Almost every Colorado couple we talk to has already decided they want a photo booth. What they usually haven’t done is work out what separates a good one from a bad one — and by the time you find out, the wedding is over.
So here is the honest version: the things worth asking before you put down a deposit, from the people who show up with the booth.
1. The booth is covering a different hour than your photographer
This is the part couples most often miss. Your photographer is working the ceremony, the portraits, the first dance and the speeches. They are doing a specific job, beautifully, and then at some point in the evening they pack up and go home.
What nobody is covering is the hour after that — when your uncle is wearing someone else’s sunglasses and three of your friends have piled into one frame. A photo booth isn’t a second photographer. It’s a camera pointed at the part of the night nobody else is shooting.
If you’re choosing between a longer photography package and a booth, know that you’re buying two different hours, not the same hour twice.
2. Ask what “unlimited prints” actually means
Almost everyone advertises unlimited prints. Fewer will tell you how many copies per session. There’s a real difference between one strip per group and one strip per person — when six friends pile in and only one of them goes home with the photo, five people just queued for nothing.
Ask the question directly: how many prints come out per session, and what happens when eight people are in the frame?
3. Open-air and enclosed booths produce different weddings
An enclosed booth with a curtain fits two or three people. An open-air setup fits eight, and the people waiting can see what’s happening, which is why a queue forms and stays.
It’s not that one is better. It’s that an enclosed booth produces photos of couples, and an open-air booth produces photos of groups. Decide which one you want to be looking at in ten years.
Open-air also means the backdrop is part of your styling rather than hidden inside a box — so it can match your florals and your colours instead of fighting them.
4. The guest book is the part couples underestimate
Most weddings have a guest book. Most guest books end up with forty signatures and very little else, because signing your name in a hardback book is a slightly awkward thing to do sober and an impossible thing to do at eleven at night.
Run the second copy of every photo strip into a scrapbook instead, with a pen beside it, and something different happens. People glue their photo in and then write next to it — because now there’s a reason to. You end up with a book of faces and handwriting rather than a list of names.
If you take one thing from this article, make it this one. It costs almost nothing to add and it’s the thing couples tell us they’re most glad they did.
5. Check the power situation before you fall in love with the venue
Standard booths need mains electricity — for the kiosk, the lighting and the printer. That’s fine in a hotel ballroom and a genuine problem in a meadow.
Colorado has a lot of beautiful places to get married that have no power at all. The Maroon Bells is the obvious one: there’s no electricity hookup at the ceremony sites, which is why most rental companies decline those bookings outright and couples are quietly told a booth isn’t possible up there.
It is possible — you just need a booth that doesn’t need a hookup, and you need to ask before you book rather than after. The same applies to barn venues, ranch weddings and anywhere the reception spills outdoors.
6. What it actually costs in Colorado
Pricing in this industry is often hidden behind a contact form, which helps nobody. Ours is public, so you can at least calibrate:
- Digital only — from $695. Sharing to phones, no print table. Good for smaller receptions and tight venues.
- Prints and digital — from $1,095. Unlimited prints on the night plus instant sharing. This is what most weddings book.
- Everything — from $1,500. Adds the audio guestbook, magnetic photo strips and a fully custom backdrop.
Whoever you book with, check whether delivery, setup, teardown and an on-site attendant are included or billed separately. An unattended booth that jams at nine o’clock is worth nothing, however cheap it was.
7. Ask how and when you get the files
Guests get their photos on the night. You should get everything afterwards — the full-resolution originals of every frame, not a compressed gallery that expires in thirty days. Ask how it’s delivered and how long it stays available.
The short version
Ask how many prints per session. Ask whether it’s open-air. Add the scrapbook. Confirm there’s power — or book someone who doesn’t need it. Check that an attendant is included. Find out how you get the files.
Six questions, and they’ll tell you most of what you need to know about whoever you’re talking to.
If you’re planning a wedding anywhere from Aspen to Grand Junction, you can see how we do weddings, compare the packages, or just send us your date and we’ll tell you honestly whether we’re free.