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I would love to do a photo booth too, but that is way beyond our fundage. I looked at polaroid cameras online and they are around $80.00 but the film is expensive-comes out to $1.00 a pic basically. For my wedding of 120-150 guests, that would still be a bit more than I wanted to spend. I am thinking of still setting up an area with some props and things, and assigning one of my older nephews the task of manning a digital camera. I thought about putting a black board up and having people write their names and wishes to us on the board and pose next to it with the prop of their choice.
Ask your photographers if they will set up a faux photo booth. Ours do it free of charge. They just set up a background towards the end of the night and take the pictures with the same camera. The guests don't get their pics then and there but we get a CD with all the pictures which we can the mail/email out.
I had a huge Xmas party last year and wanted a photo booth so bad but couldn't afford it.
I bought a large vintage art frame from Goodwill and took out the glass/backing. I spray painted it gold and hung a fake mistletoe in the middle. Then I had my 15 year old neighbor (who I paid to help with food, etc. that day) to walk around with the frame and my digital camera, go up to people, have them hold up the empty frame and then take pics with my digital camera.
The pictures were soooo awesome! Better than I ever expected. By the end of the night, people were grabbing the frame and taking their own pictures with it.
I ended up making a CD with all the pictures and mailing them off.
I cant believe it turn out to be such a fun, inexpensive and awesome way to capture the moment.
I am going to be doing this again at my wedding. Granted I think it depends on the style of wedding you are having (I am having a non-traditional, open bar, pretty much just a big party reception) but this may be an option for you.
We are having a DIY photo booth but it will be set up like a real photo booth with the help of my handy FFIL who will be building us the actual booth. I posted about it a bunch of times on here so don't mind the copy/paste since its rather lengthy and I'd rather not have to re-type it all...
FI's a big Mac (not the burger, the computer) guy so we're going to run the photobooth application on our mac mini and set it up with an iSight camera and the LCD TV that we have in our bedroom (lived here for almost 3 years and its never been turned on!). The image will be projected on the TV and our guests will be able to control the camera with a remote. We will also give them an option to record a short video if they want to.
My FFIL is super handy so he's going to build us the actual photo-booth (think the rented ones only more personalized) and we're going to have everything set up in there. We're going to wallpaper the inside so the pictures have a cute background (I'm leaning towards a subtle damask pattern).
Instead of using a traditional guestbook, which I'm not a big fan of, we're going to go the chalk board thought bubble route and have our guests write their "guestbook" entries on the thought bubbles and take pictures with them. We're also going to get a bunch of props from etsy and the $ store for our guests to use for the photo-booth during the reception (cocktail hour will be strictly "guestbook").
After our wedding we will upload all of our guests pictures to our wedding website and they will have the option to print or save them to their own computer. We're also going to incorporate those pictures into our wedding day photo-book that I will make after we get our pro pics back.
We're both really excited for this. We've never been to a wedding with a photo-booth (and we've been to alot of weddings) so I think our guests will really enjoy it.
ETA: I forgot to mention the best part! This whole thing is going to cost us roughly $100! We already have all of the electronics needed to do this. My FFIL is building the photo-booth and even though we are of course going to offer to pay for the supplies, he won't take our money. So in the end, we will end up having to just buy the props, accessories (I want to put a funky mirror on the outside so people can check themselves out before stepping in) and the wallpaper. SCORE!
we're having one too! Our photographers are setting it up.....and we're sending out the pictures right after! So fun, and so much cheaper!
@SandyThePoet: The film cost was worrying me a bit also. We wouldn't have to buy the camera because we are lucky enough to have a cousin who just got married that used one at their wedding reception. (they didn't have a photo booth set-up, just had everyone take pictures and put them in a scrapbook) I would hate to buy all that film and have it wasted, or people not take pictures...
@krystal.keel: That acutally sounds really cute! And super inexpensive! I thought about just using my digital camera in the DIY photobooth, but was unsure who I could get to watch it. And I guess I did like the idea of people being able to have a copy right then and there.
@UpstateCait: How awesome for you! That will be great! I have seen the software for sale to be used with a Mac, but I also noticed that it had specifications as to what kind of camera could be used (a Cannon) and also I don't really have anyone that is very computer savy with a Mac that could help me set it up... So it might end up costing me a little too much $$ to go that route...
@CaitMarae---FABULOUS!!!! I love all of your ideas....I wish I had your creativity! ;)
My best friends wedding which was very recent, she had a DIY photo booth but it didn't turn out the way she had planned. I wish I could have seen this post before her wedding so I could have offered her some great ideas!
I really wanted to do something like this too and ended up with this DIY photo wall. I hung wedding photos of all the guests at the wedding and had my brother's girlfriend take photos with her camera of everyone behind the wall for about an hour after the ceremony. Loved the way it worked out.
@Monny: OMG! I absolutely LOVE that!!!! So original! :o)
Love it! We're planning on making one too, but we will put all the photos on a website for guest to view later (maybe give them a slip of paper with the URL once they take their photo). Do you think it's okay that we don't print them right away?
I am doing a DIY photo booth at our small reception! If you have a MAC computer there is an almost free photo booth program you can download. This guy created it and all he asks is for you to make any sort of monetary donation to him via pay pal and then he will email the program to you which you DL onto your mac computer and voila! It works amazing and I bought 4x6 kodak picture paper at the good will brand new for $5 and donated $4 for the application!! If you just cut those sheets in half it will make perfect photo booth pictures. A friend of mine is lending me her props that she uses at all her parties with her DIY photobooth.
Google David Cline DIY photobooth for MAC computers. That should pop up with his website. I can't seem to find the link I went to. Good luck!
Been to two weddings where they did this, it was a flop.
Maybe 10 people did it (including the wedding party).
A lot had to do with location and people understanding what you were doing.
Wow, $2000 for a real photobooth?!? I had one at mine (a HUGE success) and the entire thing only cost $600 for the night and unlimited pictures including the scrapbook. If you're uncomfortable with doing it youself I would shop around some more. However, I think if done right and properly "publicized" during the reception a "faux-to-booth" could be a big hit. I've seen it flop and I've seen in it be a huge success.
check out if red eye photos is in your area, thats who did ours and it was awesome! Here's an example from my sister in law's facebook, lol.
@courtbu17: We did one just like that for my daughter's wedding.....smashing success.
The same company that provided our DJ servicies did the photobooth and it was like yours with printed pictures for the guests, scrapbook, and CD with all pics for the bride/groom. Unlimited pics and available to the guest in B/W or color--their choice.
We paid $1800 for both the photobooth and DJ.
It was outstanding and SO glad we did it that way.
I know there is another company in town here that did charge $2000 for just the photobooth and it was not nearly as good as the company that did ours. We had seen them at a bridal show and tested their system.
I'm doing a DIY fauxto-booth/guest book at my wedding. The FBIL has a DSLR with a remote control, we'll be setting it up on a tripod. My Future aunt-in-law is a semi-pro photographer, and she has a professional background, lighting, etc. i'll be setting up a table next to the booth with fun props, a chalkboard for guests to write on and instructions. The instructions are to write your advice to the newlywed couple and snap a photo. Guests can leave their email address and I'll send out photos after the wedding. And all the photos with the advice will go in an album that'll serve as our guest book :)
My sister did one at her christmas party. she found a huge backdrop that looked like gold glitter online on ebay and a cardboard cutout where you put your face in the holes and you look like elves. We just took photos with our digital cameras. It was a lot of fun.
@courtbu17: we are doing on and it is 800 for the whole night with a guest book and jump drive with photos on it at the end of the night. so 2k is high
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I really have been seriously thinking of having a DIY photo booth. I have found many cute little props, etc to use for funny pictures. I was thinking of using the Polaroid 300 Insant film camera and having a scrapbook they can put a picture in and leave a message....
I'm really on the fence about this, and I'm not sure if it will look hokey because it's DIY... But we CANNOT afford to pay $2,000 for a real one.
Anyone done it before?