Is a photo booth completely necessary?

I'm skipping it. Don't think it's necessary.

I skipped it.

Definitely not necessary,

but I will say it's a hit at weddings, so if you have it within your budget, by all means consider it.

It can also double as favors!

Not necessary at all! I'm having one because my crowd will love it and I have the extra funds for it, if I didn't have the money, I wouldn't bother.

We're not having one. Neither of us like them at other weddings, we saw no need to have one at ours.

Not necessary.

I'm skipping it. I'm going to have Photo Booth type props for a "selfie station" type of thing, but a) I don't have room in the budget for it and b) our wedding is small, our venue has nowhere to put a booth besides the basement, and I've been to weddings where that was all the crowd did. I'd rather try for more mingling/dancing/partying.

Didn't have it, didn't miss it.

Nope. We're not doing one, I've never missed it at weddings that didn't have one. But to be fair, I've only been to one wedding that had one and it was DIY and I couldn't figure out how to use it.

Not necessary but we had one and everyone loved it. We got an album with all of the pictures. We didn't have everyone over at the booth at one time and people seemed to just head over then come right back to the bar/dance floor.

It isn't necessary, but man are they fun! Ours was packed all night and looking back through all the photos just makes me smile. If it is in the budget I say go for it, but if not I don't think folks will be looking around wondering where it is....

We didn't have one.

We didn't have one. Our venue was on the small side with a sort of untraditional layout and we couldn't figure out a place for it that would make sense. Like others have said, we didn't miss it.

Photo booths can definitely be a lot of fun. I've been to a couple of weddings that had them and it was great. But the 3-4 most recent weddings I've been to did not have them and I didn't even think twice about it because I was too busy dancing! If there's room in the budget, it might be a nice addition, but I really don't think you'll disappoint anyone if you didn't have one.

A photobooth is never necessary.

Not necessary! When FH and I were debating getting one, we thought about weddings we had attended. In the last few years exactly half of them have had photo booths. We have had fun in them, but never missed it when there wasn't one. There were one or two where it was awkward to pose in the frame and the photos were overexposed. I'd rather skip it than have a budget photo booth gone wrong.

No, not necessary. That said we are doing what I consider to be a budget photobooth. We have a backdrop that will be set up and are putting props there. People will need to take their own photos though. I might stick a couple of selfie sticks in with the props.

Of course it's not necessary, but it is SO fun! I found a pretty good deal on one, so we splurged on that (my mom insisted as well and offered to pay for it, so that helps). Not sure what area you are in, but I see LivingSocial and Groupon deals for these all the time too.

We skipped it. It ate up our entertainment budget. We are having a Mexican themed wedding and decided to get a mariachi band for 1.5 hrs for the same cost as the photo booth.

Alternative: Get your own props and set up a hashtag and have guests take their own pics and post them.

We had a photobooth. Was it necessary? no. Did people expect it to be there? Probably not. Did they have fun? I've got a dropbox full of pictures that indicate they did. If you want one and can budget it, get it. If not, skipping it won't hurt anyone.