Weddingbee Blog

From day one, I knew that I wanted a smilebooth. Or faux-to-booth. Or whatever you’d like to call it.

Basically, I want our guests to be able to stand in front of a backdrop and pose with fun and hilarious props, so that we’ll end up with photos like these:

Mrs. Mouse

Mrs. Sprinkle

The Cowboy Boots

The Scissors

Also (and importantly), we want to do this for as little money as possible. Many photographers offer smilebooth services, but they can cost a thousand bucks or more! We’re on a strict budget, so that’s a no-go.

But I think we can DIY this. All we need are three things:

First: The Backdrop

Bartram’s Garden is a historical landmark, which is awesome, but that means that we can’t hang anything from anything. Tape, nails, staples etc. are verboten as they could damage walls and trees. So my super cheap and easy idea of thumbtacking some purdy fabric to a wall was a no-go.

I was stumped until I came across Mrs. Pin Cushion’s amazing tutorial for a PVC backdrop frame. Cheap! Easy! And I can probably pass it along to another bride after our wedding!

As far as fabric goes, I’ve already ordered some fabric to make overlays on our tables. I can just order a few more yards of something pretty in a coordinating print, and attach it to the PVC with staples or tape.

Second: The Props

I was planning on making some mustaches myself, but instead, I bought some (and some cutesy signs as well) from a hive member for a steal. Score!

Source

As far as the other props go, I’ll buy some feather boas, silly hats, wacky sunglasses, and any other cheap prop I can get my claws on.

And then, the camera.

So here’s where it gets challenging. How do the photos get taken?

My initial idea was inspired by the first wedding blog I ever started reading: A Backyard Wedding. They used an old Polaroid camera for their smilebooth, and it worked smashingly. I don’t have a Polaroid Instant camera (and the film is hard to come by and EXPENSIVE), but I do have a Fuji Instax. The photos wouldn’t look charmingly retro, but they’d be okay.

Eventually, I decided against this because I’m selfish. If we used an instant camera, our guests would take the photos for themselves. And I want them for meeeeeeee! I’d absolutely share digital copies with our guests, but I want to be sure we have our own copy of each photo. And it ain’t gonna happen with an instant camera.

There’s Mac Photo Booth, an application that allows you to take photos with a webcam and remote control. But I don’t have a Mac. Poop.

I could set up my own digital camera on a tripod with instructions for our guests to use it. But my camera is pretty sucky, and I don’t want sucky photos. I could ask someone else to lend me theirs, but I don’t want to spend the night worrying about a borrowed piece of expensive equipment.

We could hire a professional photographer to man the camera, but that costs money.

What to do?

The solution came to me in the form of my cousin, a sophomore at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He’s not a professional photographer (yet), but he’s super-talented. We are paying him, but much less than we’d pay a pro.

So that’s that. Problem solved! Our DIY photobooth is happening, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.

Would you have a smilebooth at your wedding? Would you DIY it or leave it to the pros?