diy wedding photo booth props

Helloooooo!

I know photo booths at weddings are no longer a big surprise or something “different”…everyone has them.  In fact, we attended three weddings last year, and each wedding had some variation of a photo booth.  But I really wanted one-I love them.  They catch candid funny photos of guests that a photographer simply does not have time to catch (and there’s something about the concealed photo booth that brings out the crazy in people).  As I mentioned in my last post, I am cheap frugal. And after doing lots of pricing, I realized I could not justify paying full price for photo booth services.  But about a year before the wedding, we found a Groupon for half off photo booth services.  One of our best purchases, we booked the photo booth for half price.

I was lucky that this photo booth company are great.  I wanted to customize everything, and they were all for it.  I asked if I could make a backdrop, they said of course!  I wanted to make my own props, they were all for it!  Come the actual day of the wedding, when our allotted time was up and there was still a line of family and friends who wanted to take some photos—he kindly obliged and stayed past the time.  If you’re in the Denver metro area, I would HIGHLY recommend them  (Visit their Facebook page here, see our album here).

I made our backdrop by dying coffee filters.  I folded them into fourths and cut out hearts.  I made various patterns and attached them to hangers.  Which I never really thought about—because you can see the hangers in some of the photos, but oh well.  If I would have thought about it, I would have painted them black to match the backdrop.  But it was my first time making a backdrop for a photo booth, so let’s hope someone else can learn from my mistake :)  I liked the variety and now actually have them hanging up in my Kindergarten classroom, which the kids love.

I wanted fun props.  Are you, too, a little over the mustaches, glasses, gigantic neon colored sunglasses, and feather boa wedding props?  Wanting something different?  Something that represents you and your husband a little better?  Me too. We decided on a few of our favorite things… Superheroes (Hubster is a big nerd), Top Gun and Blues Brothers (iconic movies from the decade we were born), and Bride & Groom.  We also picked these themes because they were easy to shop for.   We had these posters displayed by the props at the props table…

We made a fake bouquet of flowers, bought a cheap-o veil from Hobby Lobby for the bride and made a (really funny) beard for the groom.

Enter a talented friend. We made the props on poster board with paint, sharpies and utility knives…

For the Blues Brothers we bought knock off Raybans and Fedoras and Walmart and made the quote “I’m on a mission from God”.  For Top Gun we found knock off aviators at Walmart and I borrowed leather jackets from friends with the quotes “I feel the need…the need for speed!”

We arranged the items in boxes to be displayed at the wedding. They did not stay organized for very long, but that didn’t matter.

 

And here are some of the gems from the night…

As you can tell…Austin had a lot of fun at the Tequila bar.  More on that later.

Places we find inspiration.

maggie.

 

Challenge 8: Engagement Photos (Maggie)

For our first challenge of the year, we decided on a Valentine’s Day theme. It was very open ended and I had a lot of ideas and a lot of different directions I wanted to go. But it occurred to me that this is the only Valentine’s day that I will carry the label “fiancée” so I better make it count.

I was really unsure of this “engagement photography shoot” idea that seems to be a must-do lately. I loved the idea of having these photos, but I was stressed out about a lot of things—what to wear, who to take the photos, where to take the photos, etc. So for this challenge, I’ve assembled a list of of how to minimize the stress and maximize the bliss.

5 Steps to Perfect Engagement Photos

5.  Find a photographer who fits your vision.

Lately, I have had lots of friends and family that have gotten married.  Each set of engagement photos are so different—some are modern, some are classic, some are edgy, some are relaxed…  I knew I wanted something in the middle.  I didn’t want too modern (have you seen those photos where you are left wondering if the couple even loves each other because throughout the entire shoot they are scowling the entire time…?)  I didn’t want too classic, because sometimes that seems too safe.  So I sought to find a photographer who had a balanced vision.  Someone with an artistic eye but also someone who truly wanted to capture our love. 
I had the great fortune that my uncle is friends with an extremely talented photographer.  After glancing through his portfolio, I knew he had that balance I was looking for.  If you’re in the Denver metro area, I would recommend him to anyone.  In the photo on the left, you can see that he has a unique eye for incorporating art into his photography.  On the right, he was able to capture how entirely enamored I am with my fiancé.  The absolute perfect balance.

4. Wear clothes that make you feel confident.

This is fantastic advice I received from a friend who recently took her own engagement photos. So I sought to find clothes of colors that I love. I would also suggest pops of color, We were al little more monochromatic than I originally planned for, but that was a little out of my hands (see #3 below). But there were a couple of pictures that included the small pops of colors and they are lovely.
 

3. Some things are out of your control, but sometimes those things make for unique photo opportunities.
Somehow, we booked our engagement photo session on a day that Colorado decided to dump about 2 feet of snow. I figured the photographer would cancel and we’d reschedule for another day. To my surprise, he wanted to go ahead and go for it. I’m so glad we did. I love, love, love the snow.
But on occasion, I did have to tell myself that it was going to be ok that I wasted a week planning an outfit that would be mostly covered by a jacket. Or that I wasted an hour straightening my hair. The snow certainly did frizz it out, but bygones. So be it rain, snow, or shine (or wind, or clouds or whatever mother nature chooses for your day), confront it with a smile. If the pictures don’t turn out exactly how you want, at the very least you and your fiancé will have a good story about it. But my guess is it will provide for photo ops that will set your photos apart from all others.

Frizzy hair?  Yep.  Am I mad about it?  Nope.

2.  Bring your ideas, be open to others.

I spent a good amount of time on Pinterest looking for my favorite engagement photos to try to capture similar moments.  Our photographer was open to all of our ideas.  I returned the favor by being open minded to his as well.  Especially when I heard him say, “Hey, you should kick snow in her face.” Wait, what?  Is this really happening?  Yep.  Or “Hey, run down this sidewalk and then I want you to tackle Maggie.”  I could have fought it and said “Thanks, but not thanks.” But that would have been a shame--they turned out great.  It’s like Andrew (the photographer) knew us at our core—that we are goofs and are playful and ridiculous. 

1.  Pretend the photographer isn’t even there. 

The greatest moments happened when Andrew told us to go about as if he wasn’t even there.  We had real conversations, we made jokes, and we loved every moment.  It was perfect.

If you are in the process of planning your own engagement photos, best of luck and enjoy it!  xoxo—maggie.  Find some of our favorite places to visit.

Meet the Fowlers/Lorimers

I am really excited about this post.  It has been almost 1 year in the making, but it was time sensitive.  I didn't want to reveal any wedding gifts prior to the big day... So, here goes.

During 2010, I attended a total of six weddings.  In 2011, I have been to two weddings with one more to go.  For 2012, there is a tentative 2 already planned.  From this, I have learned one thing…Wedding gifts are expensive.  (Ok, I’ve also learned love is beautiful, love is kind, etc etc etc).  I also learned that buying presents off of their wedding registry can be really boring, especially if you procrastinate and there is nothing good left on their list (or the only things remaining are somewhere between $5-$7 or $100). 

Austin and I have friends who got married in September 2010.  They are wonderful people, and I wanted to make them something personalized—and also something that they would actually enjoy.  So Austin and I embarked on a project that was inspired by my brother’s high school photography project from about 3 years ago.  For his project, he had to take pictures of random objects that looked like letters.  He needed one picture per letter of the alphabet.  I wanted to take pictures in nature that spelled out there last name.  I’m sure you have seen similar art work, I think Target recently carried a similar piece of art that spelled out “believe” or “hope” or something like that.

A how-to on creating a personalized wedding present for a couple that you love.

Step One.

The first thing to do is decide on a location.  Yes, you could take all of the pictures at various places, but I wanted to gather them all from a meaningful location.  So I settled on a park in our college town.  This park was perfect for many, many reasons.

1.      Marissa and I went on a field trip to this park in our Earth Science class our freshman year of college.

2.      It’s located in our college town. 

3.      It’s a memorial park for veterans.  Mark is not a veteran, but his father is, and they did get married at the Air Force base, so it just seemed appropriate.

Step Two.

Take pictures!  At times, you have to get very, very, very creative.  Especially for the difficult letters.  Their last name is Fowler.  Basically, “o” was the only super easy one.  We found tons, and tons, and tons of usable o’s. "L" and "e" were also pretty simple to find.

“F”, “w”, and “r” were not quite so easy.  There were lots of tree branches that resembled an f, but there was not enough of a contrast against the background for it to really stand out.  

Step Three.

Upload pictures onto your computer.  Pick the best options.  I used Picasa 3 (it's free!) to crop photos (it's important to keep all the dimensions of all the individual photos the same to ensure that they will all be equal sizes in the final product), manipulate lighting, etc.  Then I used Microsoft Publisher (not so free...But I'm sure there are many, many other programs that would work) to put the letters in the right order. 

 

Step Four.
Look into printing options.  I used Snapfish.  But I found that my dimensions of the final product was not really available for a large sized print.  So I added a top and bottom border and "Welcome to the [Fowler] home".



Additionally, Austin and I were privileged to both be in our friends' wedding.  Jeff proposed to Katie at a park, so it seemed fitting to take all of the pictures at said park...The end result:

  

I personally really liked the goose head...  probably my favorite component of this one.  I'm still learning the fine art of balancing photos so that they work nicely together and are close to the same size.  So far, I'm fairly happy with the results.  It's a fun gift, personalized gift to make and one that I am happy to give.  For the Lorimer's, I gave them the choice to determine what they wanted to do with the print.  I gave them a 4 x 6 copy and told them I would order whatever they would want (poster, cards, etc...) 

I'd love to see if anyone has completed similar projects!!

(Places we share inspiration)