Last August, Roddy and I attended one of my best friend's weddings. It was a beautiful ceremony, as was the bride, of course! And the reception was wonderful too. One of my favorite parts of the reception was a photo booth. I had seen a few posts on Facebook from photo booths at other weddings, but hadn't seen one at an event in person. Roddy and I had our photos made, and from there, the wheels started turning. I decided this was something I could do. I could put together a booth and rent it out at events.

In the meantime, Roddy and I had decided to move to Southeast Texas. In November he got a job in Houston, we put our house on the market and things got busy, so I kind of forgot about my grand ideas for the photo booth.

On New Year's Eve, Roddy and I visited Discovery Green in Houston for the fireworks. They too had a photo booth. And about the same time we were having our photos made (after being drenched by a sudden down pour) and watching the fireworks show in Houston, my little sister was getting proposed to in Tatum, TX. So my grand idea returned. Of course...Meagan needed a photo booth at her wedding!

Over the past few months I've been brainstorming about ideas for my photo booth. Now, when I say photo booth, it isn't an actual booth you sit in like the ones at the mall or movie theaters. But, it is completely automated....click a button, smile for three photos and have a printed out photo strip in less than a minute.

So, once I jotted down a few ideas and drew a mock-up of what I wanted, I began gathering supplies and props, and Roddy gave me a hand with his engineering skills. Here is my drawing of the table holding my props, camera, computer and printer. And the other more professional drawings, of course by Roddy, are of the box we built to protect my computer.

 

In addition to the box, the only other thing I really needed to make for the booth was a sign.

Besides the computer box and sign, I didn't need to hand make anything. A lot of the supplies I used for my booth were things I already owned, such as the backdrop, backdrop stand, computer, camera and printer. I made few trips to Hobby Lobby and bought a few props on Etsy. And I had to buy the software to run the photo booth, since I'm not electronically inclined.

My younger cousin was having a 14th birthday party at my grandparent's warehouse, so I figured that'd be a great place to do a test run on the booth. So I packed all of my gear into the Jeep and headed south.

Once it got closer to the party, I got so excited about the booth that I forgot to take pictures of it all setup. I also planned to video with my GoPro, but again, all great ideas went out the door in the excitement of the party. 

Overall, I think the photo booth was a great success. There were about 30 kids at the party and I think we printed about 150 photo strips. Here is one of myself, my cousin Austin and Roddy. I don't have model releases for the attendees of the party, or I could have posted tons of photos. 

With the test run, I learned the ins-and-outs of setting up and figured out a few things I'll change/improve for the next booth. I can't wait to set it up again at the next event, because everyone involved really seemed to enjoy the photo booth.

For anyone interested in having a photo booth setup at your wedding, reunion, party or other event, please contact me through my website, by email at [email protected] or by phone at 409-267-1032.

There are multiple backdrops to choose from and each photo strip will be customized to your event. Although the photo booth is completely automated, I will be on-hand throughout the event to make sure the printer is stocked with paper and ink and to be available if problems arise. I will also handle setup and breakdown of the booth.

 

http://www.pinterest.com/nevansphotos

http://www.facebook.com/nickievansphotography

http://www.twitter.com/nevansphotos