DIY Photo Booth / Polaroid Station

One of my wedding musts was a photo booth.  My husband and I started dating in high school and we have a collection of photo booth strips from over the years (we even did some during our engagement photos).  But we didn't have $1500+ extra in our budget to rent one, so I decided to make one myself.  I've seen them DIY photo booths different ways, depending on the kind you want and the amount of work you want to put in.  I wanted to put in very little work, as I already had lots of DIY projects I was doing myself.  So, here are my super simple instructions for a DIY photo booth/ polaroid station:

1.  First, find a bright, fun fabric to use as the background.  I went to Joann's Fabrics and bought mine on sale.  I got extra and used it for the fabric tiers of my cupcake tower.  I would suggest 6 yards to be sure you have enough.  I also like this lace background from Martha Stewart Weddings.

2.  Depending on where you are going to have the 'booth' you may need some supportive structure.  I hung mine from shrubbery, so we basically just tied the fabric corners to the sticks of the shrubs.  If you do not have a structure to use, you'll need to build one, but most any venue would have a wall that you can tie, stick, or fasten your fabric to.

3.  You'll need a digital camera and a quality photo printer, or even better and easier, a Polaroid camera and film.  I found both of mine on ebay.  The film has sadly been discontinued, so it isn't the cheapest, but $200 on film vs. $1500+ to rent a booth still equals a bargain in my book.

4.  Make a sign (I used a chalkboard one) instructing guests on how you want them to take photos and what to do with them (are they favors, do you want to keep them, are they for the guestbook, etc.)

5.  You can gather props if you want as well, or again, you can use a chalkboard so guests can write messages and put them in the photos.  I didn't use props, but I did hang our initials on the backdrop (which were craft paper initials from paper source that I painted and tied ribbon to).

6.  Put a small table near the fabric backdrop.  This is where you'll put your camera, film, sign, props, etc.

{UPDATE: If you need a structure, see this post that went up today at Ruffled Blog.  It is a great and cheap way to build a photobooth structure!}

After these very simple steps, you have your own DIY photo booth.  My guests absolutely loved ours, and we didn't even tell them what to do with the photos (one of the things I forgot in the rush, along with getting a polaroid of just myself and my husband together) but they gave the photos to us, which I loved!  I'm going to frame them all in a huge framed collage and hang them in our apartment (someday!)  Here are a few of our polaroids from our DIY booth:

And my favorite one, of my brother and my mom:

And we have 40+ more of these . . . how awesome were my wedding guests!?