10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Photo Booth Company

When interviewing a photo booth company for your wedding, we recommend asking the following questions below.

We’ve also listed out the correct answers you should be looking for:

• How long have you been in business? 5 years+ or 500+ events
• What camera do you use? “DSLR camera” or “mirrorless camera” (if photo quality is important to you)
• What’s your backup plan if your equipment fails or something happens to your team member on the day of the wedding? Ensure they have backups of all equipment on-site
• Are you insured? Ensure they have at least $1 million in liability insurance, which most venues require
• Are there any additional fees, like travel or setup fee? They should be upfront about any fees in their initial quote
• How many hours should I rent the photo booth for? Is setup included in these hours? For a wedding, we recommend 3 hours. The time required to setup or breakdown should not be counted as part of these 3 hours.
• Are unlimited photos and prints included? Answer should be YES
• Do guests receive digital copies same-night (text/email/QR gallery), and is there a private online gallery afterward? Answer to both of these should be YES
• What are your space, power, and Wi-Fi/internet requirements? Ensure your venue can accommodate whatever they answer
• Is there an attendant on-site the whole time? We recommend having an attendant, especially if you’re doing prints

Below we’ve detailed the importance of each of these questions:

How long have you been in business?

As we’ve discussed before, a lot goes wrong in the first couple years of a photo booth company’s life. No matter how much a new photo booth company plans ahead, many mistakes can’t be foreseen ahead of time, and they only learn from experience. These unexpected issues include things like a venue not having adequate power, printer or paper manufacturing errors, automatic software updates occurring during an event, the flash being triggered by another photographer’s camera, etc. An experienced photo booth company that’s been in business for 5+ years or has had 500+ events has learned from most of these situations and has processes in place to prevent them.

What camera do you use?

Many photo booths just use the lens of the ipad, similar to your laptop’s webcam, as well as a ring light, which will produce lower quality, grainy photos. This is perfectly fine if photo quality is not that important to you. However, if you do want quality photos, ensure you get a photo booth that uses an actual camera, which they’ll tell you is a “DSLR camera” or a “mirrorless camera”.

What’s your backup plan if your equipment fails or something happens to your team member on the day of the wedding?

Ensure your photo booth company has backup equipment on-site in case anything goes wrong. For example, at The Gala Photobooth, we have the following backups on-site – printer, camera, flash, tablet/Ipad, and every piece of electronic equipment. We also have a manager in the field in case anything goes wrong. Ensure your photo booth company also has a backup plan in case their team member gets sick or an emergency comes up.

Are you insured?

Most venues require general liability insurance of $1 million, so find out your venue’s insurance requirements for vendors before booking your photo booth company.

Are there any additional fees, like travel or setup fees?

Some companies will quote you with a low base price, and will nickel and dime you with other fees or add-ons, such as travel fees, so ensure you discover those fees upfront.

How many hours should I rent the photo booth for? Is setup included in these hours?

It’s common for a photo booth company to get you in the door at a low price for 2 hours of photo booth time, only for you to realize later that it’s not enough hours for a wedding. Most wedding receptions are 4 hours long, so 2 hours of photo booth time results in them either setting up while people are already in the room or breaking down the photo booth while the reception is still going on. 

We generally recommend having the photo booth open for at least 3 hours, and ensuring it’s fully setup before guests enter the room. Also keep in mind that people barely use the photo booth during dinner, so ask if there is a cost to having the photo booth turned off during that time. At The Gala Photobooth, we generally setup before guests enter the reception room, provide 3-4 hours of photo booth time during the reception, and provide one hour of “idle” time that allows you to keep the photo booth turned off during dinner so it doesn’t eat into your actual photo booth time, if you prefer.

Are unlimited photos and prints included?

Most modern photo booth companies provide unlimited photos and prints, but we recommend confirming this, as it should be included. 

Do guests receive digital copies of the photos at the wedding, and is there an online gallery afterward?

Every modern photo booth should include digital sharing of photos. This means that guests can either text or email the photos to themselves or scan a QR code or Airdrop the photo. At The Gala Photobooth, we provide text sharing since guests tend to like that more than email, as well as QR code scanning. We also have our own hotspot so we don’t need to rely on the venue’s wifi in order for guests to receive their digital photos immediately. Most photo booth companies provide an online gallery link to just the bride and groom; however, we provide the link to your guests as well unless you request otherwise.

What are your space, power, and Wi-Fi/internet requirements?

Whatever your photo booth company replies with, ensure your venue can accommodate this. 

Is there an attendant on-site the whole time?

A fun personable attendant can significantly add to the fun of the experience for your guests. In addition, an attendant is a MUST if your photo booth includes prints, since the printer is most common piece of equipment that can have technical issues.