The at home birthday party! What to do, what to do? I agonize over this every year and I've tried a bunch of different things each with varying degrees of success, effort and of course, cost. The most recent and actually one of the most successful projects was a DIY Birthday Party PHOTO BOOTH, now age matters here and I think four and above is really the key.
To be fair, and I don't want to encourage an emphasis on the difference between the sexes (this was just an observation!!!), but this was way more exciting for our girl guests than the birthday boy and his counterparts, who spent most of the time chasing each other, but most of his party goers had a ton of fun doing this and I loved the results as keepsakes for myself and the other parents.
And it's oh so simple to do and can be inexpensive, or depending on how much hoarding you do, almost free! Now as a photographer, I obviously had all of these things on hand, so I spent absolutely no money whatsoever, but I realize that many people will not have a background stand just lying around, but you may have spring clamps, or clothes pins, and a sheet?! Now here are the tips for a successful DIY Birthday Party Photo Booth...
BACKDROP: The backdrop I used is 3 yards of jersey from Joann Fabrics, I have these in a ton of colors for portrait sessions, but I have used a freshly dried and wrinkle free sheet before with the exact same results.
BACKGROUND STAND: For the background stand depending on your home you may find a way to clip it between two trees or on the back of a fence, screened in porch etc, but Amazon also sells a relatively inexpensive background stand, as well. Here is the link, https://www.amazon.com/Backdrop-Adjustable-Photography-Background-Support/dp/B07FY4TVKH/ref=sr_1_8?crid=UZCILO61JDVZ&keywords=background%2Bstand%2Bamazon%2Bbasics&qid=1698438364&sprefix=background%2Bstand%2Bamazon%2Bbasics%2Caps%2C76&sr=8-8&th=1
Those are the major ingredients everything else can be whatever you have around the house.
PROPS: As for props, kids are so creative and have the greatest sense of humor, really anything works. I took old baby musical instruments, old Halloween costumes, both adult and children's, pinwheels, masks, headbands, scrunchies, winter hats, you name it and they can combine it! Scarves, costume jewelry, hats of any kind and sunglasses are all perfect.
THEME: This is where you can decide how much effort and expense you're willing to shell out. I had zero theme and just let them run wild, but if your kid loves, pirates, princesses or Paw Patrol, man, oh man are there a ton of things you can find to build a perfectly curated photo booth. I guess the point is that you totally don't have to and they have fun either way. And that's the real beauty of it.
Hope you loved this idea, it is pretty painless, but this is coming from a woman who was creating felt crowns from scratch until midnight last year for her kiddo's third birthday. Comparitively, this was a breeze indeed!
Now here's a little reel I made to show it off. Thinking of offering this as a service, as well, what do you think??? Bring back the photo booth! Long live the early 2000s (I'm pretty sure that was the photo booth's heyday)? I hope you enjoyed this post about throwing a great DIY Birthday Party Photo Booth! Thanks for reading.