How Much Space Does a Photo Booth Need? Setup, Power, and Timing

The question we hear most often from couples and planners is not about price or props. It is whether the booth will fit. Venues ask it too, usually a few weeks before the event, when the floor plan is being finalized and every corner already has a job.

Here is exactly what our booths need, why they need it, and where to put one so that guests actually use it, so that you can give the booth a spot with confidence and answer the venue’s questions without having to chase us.

The short answer

Our booths need an area eight feet wide, eight feet deep, and eight feet high, on level ground. They run off battery packs, so they need no outlet. We bring the tables, the backdrop stand, and the lighting ourselves, and we typically arrive around two hours before the booth opens. That is the whole list. The rest of this article explains why, and how to make the most of the corner you give us.

Why eight feet, and why the extra room matters

The backdrop itself is seven and a half feet square, on every backdrop in the collection, so the space it takes up does not change whichever one you choose. The rest of the eight feet is room for guests to step back from it.

That room matters more than the booth does. A photo booth is at its best when six people pile in together, and six people need somewhere to stand. Squeeze the footprint and the group either spills past the edge of the backdrop or crowds the camera, and the print shows it. Give the booth its eight feet and the whole group fits, every time, without the attendant having to shuffle anyone.

Eight feet of height is for the light. Our lighting sits up on a stand above the camera, the way it would in a studio, because that is where light has to come from to flatter people. Most ballrooms, halls, and barns clear that easily. The places to check are a basement, a tent with a low ceiling at the edges, or a room with a dropped soffit along the wall where you were planning to put the booth.

Room for the line and the table

The footprint is the booth. The line is separate, and it is worth a moment’s thought. During the rush after dinner a good booth has a small queue, and that queue should have somewhere to be that is not the route to the bar or the restrooms. Two or three feet in front of the booth is usually enough, and our attendant keeps it moving.

If props are part of your night, the prop table sits beside the booth and needs a little room of its own. If you have booked the Keychain Booth, the keychain station needs a table nearby, ideally within sight of the booth so that guests can see where their keychain is coming from. Both of those tables come with us.

Power

Our booths run off battery packs, so they do not need an outlet. That makes placement much easier, because the booth can go where it looks and works best rather than wherever the nearest socket happens to be. It also means we are never competing with the DJ, the band, or the caterer for power, and there are no cords running across a walkway for somebody to catch a heel on.

If your venue’s vendor form asks what power the photo booth needs, the answer is none.

What we bring, and what you provide

We bring everything the booth needs. The booth itself, the backdrop and its stand, the lighting, the printer and paper, the prop table if you want one, and the keychain station if you have booked it. You do not need to reserve a table from the venue or arrange anything with the rental company.

What we need from you is the spot. Eight feet square, level ground, and a wall or a clear area to put the backdrop against. Level matters more than it sounds, because a backdrop stand on a slope is a backdrop stand that leans, and a lawn is rarely as flat as it looks.

Where to put the booth

A few things make a big difference to how much a booth gets used, and none of them cost anything.

• Near the action, not in a back room. Guests use a booth they can see from their table. Somewhere between the bar and the dance floor is usually ideal. A booth in a side room, however pretty, gets found by half as many people.
• Out of the walkways. The line should not block the route to the bar, the restrooms, or the exit, and the booth should not be where the caterers need to pass with trays.
• Away from strong backlight. A bright window directly behind the backdrop, or a wall of string lights at eye level, makes the lighting harder to manage. Our light is strong enough to handle most rooms, but a spot with the window beside the booth rather than behind it is easier still.
• Think about the wall behind it. The wall color and the room’s lighting affect how the backdrop reads, which is why it helps to look at the backdrop collection with your room in mind, and why we will send you a short list for your room rather than the whole catalog.
• Think about the timeline. A booth standing open through dinner is a booth nobody used. Tell us how the evening runs and we will suggest when the booth should open, so that your hours land when guests are free.

How early we arrive, and how long setup takes

We typically arrive around two hours before the booth opens. Load-in and setup take about ninety minutes, and teardown at the end takes about thirty, so that everything is up, tested, and out of the way before your first guest sees it, and gone before the venue needs the room back.

None of that time counts against the hours you book. Your hours start when the booth opens to guests. If your venue restricts vendor load-in to a certain window, tell us who to talk to and we will arrange it with them directly.

Gaps in the schedule

Sometimes the booth needs to sit idle for a while, for example between cocktail hour and the reception, or during a program or speeches. Rather than packing down and coming back, the booth stays where it is, set up and staffed, and that gap is billed as an hour of idle time at $150. It keeps your timeline seamless and means our team is not moving equipment through the room during the important parts of the night.

If cocktail hour is in a different space, our Roamer Booth can meet guests there instead, with our attendant moving through the room and delivering photos straight to their phones, and the printed copies ready to collect at the reception.

Can the booth go outside?

We would rather it did not, and we will always say so plainly. Sun, wind, and rain are hard on both the equipment and the photographs. Direct sun fights the lighting, wind moves a seven and a half foot backdrop like a sail, and rain ends the night.

We do take outdoor events when the setup is right, and two things are not negotiable. There has to be cover overhead, such as a tent, a pavilion, or an overhang, and there has to be an indoor backup we can move to if the weather turns. If you are planning a tent, the same eight foot square applies, and the level ground rule applies most of all.

What your venue will ask about

Most venues have a short list of requirements for every vendor. We handle them directly, so that you do not have to relay messages back and forth.

• A certificate of insurance. We carry our own insurance and can issue a certificate naming your venue as additionally insured. Send us the venue’s requirements and we deal with them.
• Load-in times and access. Tell us who to contact and we will arrange the window, the door, and the route with them.
• The footprint and power. Eight by eight by eight feet, level ground, and no outlet needed. Most venue forms are satisfied by that sentence.
• Who is coming. We are a small team and you will know which of us is running your booth well before the day, so the venue can have a name too.

A quick checklist for your floor plan

If you are placing the booth on a plan right now, this is the whole of it.

• An eight by eight foot square, eight feet high, on level ground.
• A wall or a clear area behind it for the backdrop.
• Two or three feet in front for the line, out of any walkway.
• A little room beside it for the prop table, and for the keychain station if you have booked it.
• Within sight of the tables, ideally between the bar and the dance floor.
• Not directly in front of a bright window.
• No outlet required.

Still not sure it fits?

Send us a photo of the space, or the floor plan, along with your date, and we will tell you exactly where we would put the booth and why, before you promise the spot to anyone. That is a two minute answer and it is free. You can start with a quick note here, read the rest of our frequently asked questions, or see what every booking includes.