth of sorts set up at our reception? We will be setting up a backdrop for pictures in the cocktail area. Our Canon D60 camera will be set up on a tripod (that my boss gave to me for free… thanks boss!) and we bought a wireless remote (with a gift card we got for buying our camera) for people to snap their own pictures with! My cousin will be there to troubleshoot and will probably take the pictures during the rush at the beginning of the reception, but for the most part, it will be self-service.
source—you can also get the clip art for this lace one here
Originally I wanted to find a damask fabric that matched our colors for the backdrop, but I didn’t find anything I liked enough and/or that was cheap enough for me to buy. Instead, we opted for a plum colored king sized sheet from IKEA that was about $14. I might take some inspiration from Mrs. Taffy and paint on a flourish pattern, but we’ll see where it ends up on the priority list. I designed a poster that gives some instructions and had printed by UPrinting, which we will hopefully set up on a easel or table next to the backdrop. All that’s left to do is mount it on a poster board… which I also got for free from my work. Score! So, the total photo booth cost for us will be $14, which may be one of the cheapest photo booth investments ever! Plus, we can reuse the sheet in our home after the wedding. How’s that for practical?
Have you ever been to a wedding with a photo booth (or “faux”tobooth)? Was it a hit with the guests?
|
Share this post: “Faux”tobooth
What a wonderful idea! I would love to have a photo booth at our wedding, but I’m not sure how we’ll afford it. You may have just solved my problem (we also own a Canon 60D — now we just need the tripod).
This is exactly what we plan on doing for our reception with our Nikon D50.
I plan on hitting up Marshalls or Home Goods for a King sheet this weekend.
We’re thinking of doing this — but I have a big question — printing! Do you plan to have a printer available? I think, for me, that is the most fun part of a photobooth — the instant gratification of a printed photo. I want the guests to be able to take the photo home with them as well — any thoughts on this would be appreciated!!
We had a fauxto booth & they are some of my FAVORITE pictures of the night!
We used the Photobooth on our Mac and it was a huge hit!! Cupcake made our “faux-to booth” poster! The pics were HILARIOUS!
many weddings nowdays have a photo booth at their reception. Very similar to the one at the malls back in the day where 3 or 4 photos are taken and printed out on a bookmark photo sheet. The bride and grooms name and wedding date are printed at the bottom. Down in New Orleans they charge 600 -700 dollars for the rental of the photo booth with limitless photos. great souvenior or favor!
I purchased a POGO printer, hoping to use it for a faux-tobooth, but can’t bring myself to buy the photo paper to print on! I think I calculated it to be $0.37 a pic. With 200 guests taking one for my guest book and one to take home and some for mess ups… I just can’t decide if I should go ahead with it. I would need someone to monitor it so we make sure everyone gets their turn before the paper runs out!
I’m interested to see what you’re doing for the printing!
we had a photobooth with lots of fun props. It wasn’t popular with everyone. I found myself dragging people over to get them to participate (and because it was the pictures I was looking forward to the most). This ment that most of the pictures included me and it occupied alot of my time. But the pictures were great and the guests really liked seeing/getting digital copies. I think that they haven’t totally caught on yet so people aren’t sure what to do. It I had BM I would have delegated that they drag people to the booth - this would help to make sure your efforts pay off.
we are doing a DIY Photobook as well, still trying to figure out how to print.
This is exactly what I thought of doing instead of an actual photo booth.
I’m thinking of doing something similar! I’m sure yours will be a huge hit, and you’ll be so happy you have the pictures as mementos of your day. BTW, I am drooling over the dress in that first pic!
We hired a local Art/Design undergraduate to work the 1.5 hrs of our cocktail hour, & used a cheery red corncrib as our backdrop. The student photog was a steal (!) & we bought & brought props. *We are trying to sell our 5 vintage hats, by the way (see craigslist ad below)… but you can see that they were a hit! She’s sending us her pics, but I’m really looking forward to them.
We are using a Canon Selphy Photo printer hooked up to our Macbook Pro, and using the Photobooth software that comes with the Mac to control an external camera. You have to trick the Photo booth program into printing correctly, but this way our guests will have instant copies of the pictures, and be able to put them in our Guestbook/Scrapbook. We’ll also upload all the pics to Flickr after the wedding.
We did a DIY photo booth using our Canon Digital Rebel, tripod, and camera remote control. It was a huge hit! I think for us, our big bin of costumes nearby was enticing to people. We didn’t have a printer onsite or anything- although it would have been a blast, I think it was more about people dressing up in silly costumes. I think I’ll print the photos in a month or two and send them to people through the mail. They’re also available to everyone on our shared wedding Flickr web site.
I was incredibly worried about the booth needing a backdrop and someone to run the camera, because the camera goes into this save-energy mode where you have to turn it back on then off. Instead, people totally figured it out on their own- or had a nearby guest just take a picture of them manually. I did include one plain printout with camera troubleshooting instructions- like turn the camera off then back on if the remote control isn’t working, it means the camera may be in “sleep” mode.
I was seriously impressed with how nobody ever came up to me to ask how the photo booth worked- they just all went to town and successfully figured it all out on their own. We didn’t really even make an announcement or anything, and the photo booth was upstairs in this loft area, and even then people made it a point to have their pictures taken!
I really wanted to do this, too! My fiance doesn’t, so it got nixed. 
Logistically, there really isn’t any room for it, either.
@HumarockBride, @beelight13, @Amber1279: I struggled with the printing aspect too! We are actually not going to print them at the reception. Instead, we’ll print them after and send them with the thank you cards. We’ll also be uploading them onto our wedding website and passing out cards with a link to the site, so people can see all of the pictures and upload the pics they took as well.
I was a photography assistant for a few summers and we set up a photo booth for most of them - they were a huge hit. We also put a print out of the basic instructions just in case - you got some funny shots as the night progressed. I love the props and costume ideas.
@Mrs. Perfume: THAT is a fabulous idea! we’re trying factor in a booth in our limited space. that is a great idea 
I went to a wedding with a photo booth and our table was seated right next to it. I loved the souvenir that I got but it was distracting when people were trying to use the photo booth right next to me during dinner.
We’re doing this at our reception too. I mentioned it to our photographer and she said that rather than having my camera on a tripod, her assistant will take all the photos for us!
We’re going to provide chalkboards for guests to write notes on and then then we’ll make a book of the photos to serve as our guest book. We’ll also post all the photos on smugmug so our friends can print photos if they’d like.
We are totally planning to do something like this- perhaps at are (hopefully planned) pre-wedding BBQ. I love the idea of a swatch of fabric as a backdrop, but exposing the edges of the room too! So cute!
It’s such a great idea. We were thinking/hoping to have a photo booth at the wedding but they’re so expensive! This is definitely something that is manageable and so much more affordable!
We fell in love with the photobooth idea, but didn’t have the cash. Instead, we set up a faux-to booth using a tripod, digital camera and a rented remote. Our photographer set up a backdrop and flashes for us and the venue had a panel divider that we used to give it a booth feel. Two chairs and a box of props sealed the deal. We thought of trying to coordinate a printer, but instead just uploaded the photos to our flickr page and shared. fun times!
Our portrait station was my favorite part of our reception! Such a huge hit with our guests - we had a line all night! I am a wedding photographer but I just got married in June and we set up a portrait station using my lights and my camera and I had a photography acquaintance take the pics for about 3 hours. You can set up your own booth for a little effort - look online for a ton of info. I made cards that told people where they could download their pics for free instead of printing at the wedding- which can be expensive and slow. I used Weddinglens.com a site designed to share you wedding pictures and is free to your guests. You can see pics from our station below on my blog. Good luck!
http://kathleenrosephotography.blogspot.com/2009/07/we-got-married.html
Here are two websites I found that give you instructions
http://2000dollarwedding.com/2009/02/diy-how-to-make-photo-booth.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2104956_photo-booth-wedding-reception.html
[...] recently started to gather props and supplies for our “faux”tobooth! I was in Paper Source this past weekend for something totally unrelated, when I came across these [...]
We have been certain for quite some time that there will be a photo booth at our wedding reception. We’ll probably go the traditional photobooth route, though for the classic & instant photo strip.
| Visit our sister sites | Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Fertile Thoughts Infertility Support |
Mrs. Mascara, Chicago/Upper Michigan
Age and Occupation: 25, Biomedical Engineer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Process Engineer
Engagement Date: July 27, 2008
Wedding Date: September 2009
Venue: Catholic ceremony, reception at local armory
About Me: A lover of Mr. Mascara, crafting, baking, Gossip Girl, diet soda, and all things wedding. A Yooper girl somehow displaced in the Chicago suburbs, planning a wedding from a distance, and counting down the days until I marry my best friend.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 |
Latest Gallery Pics