Photo Booth Hire Guide for Weddings and Parties

Photo Booth Hire Guide: Funky Photo Booth has been spreading the funk love at weddings and parties across the UK since 2008.

The creator of the Funky Photo Booth is Hampshire Wedding Photographer,  Rob Dunning …a.k.a, me. I first saw a photo booth in operation at a wedding in the US in 2007. There was a queue of people outside the booth and the giggles of laughter were infectious. Guests young and old were coming out of the photo booth waving their prints, grinning and smiling from something that can only be described as ‘good old fashioned, honest fun’.

Straight away after that event, I was thinking about Photo Booths and after seeing the insides of a passport photo booth being serviced in a supermarket, it dawned on me that the I had better quality cameras, lights and printers than what they were using. From there, it was just a case of combining them into a booth with some rather clever software. After months of various booth designs and finding a rather fantastic software developer in the US that made the whole booth process automatic, we were ready, and the first Funky Photo Booth was launched in 2008.

Since 2008, the Funky Photo Booth has grown and grown. We now have a number of booths for photo booth hire, some fantastic booth butlers, all supported by in-house staff at Solent Studios – dedicated to making sure the Booth Butlers have everything they need to make every customer’s photo booth hire a success.

As with everything run by Rob Dunning and Solent Studios, we try to maintain a fair price for our product range, far from the cheapest but definitely good value, with a focus on customer service before, during and after the event. I truly believe this is part of the reason that so many of our customers are referred by previous clients.

Although Funky Photo Booth has a number of booths available for hire we can’t service the entire UK wedding and party market. So, we’ve put together the following points for you to consider when finding a supplier for wedding photo booth hire.

Questions to ask your Photo Booth Hire Supplier

How long has the photo booth hire company been trading?
Since the explosion in demand for photo booths the market has become saturated and some of the newer booth companies aren’t getting as much custom as they expected to continue trading. Unfortunately we’ve had a handful of clients book with us after losing their deposit to a booth supplier that has ceased trading. Fortunately, Funky Photo Booth is a subsidiary of Solent Studios. If our staff aren’t enjoying being a Booth Butler, they’re covering other photographic jobs for us.

What exactly is ‘Unlimited Prints’?
‘Unlimited Prints’ is a term used by a number of photo booth hire companies. Some define it as “1-photo for each booth session’, other companies define it as “unlimited uses of the booth  by your guests within the hire period’ – but still only give one print per booth session. Meanwhile, some companies charge extra for additional prints.

For the record, the Funky Photo Booth doesn’t charge for additional prints. If 5-bridesmaids go into the booth, then we print 6-copies … one for each bridesmaid and an extra copy for the the host of the party.

Is your Photo Booth automatic?
I believe part of the reason a photo booth is so popular at an event is because guests are hidden inside the booth and the process is fully automated. Be aware that some suppliers are setting up mobile portrait studios with a photographer and calling them a booth. I can imagine a set-up like this is still good fun, but might well be a disappointment if you were expecting an enclosed booth for your event.

What does your Photo Booth look like?
Photo booths come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. A number of photo booth companies have invested heavily  in designing booths to look spectacular from the outside. This works brilliantly at corporate events where client branding is required, but they can look a little out of place for personal events such as weddings and parties. For non-corporate events I’d suggest placing more emphasis on what the booth looks like from the inside and on the pictures you will receive.

What sort of printer do you use?
This is such an important question to ask your booth supplier. It’s can help identify whether you’re talking to a professional photo booth company or an amateur outfit looking to make a quick quid. The words you want to hear from a booth supplier are “Dye Sub” or “Dye Sublimation”. A Dye Sub printer will produce prints for your guests in around 8-seconds, they print pictures dry and will last for years.

Dye sub printers use heat and ink embedded into a ribbon to produce prints. They are very expensive and you could probably buy 25 ink jet printers for the price of one dye-sub printer – and that is the reason why some booth suppliers try to save money by using ink jets. So remember, ask your booth supplier “Do you use Dye Sub printers?”

Ask about the three P’s
If your booth supplier doesn’t have Public Liability & Professional Indemnity Insurance along with PAT documentation, then there’s a high chance they won’t be let into the venue where your event is being held. Ask the question and steer clear of them if they don’t have all of the above.