A photo booth is one of the few wedding suppliers that has to physically fit somewhere, plug into something, and be carried through a door. Most couples book one on the strength of the booth style and find out about the rest on the day.
Here are the questions worth settling before you book, most of which are about your venue rather than the booth. If you would rather ask them on the phone, call 843-256-6098.
Start with where it is going, not what it looks like
Booth style is the fun decision and the last one that matters. The first is whether the room can take it.
Ask your venue three things: how much floor space is actually free once the tables are set, where the nearest power outlet is, and whether the booth position is somewhere guests will walk past. A booth in a side room is a booth nobody uses. A booth between the bar and the dance floor is one that runs all night.
A 360 booth needs meaningfully more clear floor than a mirror booth, because guests stand on a platform and an arm rotates around them. If your reception room is tight, that decision gets made for you.
Lowcountry venues have their own constraints
We drive to these venues every wedding season, so the access notes below come from turning up at them rather than from a brochure. They affect a photo booth for the same reason they affect a shuttle: something has to get in, and then back out at midnight.
DeBordieu Colony is gated. Every vehicle and every supplier needs to be on the access list in advance, and the list closes before the day. Photo booth companies get caught by this more often than transport companies, because a booth arrives once and nobody thinks to add it. See our notes on DeBordieu private car service for how the access list works.
Brookgreen Gardens has controlled access and a specific arrival route. Load-in and load-out both need to be agreed in advance, and the end of the night is the harder half.
Litchfield Plantation and Pawleys Plantation sit at the end of long, narrow approach roads. Not a problem for a booth, but it does mean a supplier arriving in the dark without directions will be late.
Outdoor and tented receptions change the question entirely. Power comes from a generator rather than a wall, humidity is real on the coast in summer, and a booth needs a covered position rather than an optimistic one. Ask early. The full list of Lowcountry wedding venues we work with is a good starting point.
How long to book it for
The instinct is to have the booth running from the moment the reception opens. In practice the first hour is drinks and conversation, and almost nobody uses it.
The booth earns its money between the end of dinner and the last hour of the night, once guests have loosened up and the dance floor has started. If you are choosing between starting earlier and finishing later, finish later.
Work backwards from your transport, too. If the guest shuttle leaves at eleven, a booth booked until midnight is an hour of nobody. Line the two up.
Attended or unattended
An attendant matters more than couples expect. Somebody has to reset the props, restock the prints, help the guests who cannot work the screen, and deal with the moment something stops responding at ten at night.
Ask whether an attendant is included or extra, and whether they stay the whole booking. An unattended booth is fine for a corporate drinks event. At a wedding, at the point in the night when the booth is busiest, it is the wrong economy.
Prints, digital, or both
Prints are the thing guests take home and stick on a fridge. Digital is the thing that ends up in the group chat that night and on social the next morning. They do different jobs and most couples want both.
Worth asking: are prints unlimited or capped, do guests get a copy each or one per group, and how do you receive the full gallery afterwards. That last one is the question people forget and then chase for three weeks.
Match it to the room, not to Pinterest
A booth sits in your photographs whether you planned for it or not. A neon backdrop in a plantation ballroom will be in the corner of every wide shot from the reception.
Ask what the backdrop options are and whether the print template can be customised to your names and date. If the venue is doing the work visually, a plain backdrop and a clean template usually beats a busy one. Our photo booth options page shows the styles side by side.
Booking the booth and the transport together
This is the practical reason we do both. A wedding has a lot of suppliers and most of them do not talk to each other. When the same company is running the guest shuttle and the booth, the timings line up without you being the person in the middle relaying them.
It also means one access list, one arrival plan for a gated venue, and one phone number on the day. If you are already arranging wedding transportation with us, adding the booth is a conversation rather than a second contract.
Ask us about your venue
Photobooth by Southern Charm serves Myrtle Beach, Pawleys Island and Georgetown, for weddings, corporate events, proms and parties.
Tell us your venue and your reception timings and we will tell you what fits, what the access looks like, and how it lines up with your transport. Call 843-256-6098.