Photo booth vs. DIY Photos

Honestly, both of those ideas sound like a HUGE hassle to me, number one also sounds like it would be quite expensive. For number 2 one of your guests would have to spend all night putting a slide show together.

They have Ipad apps for photobooths that send the pics to the persons email. I think something like that would be a much better option.

I'd go with the digital cameras instead of the disposables. From everything I've heard, a) processing film from disposables is expensive, and b) the photos you get tend to be very dark and just not that good.

I like #1 the most because it's less liability to have everyone use a disposable camera vs. having a digital camera and laptop openly exposed. Also, I think it gives guests a chance to do something fun and personal on their own without being being worried about a huge image of their face being plastered on an overhead projector.

Have you seen this?

http://www.weddingboothapp.com/

They do have digital disposables now which give a much better photo than your ole' school disposables. And let me clarify, I would probably only issue 2 cameras per table (11 tables / 90 guests). And with us having only 8 to 9 per table there shouldn't be a sharing issue.

I don't have an iPad (

We are doing number two and paid an up and coming photographer to take the photos for like $60.

See, I was wondering if I could ask my photographer to bring a second person to help out if we went with option #2 @futureMrsAxtell. I would rather spend an extra $200 towards that than $900 towards a photo booth. As lovely as they are I just don't have that kind of money. And I actually don't mind printing out photos to send back with the Thank You cards. Like they say, if you can't spend the money, you gotta spend the time.

We had a DW last Oct. so last weekend we had a local reception. I got a Groupon for a photo booth and it was well worth it. It was $400 for three hours (and Discover used to have 15% cashback when you bought Groupon through Shop Discover). Anyway they printed two of each photo so the guest got one and we got the other. It was lots of fun to go through them all last weekend when we got home!

I think your ideas will save money but take up A LOT of your time, time you will wish you had later... I definitely don't recommend disposable cameras.

Did you see this post about doing a DIY photo booth?

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/diy-photobooth-around-150/acbb0275d3b7b7d1.html

Stephanie-

I am a DJ. I do 40+ weddings a year and I see both booths & DIY setups & even the occasional photographer with an open "booth".

IMHO real enclosed booths encourage your guests & BP to ket their hair down and really enjoy the experience. The DIY tables, cameras, and apps don't generally work well at all. People don't want everyone watching them getting silly.

I would either move the budget around and rent a booth or not do anything at all. Most brides who do the DIY route are very disappointed with the outcome, even if I have been announcing for guests to do it all reception long.

A great trend is to set up an instagram account or a website and have all your guests upload whatever they take to it. Maybe put it in the program or make some business cards with the address and put them on the guest tables. Have the DJ remind everyone & you'll get the same effect as disposable cameras. Why buy disposable cameras when everyone has a better camera in their phones? HF & GL!

It may be too much work afterwards. See if the bridal party may chip in as a gift for u guys instead of having a bridal shower.

The cost of getting disposable camera developing and what not its better to spend the 600 but you can do the photo area thing . We are doing ours for an hour ( later in the reception ) by his Aunt that does photograph just so I can have a some pictures

I actually thought about this too!! After going over the figures & the hassle/time, we decided that we would have an hour of our professional photographer's time at the reception dedicated to taking the photos of each family/guest if they chose too. Our DJ is announcing it & the information is included in our timeline. We made a really sweet backdrop and are providing seating options for the photos. Then we are putting them in the Thank You cards later on. I think it's a fun way to capture photos of all the guests, and give a momento for the thank you cards!

We used www.weddingpartyapp.com it was great my guests downloaded the app from the apple and android markets to their smart phones and were able to post all the pics they took and then I was able to download them to my computer. I really liked it and it was easy for all to use, way better and since it's free more cost effective than disposable cameras!! Caught a lot of moments I would have missed and loved all the selfies my guests took, very happy to be able to include those pics in our album!!

Update: After much consideration we have opted to try the DIY photo booth. We plan to pay to have a second photographer on hand for 2 hours (no more than $100), use a portable printer ($230) and provide props ($50). We won't need a backdrop since I actually like the brick walls at our reception location. That equals out to a savings of over $400. I'm not worried about guests being too shy to take photos since we're all pretty laidback. Thank you again to everyone for giving some good advice. I'm feeling kinds excited now.

Have you seen the new app myownbooth.com

It can be set up in less than 10 min

Has all the features of a real rental photobooth

It can print or email or both at the reception

Price is only $69 for 1 event or $99 for 3 events