How to make a DIY wedding photobooth – step-by-step tutorial

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diy wedding photobooth alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

A few people have asked about our DIY photo booth so I thought I'd share. It went over really well with everyone at our turquoise & red wedding!

Photo by Jeremy Lawson Photography
Photo by Jeremy Lawson Photography

Stuff you need

  • Computer
  • Webcam or laptop with a built-in webcam
  • Spark Booth photo booth software
  • Printer that prints 4×6 photos
  • 4×6 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
photobooth1 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

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 $59.
  • 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 4×6 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.photobooth3 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)
  • 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:

  1. I didn't want people actually touching my laptop
  2. 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).
photobooth2 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride)

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!

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