Inspiration #91: Pimp my photo booth

Like many of you, I adore photo booths. They are so much fun and you can be quite surprised by the resulting images you get.

I came across Playing Grown Up on Etsy and if you're DIY-lite me and want to jazz up your photo booth, here are some props you can buy. For example, I painstakingly spent 1-2 hours making a photo booth bunting out of paper, but Brooke has made an adorable one out of fabric. I wish I had known about this to save me time!

Photo booth bunting banner - $35 at Playing Grown Up

Mr. Mustache Chalkboard - $28

Chalkboard Scroll Banner - $32

Reversible Chalkboard and White Board - $30

Wedding recap: our photo album scrapbook

A reader of this blog asked me today: "Did you ever share the scrapbook you mentioned? I want to do a guestbook with pictures and am thinking each guest (couple or family) could take a page and write their names and a note and then their picture will be added later. However, I'm not quite sure how it will all work out and I would LOVE to hear what you did! :)"

Traditional guestbooks (where guests just sign their name) aren't my style -- I wanted something more personal. What we did was hire Green Cheeze Photo Booth so that our guests could take fun photos and immediately scrapbook one of the two strips they got after their session. We provided heavyweight black paper, gel pens and scrapbooking trim and baubles (all in the bargain section at Michael's or Target). Some friends even used our program! I had such a blast reading everyone's messages at the end of the night (and for the weeks to come). Here are a few of my favorites:

Photo booth love

Here's a sneak peek at one of my favorite photo booth (thanks, Green Cheeze!!) with my girl friends, Marie and Jen. The scrapbook that our guests made were even awesomer...Will share when we get back from our honeymoon!

The font is Jane Austen downloaded from Dafont.com and the background was on sale at Joann Fabrics for $4.99 a yard.

Real Wedding: DIY Photobooth

The photobooth function on Macs work!

Here's me with my friend, Jessica, enjoying the DIY photobooth I set up using the bride and groom's Macbook, a mix of borrowed props (and $1-2 picture frames from secondhand stores), a photobooth garland sign I made with round labels and paper from Paper Source, and a fence rented ($45) from a local rental company. The bride made the pinwheels with scrapbook paper from Michael's.

I love buying secondhand

I love buying secondhand. Not only do you save money, you prolong the life of an object!

On Friday, I dropped by Mignonne -- a boutique that specializes in giving old furniture facelifts -- especially with bold paint jobs. I picked up a newly painted table in metallic silver for $40 (as-is). I didn't mind its condition because I plan to use it as our cake table, which will be onstage with me and Guitar Fred -- no one will see that the back is missing except for us. Here's the table, including a bouquet from Gorgeous and Green and two bluebirds and a nest I picked up as potential cake toppers (yes, I bought a vintage bride and groom but I'm still attached to the bird motif).

Today, my friend, Brittany, and I met up to do a little party planning. We dropped by one of my favorite places for bargains -- the Center for Creative Reuse in Oakland, CA -- and scored some pretty fantastic deals on photo booth props. We got a lime green "Irish" wig still in the package, 100 sheets of black scrapbook paper, dowels (for our black paper mustaches), Mardi Gras beads, vinyl carnival posters, plastic cowboy hats, a large frame, and goggles for $8 including tax.

If you're planning on making liqueur favors, run over to the Center now! They have petite glass bottles with cork stoppers for $1.00 each (or 25 for $18.00). They'd be fantastic for Meyer Lemon limoncello di crema, or an herb infused olive oil.

Inspiration #69: The Hollywood, the Bruiser, the Hero

I'm planning a party in a few weeks and we're going to have a "red carpet" photo area (thanks for illustrating, Zac Efron, hehe) because a dinner I threw in January is going to be on a new show called "Extreme Eats" on the Fine Living Network (watch at 7pm on April 10).

{Photo from Getty Images, from Sydney Morning Herald}

As a test run for the photo booth props I'm making for our wedding, I thought why not make some for this party and see how the DIY process goes. I think all have to do is print these shapes out on cardstock and mount onto thin sticks/dowels. If they don't turn out nicely, I'll buy them. A real bride (Eunice Moyle of Hello!Lucky) used McPhee's "Stylish Mustaches" as her inspiration and I thought it was pretty clever. Here's the McPhee version and below follows Eunice's (drool over her fantastical wedding in the Martha Stewart Spring 2010 issue):

{Photo from McPhee)

{Photo from Martha Stewart's The Bride Guide)

Inspiration #55: Under the Moon and Stars

Martha, how I love thee. Another stroke of brilliance. This can be set up using cardboard cutouts and lots of Martha's yummy glitter.

{From MarthaStewart.com, Wedding Ideas that Sparkle}

Cutest Photo Booth Design...Ever.

{Apartment Therapy Los Angeles}

My friend, Samantha, passed along this must-steal photo booth design by Sasha Souza as seen on Apartment Therapy Los Angeles. Click here to see how Sasha did it.

Inspiration: Unique photo booth ideas

{from Dolci & Odille's Custom Photo Backdrops}

Our photographers, Davina + Daniel, offered to set up a photo booth for us as long as we provided the backdrop.

Now we've been trying to decide on that! He loves pulp fiction/vintage film noir and science fiction, so we thought we could paint a book cover on muslin. Another idea is musically driven, so painting bars could also work (see below). Or, the easiest option may be to buy fancy gift wrap or wall decals (that can peel off afterwards).

Here are some inspirational photos:

{Originally posted on Alkemie.blogspot.com}

{Musical note decals on Etsy.com}

{West Warwick Public Library}


{Apartment Therapy New York}


{Originally posted on Alkemie.blogspot.com; an Etsy damask magnetic board}

Below, IKEA's Cecilia fabric for $5.99/yard

SF Brides: Save the Date 8/27/09

I met Peter Towers, owner of Magnolia Photo Booth, at the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco last month and he just invited me and my readers (yes, you!) to Magnolia Photo Booth's launch party at 111 Minna. Attendees will get a chance to win a free 4-hr rental (value $1,300). See you there!

The Magnolia Photo Booth Co. is celebrating its arrival in the Bay Area with a soiree in the friendly confines of 111 Minna. For the past three years, the Magbooth has brought vintage charm with modern sheen to parties, weddings, corporate events, and other fine festivities all across the midwest.The Magbooth is renowned for turning run-of-the-mill moments into photographic marvels, and now we're touching down in my native San Francisco to keep on keeping on.

Stop by on Thursday, August 27th from 5pm to 9pm, have a drink, and get a behind-the-curtain look at the stylish, fun, and fully portable Magbooth.

We'll have free pics and drink specials all night, so you can try time and time again to see if your face really can get stuck that way. You can also enter a free drawing for a chance to win one of two free Magbooth rentals! These will be full-fledged rentals valued at $1300 each.

So ladies--let your hair down, and gents--comb your moustache, because The Magnolia Photo Booth Co. is here to take your picture and greet you with a firm handshake.

I'm a Fan: Magnolia Photo Booth by Peter Tower

Okay, photo booths are all the rage lately. As I mentioned in an earlier post, my first encounter with photo booth fun was the Ghetto Gourmet Halloween Party 2006, where Photoboof projected the images straight on the wall and provided guests with photo strips. That was very cool and resulted in many unforgettable photos.

When I saw Magnolia Photo Booth Co listed on the Renegade Craft Fair vendor list, I visited the site and asked for a quote to see if renting MPB would fall within our budget. Again, we're on a $10,000 budget and we're picking and choosing what is important to us: to have fun and make the event memorable! I was impressed with MPB's props (wooden mustaches on a stick, Viking helmet, etc), crisp photo quality finish (see above) and all the other extras, such as a full time attendant for the 4 hour rental, photo hosting for a year, DVD of all images and photo album of all images. For $1,300 that's not too bad. The owner, Peter Tower, also told me he could work with our budget, so I really appreciated that! Thank you, Magnolia! :)

Inspiration #22: The DIY Photo Booth

One of the coolest Halloween parties I've ever been to was one that my friend, Jeremy, threw for the Ghetto Gourmet. What made it so fun was that it featured a Photoboof, where guests could go in and take wacky photos and the images were immediately projected on a huge wall while at the same time a keepsake strip was produced, like you would get at an old timey arcade. Renting a Photoboof is really expensive ($1,000+) but you can definitely create your own photo area using a homemade backdrop, a tripod/digital camera, and lighting.

You probably can't nail/tack anything at your wedding venue, but what you can do is rent professional photographer's C-stand ($4-5 day at Calumet) and muslin ($25). Set up a couple c-stands to create your "wall" for the backdrop. You can also custom make a backdrop using muslin and painting it yourself. Position your tripod and camera with a few props and voila! You've made yourself a photo studio, like the kind you had at prom.

Check out how Jose Goleman's bride and groom pulled off a Georgia carnival wedding and this old-fashioned photo setup>>