Allow your guests to take pictures with a cool handmade photo booth that won’t break the bank on your wedding day. Prepare to strike a pose!
Photo booths have become one of the most popular sorts of wedding entertainment in the previous decade. And it’s not without reason. They’re a lot of fun for guests, and they work well as both a pleasant activity during the day’s natural lulls and as a nice souvenir of the day to take home. You can even use your photo booth as a guest book by placing an empty scrapbook next to it with some glue and asking attendees to write a message next to their shot.
There are a variety of photo booth companies that rent out photo booths for the day, and prices range from $400 to $800 depending on the style, picture booth backdrop, and length of time you want to keep the photo booth. Most packages include delivery, a photo booth attendant, a few hours of hiring, photo booth props, a dressing up box, unlimited prints on the night, and digital copies when you hire a photo booth (although sometimes these will cost extra to download after the event).
Hire companies also provide a variety of themed alternatives, which you may want to explore. If buying a photo booth isn’t an option for your wedding budget, but you believe it would be beneficial to your event’s success, there are ways to make a DIY photo booth for very little money. And, happily, you don’t have to be a creative genius or devote many hours to it.
How To Make A DIY Photo Booth At Home
Step 1: Decide On A Location For Your Photo Booth
Before you go searching for interesting photo booth backdrop designs on Pinterest, you need be sensible and plan ahead of time. Is there enough room at your wedding site for a photo booth to be set up, and if so, where should it go? A photo booth should be close enough to the main action (the dance floor, bar, or main reception area), but far enough away from it that guests who are having their pictures taken don’t feel self-conscious or as if everyone is watching them.
Perhaps there’s a small side area where you might set up your booth, or an alcove or corner of the main room would work well. Your DIY photo booth might be set up outside at a summer wedding in a horse box or vintage caravan, or simply on a gazebo or patio area. Whatever location you choose, make sure that customers can readily locate it and that it isn’t a long walk back to the bar; otherwise, it will be a waste of time and effort.
If you’re unsure where to put your photo booth, contact the venue owner or coordinator; they’ll know the exact area that has worked well in the past.
After you’ve decided on the location for your DIY photo booth, you’ll need to measure the space’s measurements — this will be crucial in step 2!
Step 2: Decide On A Photo Booth Backdrop Theme And Style
Now that you know how much room you have to work with, it’s time to get creative with your photo booth backdrop design. Consider your wedding’s theme: could you come up with something to go along with it? For example, a palm leaf background wall would be perfect for a tropical wedding, a flower wall backdrop would be perfect for a country garden theme, and a beautiful tipi or hay bales would be perfect for a festival wedding.
But don’t get too carried away. Sometimes it’s best to keep things simple. Consider your creative abilities (or enlist the support of someone who can), as well as the amount of time you have to devote to this project. You’ll also need to think about how you’ll get the background to the location. You’ll be in a pickle if you only have a small car and have constructed an 8-foot masterpiece!
From stylish chalkboards to an easy balloon wall, we’ve scoured the internet for some of the greatest DIY photo booths that you can use as planning inspiration for your own wedding day….
1. Backdrop for a Tropical Photo Booth
Credit: Rachel Havel Photography via Pinterest
2. Flower Wall Photo Booth (DIY)
Credit: Rachel Couch via Pinterest
3. Photo Booth with Balloons
Credit: Jack and Ginger Studios via Pinterest
4. Personalised Photo Frame
Credit: Ginger Ray
5. DIY Mirror Backdrop
6. Photo Booth with Neon Signs
Credit: Lilly Red via Pinterest
7. Make Your Own Photo Booth in a Vintage Style
Credit: Eden Day Photography via Pinterest
8. Photo Booth in a Tipi
9. Photo Booth with Swing Seats
10. Photo Booth With A Celestial Theme
11. Photo Booth Made with Macrame
Credit: Ropes and Roses via Etsy
12. Make Your Own Pom Pom Photo Booth
Credit: Debi Treloar
13. Photo Booth with a Fairy Light Curtain
14. Chalkboard Photo Booth
15. Photo Booth with Net Curtain
Step 3: Select a Camera for Your Photo Booth
So you’ve found the ideal backdrop, and now it’s time to consider how you’ll capture it, as well as your guests, in all their glory. The camera is the most expensive component of a DIY photo booth, but before you spend hundreds on a new camera, consider what you currently own or may borrow to make it a truly cost-effective option.
Using a Polaroid camera is the easiest approach. That way, you can set it up on a table next to your photo booth background and have guests take photos of each other that are promptly printed. Even if you possess or can borrow a Polaroid camera, keep in mind that the film is quite expensive, so this can quickly add up. You might want to limit each guest to only taking a few of shots.
Another simple solution is to buy a selfie stick or dust off your old one and set up a selfie station. You may either give a phone with a selfie stick that will save all of the photos for you to download and distribute to attendees later, or you can ask visitors to use their own phones and then upload the photos to social media using a specific hashtag or a dedicated photo booth app. Alternatively, if you like photographs to be printed immediately, you can purchase or borrow an instant portable photo printer. This is a little printer that connects to a phone via Bluetooth and allows you to print a photo immediately.
However, using a DSLR camera mounted on a tripod is the most professional way to do a DIY photo booth. Obviously, by the time you’ve spent money on a DSLR, you’d be better off hiring a photo booth, so this is only a viable option if you already own a camera or can borrow one from a photographer buddy. You might have ushers or friends take turns taking pictures on the night, or you can use a remote control so that attendees can click their own photos while being photographed.
If you’re not familiar with cameras, have someone who is familiar with them check the settings of any cameras you’re using to ensure that the flash doesn’t cause a glare or that the photographs aren’t too dark. If you’re using the photo booth both during the day and at night, you’ll need to adjust the settings to account for the shift in light.
You can submit all of the images to a digital site or app for guests to download after the event is finished.
Step 4: Provide Some Props And Dressing Up Outfits
Without props and costumes, a photo booth isn’t a photo booth. The entire idea of the booth is to provide entertainment for guests to enjoy when they are at their happiest, so make it enjoyable.
Look for cheap and ridiculous accessories such as hats, huge spectacles, goofy signs, wigs, feather boas, blow up objects, and quick-to-put-on ensembles. You may even make them yourself or get a card-making kit. They don’t have to be extremely durable because they’ll just be used for a few hours.
Along with props for your guests, consider furnishing your photo booth with items that match the theme, such as old suitcases, a quirky chair, or a neon sign. You can also order or build something for guests to pose inside, such as a large picture frame with your names and wedding date on it.
Finally, instead of utilizing props, set up a face painting or glitter station at the entrance to the booth to make the experience even more engaging.
Step 5: Think About Your Lighting
You should also think about the lighting of the DIY photo booth itself, in addition to the lighting settings on whichever camera you plan to use. If you’re doing it at night, as most couples do (it’s when guests drop their inhibitions and are more likely to have a good time), lights will not only assist guests find the photo booth, but they’ll also help create a nice atmosphere.
All of the traditional bridal decorations, such as fairy lights, festoon lights, and hurricane lamps, will look fantastic. A ring lamp is also an excellent option for ensuring that your visitors look their best. However, candles should be avoided at all costs, as they can be quite deadly when attendees are inebriated and dressed in cheap flammable costumes!
Step 6: Make Sure Your Guests Know What To Do
The last thing you want is for your guests to miss out on using your painstakingly constructed DIY photo booth because you forgot to post a notice indicating its presence or because the directions are far too hard after a few glasses of wine. At a wedding, no one wants to do anything that requires their brain, so make sure it’s a really basic process that’s clear to anyone who could be inebriated or who isn’t particularly technically savvy.
If you’re worried that guests won’t be able to find your DIY photo booth, make or buy some signs with clear directions, as well as some generic photo booth arrow signs to place throughout the site. If you want your guests to use a photo from the photo booth in their guest book, offer explicit instructions and a table with the book and glue adjacent to the booth.
Step 7: Spread the Joy
Once the wedding day is over you’ll be desperate to see all the action that occurred in your DIY photo booth, as chances are you’ll have been way too busy dancing, chatting and generally being a VIP to spend much time watching your guests strike a pose. If you’ve chosen the option to have guests use their own phones for selfies make sure you really encourage them to use your hashtag so you can access the images on various social media platforms. Take a look at photo booth apps as these can be brilliant places to store all the booth photos and offer great options for sharing and printing in different styles.
Another great idea is to print all of the photos of different guests posing and use them as thank you notes instead of the traditional wedding photo card that is so popular these days.
Are you prepared for your close-up?
