Photo booth props: What are they?

Have you ever been at a gathering and wished you had taken more pictures? If you’re like me, you have a hard time coming up with photo ideas. Enter photo booth props.

These props vary from hats and boas to cut-outs of words. The first time I saw the concept was at some networking event. They had a section of the room set up for professional photos and to encourage people to get their photos taken, they had an array of fun props laid out.

Fast forward to March 2014 and my wedding. I was looking for a way to encourage people at the reception to take photos and post them on Facebook and instagram to let the folks who couldn’t make it share the fun. Of course, pinterest is the end all be all of DIY wedding planning, and that’s where I noticed the photo booth prop trend.

So, I Googled and found listing after listing on Etsy. Being who I am, nothing fit my expectations (or my budget), so my creativity kicked in and I designed some fun photo booth props myself.

Now you don’t need an actual photo booth to use these props. You just need a camera and a sense of humor.

I’m wondering why people don’t do this for more gatherings. It’s so easy! However, if you aren’t creative, which is not a bad thing, you can buy them at a fairly decent price or even have some made for you.

Photo booth props: When to use them

Really any gathering of people can use them. It doesn’t just have to be a wedding reception.  I’ve made photo booth props for tons of occasions: tailgating at college sporting events, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, baby showers, bachelorette parties in Las Vegas, and wine tasting parties.

Photo booth props: How much they cost

The ready made ones are the most expensive.  Someone had to put time and effort into creating the funny hats and mustaches on sticks, so you have to pay for that time and effort. Depending on how many photo booth props are included in a package, the price can range anywhere from $25 to $75.  The least expensive option is to go the photo booth props DIY route.  You can find tons of images and patterns on Etsy, including in my own store, where you get a digital download, usually a PDF, that you can use to print out photo booth props. All you need is a printer, some thick paper, sticks, and some glue. Mine sell for $2.50 to $3.25 depending on how many photo booth props are in the digital download.  Here are a few I just recently made:

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