I've known since early-on in the planning process that I wanted a photo booth. And that a real one is not in the budget. So I've been excitedly following each new, creative fauxtobooth idea that has come out.

I loved the classic look of the pro-manned Mrs. Avocado black and white booth - especially the use of the whiteboard!

How could I resist the photo frame wall?!?! I seriously spent an entire day brainstorming ways to adapt this to make it easy for volunteers/friends to set-up before admitting that I just couldn't do it.

And Our Labor Of Love's SmileBooth always has great results...

I considered creating a whole photo booth set-up, a la Mrs. Fondue, but started to get overwhelmed by the idea. Then I started to think about just setting up a backdrop, and having a designated photographer (slave/cousin). In the end though, it was just too hard. The only place where there is really room at the reception is on the front porch, and I just couldn't come up with anything that wouldn't look icky as people walked up.

I knew I wanted people to be able to leave messages, but I thought that a whole printer set-up would be way too complicated. I was convinced for a long time that I'd just provide white/chalkboards and have people write their message in the photo, and then print out the pictures as a book after the wedding, to serve as the guestbook. I'd post the photos online for everyone so they could see them all and order any that they wanted. It was such a good plan.

I just couldn't figure out where to set it up.

And then came pogo. Thank you, Polaroid, for coming out with a digital camera that prints 2x3 stickers! New plan: Just a general area with no backdrop. Slave/cousin takes photos or hands camera to guests (and makes sure that the battery stays charged and the film stays full). Guests take pictures, print them directly from the camera, and stick them into guestbook. Colorful pens provided for them to write notes/doodle/etc. Pictures are still uploaded for them to look at/order later!

Of course, the camera didn't come out until this summer, and is constantly sold out, so it was hard to track down, but it is on its way to me *right now*! (And thanks to my employee discount, I got 10% off by ordering it from target.com - I am seriously using every discount before I leave this job!) I can't wait to take it out and play around with it.