How to Choose a Wedding Photo Booth

Start with the room, not the booth

Before you fall for a particular booth, look at where it will live. Most wedding venues have a natural spot: a corner of the evening reception room, a wide corridor outside the bar or an anteroom off the dance floor. Measure it. A slim open-air pod needs roughly 1.5m by 2m, a mirror booth about 2m by 2m, and an enclosed or inflatable booth considerably more. Check the ceiling height if the room has beams, and find the nearest plug socket. Barns and marquees are lovely but often have power at one end only, so ask the venue where suppliers usually set up.

Open-air or enclosed?

Open-air booths, including mirror booths and pods, face out into the room. Guests queue, watch, heckle and join in, which keeps the energy high and makes the booth feel part of the party rather than a side attraction. They also photograph well in the wider room. Enclosed booths with a curtain give privacy, which some guests prefer, and tend to produce sillier pictures because nobody is watching. For most weddings we lean towards open-air, simply because the queue becomes a social space, but if your guest list is shy or the venue is a long, narrow room, enclosed can work beautifully.

Prints, digital, or both

Printed photos are still the heart of a wedding booth. They go into the guest book with a handwritten message, they end up on fridges, and they give older relatives something tangible. Digital copies matter too: guests want to share the picture that night, and you want the full gallery afterwards. The ideal is a booth that does both, printing instantly while also sending images by email or QR code. If you want a classic photo strip, look for a pod that prints in that format; if you want something social-first, GIFs and boomerangs add movement that a single still cannot.

Think about who will be in the shot

Wedding guests arrive at the booth in groups: the bridesmaids, the university friends, the whole of table seven. A booth that takes up to eight people in one shot keeps those groups together and shortens the queue, because fewer sessions are needed. If your guest list is heavy on big families or you are expecting a lot of children, a larger-capacity booth earns its space. A smaller, more intimate wedding can use a slim pod comfortably and save money and floor space in the process.

Decide when it should run

The sweet spot at most weddings is from the end of the speeches until an hour or so before the end of the night. Guests are relaxed, the evening crowd has arrived and the dance floor is not yet the only place to be. Running the booth during the wedding breakfast wastes hire time, because people are seated. If the booth has to be built before the meal because the room is shared, ask your supplier about an early setup with the booth switched off until later, rather than paying for hours nobody uses.

Make it yours

The print template is where the booth stops being generic. Send your supplier the invitation or order of service, your colours and the font you have used, and ask for a design that matches. Names and date are the minimum; a monogram, a line from one of your readings or a small illustration all work. Props can be themed to the venue or the couple, and the attendant can steer guests towards the guest book so you end up with a complete record of the night rather than a stack of loose prints. Ask to see the template before the day and check the spelling.

Questions to ask before you book

Every supplier will tell you their booth is wonderful, so ask the practical things and compare the answers. The replies tell you as much about how a company works as the booth itself, and a supplier who answers clearly in writing is usually one who turns up on time.

With those answered you can compare like with like. Our own packages start from £299, every booking includes the attendant, setup and unlimited sessions, and an £80 deposit holds the date. If you want a hand choosing, send us the venue and the guest count and we will tell you which of our booths fit.

• Is an attendant included for the whole hire, not just setup?
• Are delivery, setup and pack-down included in the price?
• Are sessions and prints unlimited during the hire?
• What floor space, ceiling height and power does the booth need?
• How are the digital copies delivered afterwards, and when?
• Are you insured, and can the venue have a copy of the certificate?
• What deposit secures the date, and when is the balance due?