How much should you pay to hire a wedding photo booth?
Considering photo booth hire for your wedding? Read on to find out how much you should pay for a wedding photo booth
Your wedding day is a once-in-a-lifetime event and the photos you take of it should be something that you can cherish forever. That’s why many couples opt for photo booth hire for their special day. But how much should you pay to hire a wedding photo booth?
We've previously broken down what it costs to hire a wedding photo booth, but when it comes to how much you should pay, well then different factors come into play.
First and foremost, the answer to this will largely come down to budget. It's all well and good suggesting how much you should pay for photo booth hire, but maybe what you can pay is all you can afford. In that case, you'd go for the cheapest option.
If you've got the budget or can make it stretch, read on where we'll look at the different features, accessories and extras that may sway how much you're willing to pay for wedding photo booth hire one way or the other.
Quality of service
This is the first thing you should look at when you ask how much is photo booth hire. But, how much should you pay for this?
The cost from one photo booth hire company to another can vary greatly, as some hiring companies may have just started out, while others may be well established with tons of Google reviews.
The benefit of a newer hire company is that you will likely get more for your money. While the downside is it's more of a gamble as you don't have as many referrers or reviews for reassurance.
The benefit of an established company is that you have more of a guarantee of what service you'll receive, but this may come at a premium due to reputation and availability.
For an idea of the cost, new photo booth hire companies typically charge anywhere between £300 and £500 for 3 hours of booth time. More established photo booth hire companies will charge anywhere between £400 and £700 for the same service.
Cost breakdown
Booth time
For standard photo booth hire packages, you can expect to have 2 or 3 hours of booth time. Which option you choose might depend on the schedule of your wedding reception as well as the size. More time is generally better as guests tend to feel more comfortable with using a photo booth after they've seen other guests playing around with it, which often takes an hour or so.
If you'd like to have more time than what's included in a standard package, then you may want to include additional hours. This costs anywhere from £50 to £80 per additional hour.
Features
With magic mirror hire, for example, you have the option of not only taking pictures but also making gifs, boomerangs and short videos.
Pictures are obviously always included, but some photo booth hire companies will charge an additional fee to include other types of media. Make sure to check if they do, and how much it will increase the total price.
Distance
The mileage included in most wedding photo booth hire packages normally ranges from 30 to 50 miles from the registered address of the hiring company. Some may even include a 100 mile radius.
The best option is to look for a local company. For example, Manchester photo booth hire or photo booth hire near me will bring up the hiring companies in your area, so you don't have to worry about paying any additional fees for travel.
Optional Extras
So, you have your photo booth set up and everyone's having fun with it, but there are several optional extras with photo booth hire that will make your experience with it even better.
Onsite photo printing
Some would say onsite photo printing with photo booth hire is essential, but as you can get all your photos online, we'll class this as an optional extra.
The great thing about onsite photo printing is that everyone gets to take home a memorable piece from your wedding. We all have experiences with polaroid cameras when we were young, but you can create events better photos with the photo booth's newer digital cameras, and print them off right at the booth with high quality dye-sublimation prints.
You can expect to pay anywhere between £50 to £100 for unlimited photo prints of 4x6 inches. Some photo booth hire companies may charge a lower fee for a limited amount of photo prints.
There are different print sizes available too, such as 5x7 and 6x8 inches. You can expect to pay a higher rate for these.
Custom photo templates
A photo template is a photo collage with a design. Each time a guest goes to take a photo at the booth, they can choose a template to have the photo placed in.
Some photo templates might be for just 1 or 2 photos, Some may be 4 strips to be cut out for keyrings, while others can be as many as 9 photos. It just depends on the template design. We recently made a template which was 9 photos as we used the photos to make a heart shape.
You will normally see 3 or 4 photo templates included with photo booth hire, many of which are generic. With our hiring service, we make 3 custom photo templates for each hire and charge £25 per additional custom photo template.
Backdrops
Backdrops are great optional extras to consider as they not only enhance the scenery of the photo but also enhance the quality as you have better control of the light the camera captures.
There is a multitude of options for backdrops, such as a standard photography backdrop which is a sheet attached to a backdrop stand. A more vivid backdrop would be a flower or leaf wall. Some photo booth hire companies may even offer features like LED light signs.
You can expect to pay anywhere between £30 and £80 for a photography backdrop. For flower and leaf walls or LED light signs, the fee can vary greatly so it's best to speak to your hiring company.
Memorabilia
Onsite photo printing could be included in this one, but I've given that its own category since almost everybody has it included with their photo booth hire.
Common types of photo printing you'll come across when searching for wedding photo booth hire are keychains and photo booths. You can easily print a passport sized photo at the booth and have it placed inside a keychain, or have extra photos printed to place inside a wedding photo book.
Speak to the hiring company about the cost of these, but you can easily find them on Amazon or Etsy for cheap.
Things to consider
Consider the size of your wedding. Some choices you make when it comes to how much you should pay for photo booth hire may not be made out of choice, but, necessity. For example, if your wedding is just 50 people, then 2 hours of booth time is likely enough for everyone to have a few goes on it, whereas if you're having a wedding with 100+ guests, then you'll probably need 3 or 4 hours to make it worthwhile.
Likewise with onsite photo printing, if you're having a small wedding then unlimited prints won't be necessary, while a large wedding might need this just to be safe.
Finally, look at how many features and optional extras you want to include and consider whether you'll save money by going for a photo booth hire package deal as most hiring companies will offer big discounts when when choosing multiple options.
Frequently asked questions about wedding photo booth hire
How much should you spend on a photo booth?
How much you should spend on a photo booth depends on your budget and what you want to include with the photo booth. You can find deals on photo booths for between £200 and £350. If you'd to include onsite photo printing in your package then you can expect to pay £300 to £500.
Make sure to check past events where the photo booth was used so you can see if it's worth the price for you. For a high-quality magic mirror booth with onsite photo printing, you should expect to pay £350 to £500 for three hours.
What is the cheapest way to get a photo booth for a wedding?
The cheapest way to get a photo booth for a wedding is to hire just the booth with no extras included, such as photo printing. You can still have all your photos sent to you and your guests through the software on the photo booth.
The cheapest photo booths to hire are iPad photo booths.
How much does it cost to make a photo booth?
Here’s an example of a DIY photo booth you can make for under £300.
Camera: iPad 8th gen - £235
Software: TapBooth - Free
Stand: Neewer 18" LED ring light - £50
Is a photo booth worth it for a wedding?
A photo booth is more than worth it for a wedding. It's a fun feature that all your guests can enjoy using throughout the evening. You can play around using different props available.
It also allows guests to take a piece of your wedding home with them using onsite photo printing. And all the photos are sent directly to a private cloud folder for your wedding
How much does it cost to hire a wedding photo booth?
You can expect to pay between £300 and £500 to hire a wedding photo booth with onsite photo print.