More and more brides are looking for that extra something, to make their receptions memorable while adding a huge injection of high-spirited fun, without making it a tasteless 3-ring circus.
One way to do this is the addition of a photo booth in a far corner of a reception room where it will not interfere with your classic photographic shots, such as cutting the cake or your First Dance photos. Drape its corners with tulle in your wedding colors to give it a charmingly corny look of "trying to fit in."
Contrary to what they may say, everybody loves pictures of themselves–especially when they’re all dressed up. They may step in for a nice shot in their wedding finery, but they’ll come out with a strip of themselves making faces and mugging for the camera. As the group around the booth grows, they will be showing each other their pictures, and giggling and guffawing will ensue. And when they return to their tables, everyone will want to see. They’ll have a great time in, around, and after the Photo Booth.
Photo booths are available in what they call a “Classic” format, which still takes photos on old-fashioned print film, which produces a longer-lasting photo on higher quality paper, but requires an advance choice of all-color or all-black and white. The alternative is Digital, which can switch between color or black/white as often as each picture.
The photo booth is not a do-it-yourself operation, and it is not inexpensive: among the local photo booths that I checked for my area, it appears to be almost a $2,000 expense for about a 4-hour time allotment. This is nothing to sneeze at budget-wise, but as weddings go, is not a fortune if it’s a feature you would really like to have. A booking deposit (often non-refundable) in the area of $500 is required to reserve the machine, with the balance due 10 days to 2 weeks prior to the wedding.
In fairness to the photo booth vendors, it’s also a fairly labor-intensive operation on their part: it requires delivery and set-up, and they provide an on-site technician who stays with the machine to step in if there are any problems (or to refill paper, ink, or photo chemicals). Most said that the cost included unlimited photos for the duration of their booking time.
So that you newlyweds can enjoy the laughs when you return from your honeymoon, they provide the option of double-print strips–so that the guests may take one, but the second is kept for you. You can have a graphic of your names and wedding date showing on each photo (and I recommend this, for keepsake value). You can also order a CD (or an album) of all the images taken at your event–and that was included in the slightly-under $2,000 listed above. For what you get–the delivery and take-away, the on-hand technician, the film and/or ink plus photo paper, it doesn’t seem that out-of-line for the money. For an additional fee, you can have the photo strips posted to an online site, and make it public just after the wedding for all your guests to peruse-you can include the website address in your thank-you notes. And speaking of thank-you notes, most photo booth services also make photo thank-you notes available as well.
Now, you can use the photo strips themselves as wedding favors (especially if they have a wedding graphic on them), or you can “gild the lily” by placing a glass photo-frame favor that holds a single shot at each place setting on your dining tables to give your guests a nicely-finished, traditional, personal favor. Suggestion: http://www.weddingfavors.org/glassphotocoasterspersonality.html –this suggested frame comes as four sets of boxes containing 2 frames each for $9.19, or about $1.15 per frame, so not an unreasonable price for a nice finishing touch. (They are obviously intended to be given in pairs, but just unbox them, and perhaps tie with a ribbon and a simple bow on top in your main wedding color. They’ll also add some interest to your place settings.)
If you want some major fun for your reception, and it is within your means (or if you have time to save for it), the photo booth could be just the ticket for you. Since there are only in a few in any location, it’s a good idea to Google your local vendors, under “photo booth wedding, (city)” and compare their offerings early on in your planning so that you can get the best price and reserve your your special date.
6.19.09
