Photobooth!!

laurelizabeth625

Hey girls, 

My fiance and I wanted to create our own photobooth with an Ipad and our own backdrop/props because we wanted to invest money into something we get to keep (plus we just want an ipad and this give us a reason !)  Has anyone done this before. Is the lighting going to be poor if we use an ipad and the simply booth app?

But I also saw instabooth and thought that was such a cool idea - if anyone has used that let me know what you thought  

atlastmrsg

How will guests get a printed copy of their photo? That's the ease of booth--either it comes right out or the attendant with it deals with it.

Are you confident everyone, even old people, can figure it out?

Do you want your iPad being handled/messed with/dropped by/etc a bunch of people and accounted for at the end of the night when you're off to your after party/honeymoon/to get busy?

Do you think your guests think photo booths are a few years ago/no longer now and interesting? I've done it enough times that the newness and excitement has worn off.

FFT.

ohannabelle

I actually spent a lot of time looking into various DIY photo booths and programs. Too much time. 

The issue I ran in to with all of them was exactly what atlastmrsg pointed out- all of the available programs- even the pricy ones- require that the guests, after photo, type in print and send options. 

There was also the issue of pushing the shoot photo button ( you can purchase a separate remote) and then you have to deal with lugging a printer to the venue, setting it up to either wireless connection or hard wiring it, making sure it's loaded with fresh ink cartridges and paper, that the print option is preset...

And eventually came to the conclusion that this was an enormous pain in the ass, and most of the programs out there basically amount to taking a selfie with a laptop. 

Also, my iPad takes pretty crappy pictures. Most people have better cameras on their phones.

Eventually, I decided to simplify the process. We live in the age of the selfie, and everyone constantly has a camera in hand. Use that. We built a good backdrop, put a DIY photobooth sign, and trunk of accessories out, posted a hashtag next to it, and just let people have fun and shoot away. No insta prints, but everyone had a great time, there was always a crowd there, and it worked.

(If you build a backdrop, make sure it fits into a car or truck. Or through doorways. I got excited and forgot these minor details. It made for an interesting morning.) 

southernbelle0915

We looked into doing a DIY photo booth... WAYYY too much hassle. There's a set, and lighting, you need to buy a fast printer, rig it all up, tear it all down, make sure no one bumps it or off-centers it, etc. etc. etc. Nope. 

For us, it was 110% worth it to just hire this piece out. Are you doing wedding gifts for each other? Maybe you just jointly buy the iPad. Or use gift money to do so.

vulpiepop

I've looked into it and found it to be more trouble than it's worth so I'm skipping the photo booth all together. The biggest problems I kept running into were how the guests would have a copy (you can get a bluetooth printer that connects to the ipad but they're expensive) and if it'd be easy for everyone including my not-so-tech-savvy guests to use. 

I figured out how I could do it but with transporting the backdrop, setting it up, setting up the ipad and the printer that I'd have to buy, it just wasn't worth it. If you're DIYing your own photobooth, there's 2 options that I found could potentially work: use an ipad and a compatible printer with photopaper or use one of those cameras where the photo just pops out; both of those options would work best if there was someone there to either take the picture or send the picture to the printer. 

It'd be easier and potentially cheaper (depending on how much your ipad, the printer and the photopaper are and how much you might pay someone to be there and assist) to just get whatever photobooth package your photographer has.

laurelizabeth625

That was my original plan to just have place for guests to take cute pictures and upload it themselves. I wasn't sure if guests would use it or like but it was reassuring hearing that your guests has a fun time with just a backdrop and props!

Perhaps I should stick to my originial plan