What to Ask Before You Book a Photo Booth Company
Most photo booth companies look alike on a website. The photos are all happy, the prices all start at something, and every one of them promises a great time. The differences only show up when you ask the right questions, and the right questions are rarely about the booth itself. They are about the person standing beside it, what comes out of the printer, what your venue is going to need, and what the number on the proposal actually covers.
These are the questions worth asking before you book, grouped so that you can work through them in one email or one call. We have included our own answers beside each one, so that you have something to compare against rather than a list of blanks.
About the people
Will someone be at the booth the whole time?
An unattended booth is a quiet booth. Guests hesitate at the screen, props go missing, the paper runs out with nobody there to change it, and the people who would have loved it most walk past because nobody invited them in. Ask whether an attendant stays for the entire booking, or whether the booth is dropped off and collected.
Ours stays from the first guest to the last. Their job is to greet people, get the whole group into the frame, keep the line moving, and hand everyone their prints, so that your guests only have to show up and enjoy it. The Keychain Booth comes with two people, one at the booth and one at the keychain station.
Who, exactly, is coming?
Ask whether the person at your event will be an employee the company trained or whoever a staffing agency had free that Saturday, and whether you will know their name before the day. We are small on purpose. The person who looks after your guests is one of four of us, and you will know which one it is well before you meet them.
Who trained them?
This one sounds odd until you think about what the job is. A photo booth is a camera, a light, and a person telling a group where to stand. Ask who taught the attendant to do that. Everyone who runs a booth for us was trained by the owner, who spent fifteen years photographing weddings and events before any of this was a photo booth company. That is worth exactly one thing to you, and it is the thing that shows up in the prints.
How many events do you take on the same date?
A company that books every event it can will eventually run short of people or equipment on a busy Saturday. Ask how they staff the popular dates. We hold a limited number of events per date, and we never take on more than we can staff properly, which is the whole reason for the cap.
How early do you arrive, and does it count against our hours?
A booth still being assembled when the doors open makes a poor first impression. Ask when they arrive, how long setup takes, and whether that time is billed. We typically arrive around two hours before the booth opens, so that everything is up and tested before your first guest sees it. Setup and packing down are our time, not yours. Your hours start when the booth opens to guests.
About the photos
What camera, lighting, and printer do you use?
This is the question almost nobody asks, and it decides more than any other. Flattering light is the difference between a print people keep and one they leave on the table. Ask what the booth is built around. A tablet and a ring light produce a very different print from a professional mirrorless camera with studio lighting and a dye-sublimation printer, and both exist under the name photo booth.
Can we see real prints from real events?
Sample images are easy to make look good. Ask for prints from actual weddings or events, ideally from a room like yours, because the lighting and the paper are what guests notice first and what a website hides best.
What sizes do you print, and does everyone get one?
Ask whether the booth prints the classic 2×6 strip, the full 4×6, or both, and whether guests choose. Then ask whether everyone in the photo gets a print or whether it is one per group, and whether there is a cap on sessions. With us, guests choose the strip, the 4×6, or one of each on every booth but the Classic, which prints the strip. Everyone in the frame gets a print, every time, and there is no limit on sessions.
Is the print designed for our event?
Some companies drop your names into the same border they use for everyone. Ask whether the design is built for your event, whether you see it before the night, and whether it costs extra. Ours is designed around your event and included in the price. You approve it before anything is printed, and a custom start screen with your names or your logo comes with it.
What do we get afterward, and who owns it?
Ask about digital copies, the gallery, watermarks, and who owns the photos. Guests should be able to send themselves the photo at the booth, and you should receive everything afterward without paying again for it.
With us, guests send their photos to themselves by text, email, or QR code before they walk away. You get an online gallery of everything, with face detection so that a guest finds every photo of themselves in seconds, free downloads, and no watermark on anything. You also get every photo without the design on it, which is the set your photographer will want. You and your guests own the photos. We may use a few for our own portfolio, and if you would rather we did not, say so and we will not.
If it has AI, do guests have to use it?
If you are considering an AI Booth, ask whether guests can decline, and whether they keep the real photo. On ours, the AI is offered on the screen and a guest can walk straight past it and take an ordinary photo. Anyone who does use it gets the original alongside it. Nobody trades a real photo for a novelty.
About your venue
How much space and power do you need?
Ask for the exact footprint before you promise a corner to anyone, and ask whether the booth needs an outlet. We need an eight by eight foot spot on level ground, and we run off battery packs, so we need no power from you. We bring the tables, the backdrop stand, and the lighting ourselves. Our space and setup guide covers all of it.
Are you insured, and will you deal with our venue?
Venues often ask every vendor for a certificate of insurance naming them. Ask whether the company carries its own and will handle the paperwork with the venue directly. We do both. Send us the venue’s requirements and we deal with them rather than routing it through you.
Can the booth go outside?
Ask this even if you are not planning an outdoor event, because the answer tells you how honest a company is. We would rather not go outside, and we say so plainly. When we do, two things are not negotiable. There has to be cover overhead, such as a tent or an overhang, and there has to be an indoor backup we can move to if the weather turns.
What happens if there is a gap in the night?
Ask what it costs to have the booth sit idle between cocktail hour and the reception, because most companies charge for it and the good ones tell you up front. With us that is an hour of idle time at $150, which keeps the booth in place and staffed rather than packed down and brought back in the middle of your event.
About the money
What is included, and what costs extra?
A low starting price with a long list of extras is not a low price. Ask what the quoted number covers and ask for the add-on list with prices. Ours includes the attendant, a print for every person in the photo, a backdrop, the designed print, the start screen, the gallery, and instant sharing, and our pricing page lists every add-on with its price. If you want the numbers explained, our guide to what a photo booth costs walks through them.
What reserves the date, and when is the rest due?
Ask what it takes to hold your date and when each payment is due, because until that is done the date is still open to anyone else. With us, a signed contract and a fifty percent retainer reserve it, and the balance is due one month before the event, so nobody is settling up while your guests are arriving. You get a proposal rather than an invoice, and signing and paying happen in the same place online.
Is there a travel fee?
Ask before you get attached to a company that turns out to be a long way off. We do not charge travel for Lancaster, York, Harrisburg, Hershey, Gettysburg, or Baltimore. Philadelphia, and anywhere further out, is quoted per event, so just ask. We try to be very reasonable about it, and you will know the number before you are invested in the idea.
Do prices go up for popular dates?
Some companies charge more for a Saturday in October. Ask. We do not. The price of a booth is the price of that booth, and what we have instead is a limited number of events per date, so the popular Saturdays fill up rather than getting more expensive.
What are the backdrops, and do they cost extra?
Ask how many backdrops there are and whether the one you want carries a fee. Every booth we run except the Classic includes your pick of the whole collection at no extra charge. The Classic comes with black or white.
Two questions to ask yourself
Did they answer clearly? A company that answers all of this quickly and plainly before you book is usually the same one that shows up early and handles the details on the night. A company that is vague about the camera or the hourly rate before you have paid anything is not going to get clearer afterward.
Did they tell you no? The best answer we give is sometimes that a cheaper booth would serve you better, or that a hundred keychains will not cover your headcount, or that the corner you have in mind is too small. Ask a question with an obvious upsell in it and listen for whether the answer is honest.
The short version
If you only have time for five, ask these.
- Will someone be at the booth the whole time, and who is it?
- What camera, lighting, and printer do you use?
- Is the print designed for our event, and does everyone in the photo get one?
- How much space do you need, and do you need power?
- What is included, what reserves the date, and is there a travel fee?
If you would like our answers in writing for your date, send us the details and a person will reply with a real number rather than a range.
