How much does a wedding photo booth cost?

Add up what a wedding photo booth actually costs from the quote you have: the hours of booth time at their rate, the booth type if you are upgrading to a mirror or a 360 rig, the attendant, the prints your guests take home, a custom backdrop and album, the branded print template, and the delivery and idle time. The line couples cut first is usually the one they miss most afterwards.

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Hours of booth time

What the contract says the booth is open, from when guests can first use it to when the attendant packs it away. Most receptions run the booth through dinner and dancing.

The booth is busiest in the gap between the meal and the dancing, and quiet during both. Three hours covers that window at a smaller reception; a longer night or a bigger guest list wants four or more. Ask when the clock starts, because setup and teardown are usually outside the paid hours and a booth that opens during the ceremony is paid time nobody is using.

Their hourly rate, per hour (dollars)

If you were quoted a package rather than an hourly figure, divide the base package by its included hours and put that here. The default is ours and it is a placeholder.

A package rate divided by its hours is the whole small business, not a wage: the booth hardware and the camera in it, the printer and its consumables, the vehicle, the insurance the venue asks to see, the attendant's evening, and the weekends of the year with no bookings. Two vendors quoting the same hourly figure can deliver very different nights, so read what the hour actually includes before you compare on rate.

Booth type upgrade: mirror, glam or 360 (dollars)

The jump from a standard open-air booth to a mirror booth, a glam black-and-white setup or a spinning 360 video rig. Leave at zero if you are booking the standard booth.

An open-air booth on a backdrop is the baseline and it photographs a group well. A mirror booth adds a full-length touchscreen; a glam booth is the retouched black-and-white look; a 360 booth is a platform that spins a camera around guests for a short video rather than a print. Each is a different object at a different price, and the 360 in particular is video, so ask how guests receive the clip.

Attendant on site (dollars)

The person who runs the booth, restocks the printer and keeps the queue moving. Many packages include one; some bill it separately. Leave at zero if it is already in the rate.

An attendant is the difference between a booth that works all night and a jammed printer that stays jammed at nine o'clock. They load props, clear paper jams, help guests who have not used one before, and mind the album if you have one. Confirm whether the quoted rate includes an attendant for the full booked hours, because an unattended booth is a cheaper and riskier thing.

Unlimited prints or print upgrade (dollars)

The upgrade from a set number of prints, or digital only, to unlimited prints all night. Leave at zero if unlimited prints are already in the package.

This is the line couples cut to save money and miss most afterwards. Unlimited prints means every group that steps in walks away holding a strip, and the strips are what end up on fridges and in cards for years. A digital-only booth is cheaper and gives everyone the file, but nobody carries a file out of the reception. Decide this one deliberately rather than by price.

Custom backdrop, props and guest album (dollars)

A backdrop matched to your colours, a box of props, and a guest album where a second copy of each strip is pasted in with a note. Priced on top of most base packages.

The album is the keepsake version of the booth: the attendant pastes a duplicate of every strip into a book and guests write beside their photo, and you get a signed record of who came and what they were like at eleven at night. A custom backdrop ties the booth into the room; a plain sequin backdrop is usually included. Props range from a basic box to a themed set.

Custom print template and digital gallery (dollars)

The printed strip laid out with your names and date, and an online gallery where guests download their photos after the wedding. Some vendors include both, some charge for the design.

The template is a small design job: your names, the date and the colours laid out on the strip so it reads as yours rather than a generic frame. The gallery is where the digital copies live afterwards, and it is worth confirming how long it stays online and whether guests can download the full-resolution files or only share thumbnails.

Delivery, setup and idle time (dollars)

Mileage beyond an included radius, and idle time if the vendor sets up early and waits through a part of the evening with the booth closed. Leave at zero unless the quote lists it.

Idle time is the charge couples do not see coming: if the booth has to be set up before the ceremony but only opens after dinner, the closed hours in between are often billed at a reduced idle rate. Ask whether setup and teardown sit inside or outside the booked hours, and whether your venue is inside the vendor's included travel radius.

Estimated cost

$650

Booth time (hours by rate)$500
Booth type upgrade$0
Attendant on site$0
Unlimited prints or print upgrade$0
Custom backdrop, props and guest album$100
Custom print template and digital gallery$50
Delivery, setup and idle time$0
Total$650

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Under about $700 this is a standard open-air booth for three or four hours, and the prints line is where a cheaper package usually differs. Check specifically whether prints are unlimited or digital only and whether an attendant is included, because those two lines are the difference between a booth that works all night and a cheaper thing that does not.

PlanningWedding budget tracker↗The booth is one line among a dozen vendor budgets.RelatedWedding DJ cost↗The booth sits next to the dancing the DJ runs.

What this assumes, and where it could be wrong

Every one of these is a place the number could be off. They are here because you should be able to check our working, not because we are hedging.

EVERY FIGURE HERE IS FROM YOUR OWN QUOTE. THIS PAGE ESTIMATES NOTHING.

No federal survey publishes what a wedding photo booth charges, and we are not going to invent a national figure or average one out of a wedding site's survey of its own customers. The defaults in the form are ours, they are placeholders so the page has something to draw, and replacing them with the numbers on the quote in front of you turns this from a sketch into an exact comparison.

An hourly rate divided out of a package is a gross business rate, not somebody's wage.

Out of it come the booth hardware and the camera inside it, the printer and the paper and ink it burns through all night, the vehicle that moves it, the liability insurance the venue asks to see, the attendant's evening, and the weekends of the year with no booking. Two vendors quoting the same hourly figure can deliver very different nights, which is why the rate is the start of the comparison rather than the end of it.

The hours and the prints are the two lines that move the total, and couples negotiate the wrong one. Trimming an hour off a four-hour booking saves one line at the rate; dropping unlimited prints to digital only saves another, and it is the one guests notice, because a file in an inbox is not a strip in a hand. Decide the prints line on what you want the guests to walk out holding, not on where it sits in the quote.

The booth type is a bigger jump than the hourly rate suggests. A standard open-air booth on a backdrop photographs a group well and is the baseline everything else is priced against. A mirror booth, a glam black-and-white setup or a spinning 360 video rig are different objects at different prices, and the 360 delivers a video clip rather than a print, so confirm how guests receive it before you assume it replaces the prints.

The attendant is worth confirming line by line, because an unattended booth is a cheaper and riskier thing. The attendant loads props, clears the printer jams that happen once a night, helps the guests who have never used one, and minds the album. A package that quotes a low rate and leaves the attendant out is not comparable to one that includes a person for the full booked hours, so check which you are being quoted.

This total is the booth and it stops there. The venue, catering, the photographer, the videographer and the band or DJ are separate budgets and mostly larger ones. What the booth changes about the rest of the night is small: it wants a few square metres near the dancing, a power socket, and a spot that is neither the darkest corner nor the middle of the dance floor.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a wedding photo booth cost?

Take the quote in front of you and add the lines: the booth hours at their rate, any upgrade to a mirror or 360 booth, the attendant if it is billed separately, unlimited prints, a custom backdrop and guest album, the branded print template and gallery, and delivery or idle time. Put those in the form above and the total is exact rather than estimated. There is no national photo booth price to quote, because no federal survey measures one, and a figure averaged across vendors and markets would describe nobody's actual quote.

Are unlimited prints worth it, or is digital enough?

It depends on what you want your guests to leave with. Unlimited prints means every group that steps in walks out holding a strip, and the strips are what end up on fridges and in cards for years afterwards. Digital only is cheaper and gives everyone the file through a gallery, but a file in an inbox is quieter than a strip in a hand at the reception. If the booth is there to give guests a keepsake on the night, prints are the line to keep; if it is there for the online gallery, digital does the job for less.

What is a 360 photo booth and does it cost more?

A 360 booth is a platform a guest stands on while a camera on an arm spins around them and records a short slow-motion video, rather than printing a strip. It is a different object from a standard photo booth and usually a pricier one, and because it delivers video there is nothing to print: guests receive the clip digitally to share. It photographs a couple or a small group well and a large group poorly, and it takes longer per turn, so at a big reception the queue is worth thinking about. Decide whether you want prints in hands or clips on phones before you compare the two on price.

How many hours of photo booth do I need?

Three to four hours covers the part of the night the booth is actually busy, which is the gap between the meal and the dancing and the first stretch of the dancing itself. The booth is quiet during dinner and quiet late once the dance floor has taken over, so booking it open for the whole reception often pays for hours nobody uses. Ask when the vendor wants the clock to start, and keep the paid hours over the window when guests are between one thing and the next rather than seated or dancing.

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