It’s been a fantastic year. I think we can all safely say 2014 was the year of the photo booth, partially driven by the #selfie movement.
My craze with the photo booth started about a year ago at Christmas. I brought my Canon to my Aunt’s party on Christmas Eve and setup a simple Kraft paper background with a “Merry Christmas” sign. We made photo booth props from designs online and we were ready to go. My camera came with a simple infrared remote. I explained to everyone what they had to do and got my whole family onboard. They loved it.
So much, that I brought it to my cousins’ house for Christmas Day.
Then, for our Save The Dates, we setup a mock photo booth in our apartment.
Over the summer, my cousin turned 30 and I setup a photo booth outside. She’s an elementary school teacher, so our props were teacher-themed and I brought a chalkboard to use as a background.
Fast forward to September, our Wedding Day. Much of our reception was DIY. Having planned our reception outside, we wanted to take advantage of every square inch of space. My dad and I constructed this photo booth backdrop using doors from my parents’ renovation (and a little paint). I setup my camera so that guests could just pose and click a remote. I bought an Eyefi card so that they uploaded to Flickr so guests could download and share them instantly – eliminating the use for a printer. There were some great moments captured.
At Halloween, we simplified the photo booth and used a Polaroid Instax camera. After taking the photos, we hung them on a frame my sister crafted.
As the press and marketing team for my family’s Toys for Tots party, we wanted to create a step and repeat for the event. I created the step and repeat and setup a red carpet-style photo booth at event. We used some stuffed animals and Christmas-themed props for the photo booth.
A year later, still photo booth-ing. For Christmas Eve (2014) at LaLa’s, I setup a similar photo booth as last year. I found some cute wrapping paper at HomeGoods and used it for the background. Some $5 Target props (and some of the props from last year) rounded out the experience.
This year, my parents hosted Christmas Day. My original plan was to use the wrapping paper I used at Aunt LaLa’s for the backdrop. However, it fell victim to gift wrapping later that night. So in this case, I opted in for a “natural” backdrop using our Christmas tree. I found the frame Colleen used for the photo booth at Halloween and repurposed it with vintage-looking Christmas lights from Target. For props, we used the same ones used at LaLa’s on Christmas Eve.
To end 2014, we setup a photo booth at Stephanie’s apartment. We used our wedding cake tablecloth as the backdrop and bought some 2015 props. Needless to say everyone had a great time!
Stay tuned for a specific equipment breakdown. Do you setup photo booths at parties? Share them with us!
