5 ways to get the most out of disposable cameras at your wedding
Wedding planning ideas
I have photographed lots of weddings in the past where the couple have spent money on disposable cameras with high hopes of getting some wonderful and hilarious photos from their guests but the results have been disappointing. Too often couples end up with only a handful of clear shots and some of those are of the floor.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t bother with them, in fact it’s quite the opposite, when they are used well at a wedding the results are amazing and are worth every penny so you should definitely give them a go.
I have a 5 awesome tips and ideas to not only help you get better results from your disposable cameras but also get your guests having lots of fun too!
1.Have the disposable cameras out at the right time
Having the cameras available to your guests at the right time is a big part to getting good results. The perfect time for your guests to use them is during the drinks receptions or just after dinner at a point in the day when there are no major events in the schedule and the guests welcome something fun to do.
If the cameras are available to early on while guests are busy catching up they will be missed and less likely to be noticed later. Equally if they guests have them to late after a few drinks the chances of them remembering to put the flash on is slim resulting in lots of dark prints.
Having the cameras available at the right time doesn’t just get you better photos, with a little imagination and creativity they can be used to entertain your guests and fill the quieter parts of the day with fun and excitement.
2.Create a fun tick list of photos for your guests to capture
A tick list of photos for your guests to capture is a great way to get lots of people involved at once and give you a great chance of getting a huge variety of photos.
At our wedding we put one camera, along with a tick list, on each table and it was a huge success. Guests didn’t see the cameras until they were sat for dinner and having them at the tables meant people really stopped to look and read the list. Guests worked their way through the list between courses and after dessert, entertaining them while we walked round to see everyone.
The tick list was titled ‘I Spy’ which caught our guests eye and instantly told them there was a game to play. It included photos like – A beautiful dress – Dancing feet – A funny face – The bride & groom – A photo of you. From this list we managed to get a photo of pretty much every guest either with their partners or as a whole group from each table, we also got some hilarious self portraits too!
3. Disposable camera photo booth
Another great way to get some hilarious photos from your guests is to set up a little photo booth area withing your wedding reception venue. Adding a few props and a sign to the photo booth area would be a great way to attract your guests to the camera and get them taking part.
We all know how much guests love a photo booth, this is a great way to make your own at a fraction of the price and still get some wonderful photos.
For this to work well it would be best for the photo booth to be put out before guests arrive for their welcome drink or during dinner so it is ready for them when they walk back into the room. Don’t leave it too late, if your guests have had a few to many later in the evening they will still have lots of fun taking the photos but you might not get as many that were taken successfully.
Asking the groomsmen or a close friend to notify the guests of the photo booth is a huge help in getting more people to take part. You could even spend a little time with your guests at the photo booth and get some hilarious photos with your nearest and dearest – Wherever you are your guests will be.
4. Make sure the flash is on!
This is one of the most important things to remember but also the hardest to control. Without the flash those little disposable cameras just can’t cope so do your best to make get the message across to your guests before they take a photo.
You could write it in big bold letters on the cameras, or make a large sign that goes next to the photo booth or camera station.
For our wedding we put ‘DON’T FORGET TO PUT THE FLASH ON’ in big bold letters at the bottom of our tick list and it seemed to do the trick, we only had one table out of 9 that forgot on a few shots which is bloody good going.
Photo idea
Me & my husband kept one camera for our table and made sure we took a couple of shots of each other on the day too. You can see the results below, they are hilarious!
5. Get a cheap disposable or toy camera for each child that you invite to your wedding
Children love to be involved and if the adults are playing with disposable cameras they will definitely want a go, so if you plan to have more then a couple of children at your wedding you may want to get them a camera all of their own.
I worked on a wedding a few years ago where all the children wanted to have a go and the adults let them, which is fine and the kids had great fun, but it meant that most of the photos were taken without the flash resulting in hardly any prints at the end of it.
By giving each child there own camera to play with you know that the cameras brought for the adults to enjoy will all be used for the correct purpose and you will have a much higher chance of getting some awesome shots.
Saying that my nephew was a real start at our wedding an not only got some amazing photos on our disposable camera but got a couple of cracking photos with this big boys camera too.
Some of these images were captured by the wonderful Darina Stoda photography
