Wedding Photo Booth Dilema!

I think £500 is a lot for 100 photos! and more so if she is a student and not done it before, you are being the trial for it.

the price you said i thought would be alright. and it is silly she is going to charge you a lot more for 100 photos compared to being there all day . doesn't make sense really.

can you ask her or state to her, you have thought about it and you are not willing not pay no more than £250.

if she says no then it might be something you will not to have even though you really wanted.

what about disposable cameras for your guests to use?

sorry if not much help.

Personally i think £500 for 100 photos is too much! If she won't budge i would just do away with it.

Depends how much you want a photo booth at your wedding.

My friend made a photo prop booth herself (as have many others here). She had a table in a fairly plain corner of the room (no distracting background). On the table were:

1. A large basket of props - moustaches, glasses, a mini-chalkboard for a message, feather boas, etc.

2. A Polaroid camera and film packs.

3. A guest book, photo mount stickers and some nice pens.

It was all self-explanatory and worked really well.

However, I have no idea how much it cost to put together. I guess if you have an old Polaroid camera lying around, that cuts cost. The film probably isn't too cheap either. Amazon have a bundle of camera + 50 photos worth of film for £120. You might find a cheaper camera on Ebay though?

Are you able to set up your own make shift photo booth? If you put a digital camera on a tripod and get a box of props (can buy lots of props from Poundland or somewhere similar) And get people to take the photos themselves? You could then send CDs with the pics on as thank yous to all your guests

Just an idea anyway as £500 for 100 photos seems really high!

I agree that the price seems high but if you were to just buy the 40 photos surely that would be enough for one per family or couple if you have 80 guests?

Don't forget the price she's quoted is for the ink & paper too, and I'm assuming she has a very good printer if she's offering to print them on the night...

An alternative would be to ask if she can give you the photos on disc, rather than printing them out? You can then email them to your guests after the wedding, and it may work out a bit cheaper

She said she would provide it for free and then charge your guests £5 a pop !!

She can by allmeans try but your guests do not have to buy one do they? and at £5 each they wont. And also they will resent YOU for aranging it at that price. A back drop and some hats is not a photobooth

I would go disc only for the photobooth photos and scrap that £500, for £950 total you could easily book someone more experienced.

Also, although it's fine to get a student, would you be her first wedding? Make sure you've checked her abilities, because £450 isn't the smallest starting out fee. Most students shoot their first few for a couple of hundred/free. I'm slightly worried that she's a photography student but she's interested in charging you prices that part time experienced togs can charge (it does not cost £5 per photo to print, so I think she'd be making a tidy profit there). Make sure her photography portfolio isn't just still life and studio work, because it's a completely different ball game and there was a situation in the Sun and DM recently about a photography student shooting a wedding which is now going through court...

Not trying to be a negative natalie about it, just warning you of potential pitfalls.

I completely agree with the idea of getting the photos on a disc too! Considering you are her trial, she shouldn't be making any profit on it. I've trialed things in the past and thrown them in as a free extra so that it's at no expense to the couple, just to see if it works! THey are happy and I know that there's no pressure as I haven't done it before (not on the day I mean, I've trialed things like wedding slideshows etc.) Also, would you be having a Second photographer? As I don't understand how she'll be going around getting all the guests candids if she's manning the booth and printing too. Possibly something to ask! I agree with Marianne, I know she's a student, which is great as we all have to start somewhere! But make sure she has good equipment and the correct insurance. The recent story in the DM was horrendous, (but I won't go into that lol) and I'd hate for something similar to happen to you on your big day :-)

x

We are having a disc-only arrangement with our photographer and I think that being able to see the rogues gallery of pictures afterwards (which people can then print off rather than pay for) is just as funny as having your own one to take with you. We were initially just going to set the props up with disposable cameras or our old digital cameras to then print out afterwards but came to the arrangement with our photographer that she would do an hour or so of photo-booth style portraits in another room during the time we are re-setting the hall from day to evening. This way it gives the guests somewhere to go and something to do whilst the hall is being changed, and then we will leave the props out for the rest of the evening if people want to use them for their own photos later. As everyone has digital cameras and camera phones the pictures will all be shared afterwards and it doesn't cost anyone anything.

Are you sure you have looked around enough for a proper photobooth? £800 seems a bit excessive to me

I have found loads for about £395 - including all prints for 3-4 hours??

And with your wedding being so close you could probably get a good deal, if companies have boothes available for your date they would rather hire it out at a cheaper rate than not at all??

I personally wanted want to charge people £5 to have photo taken

Good luck xx

Eww, black background.

TBH, at the price she is charging you for cover I'd let her concentrate on taking the photos rather than use you as a test bed for other revenue streams.

Sure, if it was a freebie then great. But she's looking to upsell to your guests on the night. Which isn't cool.

Prints from a gallery afterwards maybe. But on the night, cash being passed around other than at the bar cheapens things.

Photo booths without prints can be had for £200-£2500. I know several people who'll do a good job for that. Just no prints on the day.

WSS.

Also Fuji instant camera's apparently work better than the polaroid's.

I think asking people to pay for photos is not great at a wedding and the disc only idea would be much better if your photographer is ok with the idea.

But wanted to add that at a couple of our works do's (all black tie, all paid for etc) there has been a photographer who took portrait photos and charged £5 - everyone loved it, and we really liked having the opportunity to get a nice photo of us as a couple in all our finery - so often you get all dressed up, then you just have rubbish shots from across the table, leaning in, with wine bottles in the foreground. Maybe she has got the idea from that sort of event, but not thought it through?

I'd definitely try other photo booth companies and see if they'll do you a last minute deal for that sort of budget.

I have in front of me a wedding ideas mag from feb this year and there is a photobooth for £495 and it includes:

4 hours hire, unlimited photos, unlimited video messages, double prints, memory book, booth attendant, delivery, vat and a prop box and 25 free instant photo keyrings.

I think that's much better than paying £200 towards guest photos. The website is www.giggleboothoffer.co.uk

I think the amount she's asking is way too much. For £500 we're having our photographers photobooth in addition to having their day package; there's two of them so they'll be able to do it and some other evening photos plus they've been doing weddings for years and the photobooth for a couple of years now. It includes unlimited photos printed straight away, one copy for guests (in a little card wallet) and one copy for our guest book album that guests can then write in too and we get all the photos on disc and in an online gallery along with the normal wedding photos.

It might be worth telling her that's the sort of thing you can get in a professional package. If I'm reading it right you're already paying for her to be there all day so all you'd really be getting would be the use of some props and a backdrop and copies of the photos for guests. IMO £200 is quite a bit for that!

Here's an idea as an alternative to a photobooth, something that can look great in your album but costs a fraction of the price:

Buy a couple of small chalkboards, around 30-50cm, plus white chalk. Put someone in charge of grabbing your guests to come and write something nice/funny/silly during the party, then have that person (or your photographer) take a quick snap. It works best if everyone is photographed in the same location.

If you get at least 20 of those photos they make an excellent collage.

By the way, if you get the CD of high-resolution photos from your photographer make sure you go to a quality album company - those £20-50 photobooks won't give you the best print quality, and are unlikely to last for years to come.

What time is she staying until if she doesn't do the photo booth? If it is 9ish I'd have normal pics up until 8pm then I would have her set up in a corner with a plain wall with some props purchased by you and then include them all on the final disc with the rest of your pics, shouldn't matter too much to her as not really any extra work than moving around the venue taking pics so she shouldn't charge anymore xx

Last year we went in Tuscany for a wedding and we saw polaroid photoboot, I think it's a nice idea to have your pics printed imediatily. I don't like to glue them in a photobook, for me it's beatiful if the guest thake the photos to home like souvenirs. Duesudue wedding use a lot polaroid photoboot.

Small polaroid camera which prints out two copies of each photo.

I know this thread is from 2013 but for any one else.

That seems crazy for someone to test their set up. You also would want to make sure that they were using a dye-sub printer and want an online gallery, props, guest book and all the features a photobooth should come with.

For £800 the quotes you are getting seem high. Our Surrey camper photobooths certainly come in at a cheaper rate! Or indeed you could source a cheap Polaroid camera for a more rustic effect☺️