Photo Booth Ideas: Props or No Props?

Posted 10/21/14 in: New Jersey New York
Admiring the creativity of guests in the photo booth scrap book
Admiring the creativity of guests in the photo booth scrap book

At a recent Fall wedding in Queens, NY, the client decided to opt out altogether on props for our photo booth.  Their primary reason: they wanted to capture their guests, the facial expressions, the joy in its simplest form.  Made sense to me.  This is the second consecutive wedding I’ve done in which the client requested not to use props.  I thought it would be helpful to write a brief blog post on it: photo booth ideas: props or no props?

Props certainly add a fun dimension to the photo booth rental experience.  Who doesn’t love changing into a silly disguise, or putting on a large mustache, or wearing bunny ears in a photo booth?  One of my favorite photo booth memories is of an elderly couple, one wearing bunny ears, the other wearing a pirates eye patch, having a terrific time in the photo booth taking photos.  I think it was a combination of them enjoying the photo booth again (reminded them of their childhood), and the sheer enjoyment they received from dressing up in silly costumes.  Either way, they ended up going into and out of the photo booth for most of the evening.

I have noticed at some events guests that having too many props lead to redundant photos of people wearing the same sunglasses, hats making it difficult to distinguish the people behind the props.  My suggestion for photo booth ideas: go light with the props.  A few mustaches-on-a-stick and a dry-erase board should do the trick.  Once people get into the photo booth and close the curtain, the creative ideas begin to flow on their own.  It’s fun to see people figuring out photo booth ideas while sitting in the booth.  Most recently, a couple used their newborn baby as their prop – it was hilarious!

At our most recent event at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens (http://www.movingimage.us), the guests tapped into their own creativity, producing some wonderful photos and designing an amazing photo guest book.  It so happened that the clients themselves were exceptionally talented (author/illustrator whose book was adapted into Martin Scorcese’s film Hugo). Naturally, his guests shared in his creativity.  The photo guest book was a work of art in itself!