How to DIY a photo booth

Photo booths can provide hours of entertainment for your wedding guests, but once you have factored in travel costs, prints and the photo booth itself you could be looking at spending £500 on one. Here are our tips to DIY your wedding photo booth to save you some serious cash.

There are a few options available and they will depend on your budget and what you already have available to you.

Simple Booth

Simple Booth is a free app available to Apple device users, although it works best on an iPad. Fully customisable, you can have your photo booth set up in just minutes. There are so many options with Simple Booth for customisation – you can place a “logo” (or a picture of yourselves) on each photo, you can change the layout of the photos, apply filters and even change the border colour of the photos. Once taken, you can save them to your camera roll, share them or even print them from your iPad to a nearby wireless printer. If you choose to use Simple Booth then make sure that your device is fully charged so that you don’t run out of battery.

Party Photobooth

Available for Android devices, Party Photo Booth costs £2.20 to download from the Google Play Store. Similar to Simple Booth for iOS, this allows you to fully set up and customise your photo booth photos within minutes. Once the images have been taken, they can be shared on Facebook or uploaded to Dropbox. There isn’t an option currently to print the photos out from your device connected to a wireless printer.

Digital Camera

Using a camera is another inexpensive way to create a photobooth for your big day. A DSLR would be best, but any digital camera would work if you are on a budget. The downside to using a camera is that you will need someone to take the photos all night. You can nominate someone to do this or place a sign with instructions for your guests.

Backdrop

Creating your backdrop for your photos can seem daunting, but there are plenty of cheap and easy ways to get this made. Once you have decided where your booth will be going you can cover your background in wedding gift wrap with a nice print, fabric (nicely patterned duvet covers can look great), make streamers with tissue paper or even paper chains hanging down.

Tripod

Whatever device you are using for your photo booth, having a tripod will help to keep your device sturdy. It also helps to distinguish your photo booth area from the rest of your wedding. You might need to purchase a case for your device to fit onto the Tripod – these can be found cheaply on eBay or Amazon.

Charging

If the device you choose to use runs off battery power then consider either plugging the charger in or bringing spare batteries for your wedding. It would be a shame for your photobooth to run out of juice before the end of the night. You can easily cover the plugged in charger with some clever decoration placement.

Printing out your images

If you want your guests to have their photos printed to take away with them, you will need to find a suitable printer complete with ink and photo paper. Expect to pay anything between £50 – £100 for everything you need including a new printer.

Props

The list of props that you can provide for your photo booth is neverending. Scout around your house for anything that you can use as props, such as sunglasses, scarves, hats and anything else you think will be suitable. Pound shops also have a wide variety of items that you can use, from wigs to feather boas. There are also tons of printable photobooth props to cut out and enjoy. eBay also have a great variety of props with a great price – you can expect to get over 50 props for under £5.

Instruction sign

Instruction signs will tell your guests how to operate the photo booth and remind them that the photobooth is there for use. There are so many ways to create your sign – you could create one using a chalkboard and paint, print out a sign or even purchase one from Etsy or eBay.

Are you considering having a photo booth at your wedding? Or if you are already married, did you have a photo booth? Do you have any more tips to share about DIYing your photo booth?