OBT member Becca, aka. bmwbzz and her new husband had a fantastic photo booth at their fantastic turquoise & red wedding that we featured last month.
She's been kind enough to give us all the low-down on their DIY photo booth, with step by step instructions how how you can get the magic at your wedding.
A few people, on and off OBT, have asked about our DIY photo booth so I thought I'd share. It went over really well with everyone at the wedding!
Stuff you need
- Computer
- Webcam or laptop with a built-in webcam
- Spark Booth photo booth software
- Printer that prints 4x6 photos
- 4x6 photo paper
- Table or something to put said computer, printer, and webcam on
Stuff you might want
- Lamp
- Fabric, room divider, or something as a back-drop
- External monitor
- External keyboard
- Table cloth
- Signage
The set-up
- Computer: My HP Laptop with an external monitor and external keyboard
- Webcam: Microsoft LifeCam VX-5000. My laptop had a built-in webcam but we found that the external one had better pictures. Fortunately, I had bought my parents a webcam for Christmas so we borrowed that!
- Spark Booth, which costs
$40$59 (the price recently went up). - Printer: Canon Pixma MP560. I looked at photo printers but they were the same price as this All-In-One Printer and we needed a scanner. According to ConsumerReports.org, it printed 4x6 photos only a little slower than the photo printers and the print quality was better.
- Photo paper: Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy II 400 sheets
- Card table
- Tree lamp similar to this one from Target.
- Back-drop: Van Gogh Room Divider. I charged my dad with figuring out a back drop and he came up with this Van Gogh room divider which he was going to get for my parent's house anyway. I also had about three yards of fabric which we used behind the sign. Also, because the room divider was double sided, the back-side made a great back drop for guestbook and other pictures!
How we did it:
The credit really goes to my amazing cousin! Basically she put the laptop on a box under the table and covered the table with an extra black table cloth.
She hooked up the printer, monitor and keyboard and put them on the table. (Duh, right?)
I choose to use an external monitor and keyboard (but no mouse!) for two reasons:
- I didn't want people actually touching my laptop
- I wanted to give them as little opportunity as possible to mess something up hence not having a mouse. (Although I think the latter concern was pretty unfounded).
My cousin pushed the table against the wall and stuck my signs onto the wall above it. The signs said:
"1. Sit & Pose,"
"2. Press the space bar,"
"3. Smile 4. Smile 5. Smile,"
"6. Preview & Print. Press return to print.,"
"7. Pick up your photo!" — (I would have added that photos take a minute or so to print to the last sign.)
She put two chairs in front of the table and the room divider behind it. There was a door (to a closet) next to the photo booth where she hung red fabric and our photo booth sign. This way you could see the photo booth sign when looking at it but the people in the photo booth had a bit of privacy.
Make sure that you turn off your computer's power saving settings before using. I set it to never sleep. Then run the Spark Booth app and put it in Full Screen mode and everything should be set to go!
That's it!
Photos by Jeremy Lawson Photography
About Becca Miller-Webster
Currently, Becca works as a computer programmer. After having a blast as the Offbeat Bride intern, she's now a Contributing Editor to Offbeat Bride and an on-call developer for the whole Offbeat Empire.
Amy Bennett said
This is such a great idea!! I like only spending $60 for software, as opposed to $600, and being limited to time, and having no control over backdrops and having to pay extra for props and everything….this way is SO MUCH BETTER. And we already have pretty much everything but the software! A Million Thanks!
Katrina said
Is there a way that Spark Booth could be purchased by one person and used at two weddings? I would love to be able to split the cost with someone because I think this is the only time we would use it…
Castleayes said
Hi! GREAT ARTICLE! Where did you get your beige and red sign?
Lisa said
OMFG I have been DYING to have a photobooth, but the $1200 price tag is about the budget for the entire wedding! This is such an amazing DIY!!! It's the perfect favor. Who doesn't love taking home pics when you're all dressed up and it saves the whole set so I can make my own scrapbook after. Thank you thank you thank you!!!!
I know this is an old post but I don't even care! This is just awesome. It should get bumped back to the OBB front page so other bride's can share my joy! I didn't even think a DIY photo booth was possible!
Amy said
This tutorial is excellent! I used it to create a photo booth setup at my step-daughter's grad party and holy lord was it fun… There wasn't room in the house, but a 10×10 pop up event tent with open sides worked great. Everyone had a blast with it and it helped keep the teens mixing with the adults.
Do this for a kids party… you will be their personal hero.
Thanks yet again to OBB for fantastic party ideas!
Bride2Beez said
I can't believe I just stumbled across this before committing to the $1400 photobooth company. I have all the equipment already!! This is AWESOME. Thanks for sharing
Julie said
Hey gals,
Has anyone who has done this awesome DIY photobooth gotten a photo scrapbook with black pages and no page protectors? I cannot find these anywhere.
lindsay said
This is amazing and perfect and so simple! I was debating going fora $600-$1000 photobooth for our wedding, but this is so much better!
Vicky Patterson said
This is a FANTASTIC tutorial! I've had the idea to do a DIY photobooth since I first found out the high pricetag of renting one. We're having a masquerade reception, and I just raided the after-Halloween sales, so we've got more than enough fun props! (Plastic viking helmet! Woot!) Question, though: Anyone have any ideas on how to set up the booth to take photos of guests standing? I'm worried the monitor might get knocked over if I raise it from table-height.
Marie Sparks said
This is awesome! I am directing my readers to this blog for your tips on the DIY Photobooth!
Awesome Awesome Awesome! I love budget friendly ways to get all the "IN" things
webervyn said
I am in the process of creating my own photobooth and the sparkbooth, looks perfect, but my concern is using my personal laptop, is there a way to lock it so guests can't use anything besides the sparkbooth program?
jessie said
I don't know what laptop you have, but mine allows you to create multiple 'users'. So, create a new user, password protect your regular account, and only have the software set up under the new user. Seeing as you'll only ever trot this out at parties, if ever again, I don't think it would be a problem.
Alternatively, you can transfer all your files to one mega folder and password protect it, OR, if it's just a matter of preference and nothing urgent, you can have a sign that says "please don't close this program or we won't be able to reopen it", should anyone decide to mess around.
Brooke said
Wow, this was such a detailed set of DIY instructions. Thank you for taking the time to do this — I would love to see how your pictures came out!
If I had come across this sooner, I wouldn't have had to spend so many nights worrying about how we could afford a photo booth. Luckily enough though, I came across this app for the iPad (totally obsessed with my iPad) called "Wedding Booth." It allowed my guests to take pictures and then write personal notes to my husband and I on the iPad. Haha some of the notes were pretty inappropriate it, but everyone had so much fun. If you email the people who made Wedding Booth, they also will send their own DIY instructions to build a photo booth out of PVC piping for like $33.