When planning my wedding I was trying to decide if I should have a photo booth or not? I feel like every wedding I go to has a photo booth, and yeah they are fun but is it something people really want? I ended pulling the trigger on the photo booth, because I wanted people to have something to do while we were taking pictures and I wanted them to be able to have some fun pictures themselves to post on social media.
The photo booth was an absolute HIT! People seriously loved it! Everyone from my mom and her girlfriends to my younger sister and her friends took photos in it. There was a line people all night taking pictures in the booth, but I think there were some extra factors that made our photo booth successful.
5 things that make a successful photo booth
- Props: If your props are lame, your photo booth will be lame. That’s harsh, but true. Think about how your props will relate to the wedding? A Mexican sombrero doesn’t quite make sense, but oversized flower does! If people are dressed nice and have their hair done, they are probably not going to put on a hat. Head to Hobby Lobby for some good props and use the 40% off discount for some serious savings!
- Backdrop: The backdrop needs to be a neutral color or something that goes with the theme of the wedding. It also needs to be tall enough for the extra tall people and wide enough for big groups. There is nothing worse than seeing the edges of the backdrop in photos.
- Lighting – This might be the most important thing out of them all. If the lighting is bad, no one is going to use it. We were lucky enough to have a ring light that you could adjust the brightness of, which made for flawless face filters. #nofilter
- Ease-ability– Everyone from your tech-savvy cousin to grandma and grandpa need to be able to work the photo booth. If it’s too complicated I recommend having one of your house party girls or ushers take turns helping people how to use it.
- Instagram – Most photo booths send you texts or emails with the photos in a strip format, this makes it extremely complicated and ugly to post on Instagram. Play around with it and see if there is any way to change the format to make it Instagram friendly. Chances are more people will post it with your hashtag if it’s in an easy format.
Our photo booth was one of my favorite parts of my wedding. I loved taking pictures with my family and friends and also looking through all the photos when we got back from our honeymoon. I would say it’s definitely worth the investment.