Add a sense of childhood nostalgia to your wedding reception and send a keepsake home with all of your guests, by renting a photo booth!

For the last two years photo booths have been increasing in popularity at weddings, with the advent of the digital photo booth. While they will never replace a professional photography (just try dancing your first dance in a traditional photo booth to get some pictures, not going to happen) a photo booth at your reception will add fun, be a conversation piece and can be enjoyed by everyone!

There are two types of true photo booths.

The traditional or classic photo booth which uses chemicals to develop actual photographic paper with four pictures on it. The classic photo booth is slow to produce the strips, anywhere from 90 seconds to 7 minutes, which decreases the amount of photos and times the guests can enjoy the experience. The classic weighs anywhere between 300 to 900 pounds so transportation cost is a factor.

The digital photo booth is the modernized version of the classic. Portable, quick to set up and just as easy to use. Digital photo booths offer a lot of options their classic cousins just don't have. Not only can you have the traditional vertical stack of four images, taken one after another, but you can have the sheet customized to reflect you or your wedding! The digital photo booth also offers the ability to print out a post card shape strip instead of the traditional vertical.

Is there a picture that you or some of your guests would love to have a 4x6, 5x7 or 8x10 made of? Most digital photo booths store the images for reprinting later on. Some rental companies offer montages, set to music of the images or the original digital files, on DVD.

Another advantage of digital photo booths is the ability to share with everyone on the outside what is happening on the inside! Some booths offer the ability to play back as a montage all the images taken as soon as they are taken. So you can see that crazy face your best friend made before the image is even printed to paper.

What to look for in a photo booth.

With the popularity of the photo booth increasing lots of people are calling things photo booths that just are not a photo booth! We all know what a photo booth looks like, every time we go to the mall there is one there. They are a box with a camera on one wall, a small bench on the other and most can fit 4 people comfortably. You step in, sit down and pull close the privacy curtain and hit the button to start the pictures. Limited space is half the fun! In college I and my girlfriends decided to see if we could get 15 of us into one picture in a two person photo booth. We managed to get 8 heads and a half in one picture. (Wish I could find my copy of that strip today.) That is what I consider a photo booth, not only are photo booths where you throw inhibitions to the wind and get funky, but where the challenge can be getting everyone in the picture! The memories of high school and college.

But today, to make a quick buck people are throwing the label photo booth on just about anything. Last year I saw a supposed photo booth, it was a section of pipe and drape (nothing boothy about it) against a wall and opposite it a camera hooked to a cheap printer. The photographer then stood there and told everyone to smile. Not a photo booth.

Then there was the ad I saw recently touting the "photo booth that can fit as many people as you want". Once again it was pipe and drape, but this time at least in the shape of a rectangle and again a camera on a tripod with a cable run to a printer... Blah! Not a photo booth.

Then there is a company offering the "Open Air Photo Booth", two boxes stacked, one with a camera, the other a printer, no "booth". Just slightly above the camera on a tripod.

So if you are going to spend $1500 renting a photo booth, I recommend making sure it's a real booth, hard sided rectangular with a bench and curtain and not something that should be hanging from your windows. Oh and the photo trigger at your touch, not someone standing outside with a laptop telling you to go "cheese" and clicking a mouse...

Digital photo booths don't use chemicals and photo paper, but any printer that can interface with the software. So this means the photo strip can be printed by a laser, inject or dye-sub printer. Talking with a few photographers and doing some internet research it looks like a dye-sub printer will be the closest experience to chemical printing. Dye-sub is long lasting, comes the closest to looking like photo paper and truly prints a 2x6 strip of paper if you want the classic feel. All other options must be manually trimmed to feel like the classic strip. Also the dye-subs are very fast, approximately 30 seconds.

As with any service or rental you have on your wedding day, make sure you have a contract and that the vendor has liability insurance. Then step inside, pull the curtain close and get FUNKY and have fun!

Oh and still not convinced you should get a photo booth for your reception? The photo strips make fantastic party favors for your guests that they will treasure for a lifetime!

Labels: photo booth, wedding reception

Guest Blog by Brian Peterson.
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I've been involved in weddings professionally since 1989 and one of the disappointing things about our local area has been the lack of a facility that can bring the big city feel to a wedding reception. If you ever have been to a wedding in NY, Chicago, LA or Atlanta, you know what I mean. We have fantastic locations like Palais Royale, Windsor Park, Knollwood Country Club, Marriott, etc which are top locations for a wedding. But they are products of the midwest small town feel, lacking the big city type ambiance, attitude and pomp of a Four Seasons, Ritz, Drake or Marriott banquet hall in downtown Chicago. And this has been detrimental to how people look at what can be done when it comes to a wedding in the local area. I cringe every time I hear a guest comparing the wedding they are at locally to one they attended elsewhere and I hear them say "But you couldn't do that in this town..." or in at a wedding that came close to pulling off that big city feel "I didn't know they could do that here..." I know full what that you can do anything here that you can do in the big cities, our professionals in the various industries are just as good as anything Chicago can dig up, but that lack of a certain "ambiance" for lack of a better word has perpetuated this attitude that we are in some way "less" than the big cities.

Well ladies and gentlemen that is about to change!

Tonight I had the honor of being invited to an Open Plate at the new Hilton Garden Inn on the Saint Marys Campus and the Fleur de Lis Ballroom (the banquet hall's name may change before they open so from here on out I'm just going to call it the banquet hall or Hilton). An open plate is where a banquet or catering facility invites the professionals they interact with on a regular basis in to show off their capabilities or inform them of something new. Unfortunately Amy couldn't attend so she left it up to me to write up this report on this new facility.

I've been involved in the wedding industry for 18 years and honestly having worked in downtown Chicago, traveled to Las Vegas, NY and Atlanta for jobs I've become somewhat jaded and honestly it takes a lot to impress me. Well tonight I wasn't just impressed I was blown away! General Manager James and his management team of Nicole and Leanne (I'm bad with names so forgive me that I can't remember their last names) are some of the sharpest, friendliest and have a can do attitude that I have not encountered in a long time! They love what they are doing and it shows. Also how open they are to ideas and feedback was very refreshing.

The banquet hall is still under construction and they've barely begun decorating but this is going to be the it place in town. The hotel itself has a bright urban feel to it that will continue into the banquet hall, a major contrast to the "country club" feel that we have in most of our higher end banquet facilities in the region. The hall itself is spacious, open with a large entry area that wraps half way around the hall which will be a fantastic place to hold cocktails before entry into the main hall for dinner and dancing. Of most benefit to someone like me at the Hilton Gardens vendors will no longer have to enter through the same doors and disturb guests trying to get our equipment in. The new facility supplies a hidden side entry where we have direct access to the hall, without cutting through public areas.

Another thing that has me excited about the facility is the lighting opportunities. No banquet hall in town till now has really had the ability to light the hall like many do in the big cities. If you wonder what I mean look at the picture below. While this is very basic and was done at the Bridal Spectacular for the Hilton's booth, this is an example of what can be done. As a videographer this makes me very excited because frankly a hall light entirely like that and then some, makes really pretty pictures. And I like making pretty pictures. So I can't wait to see someone hire Michaelangelos and let them go to town like they've never done locally.

Outside decor. By summer a beautiful garden area will be constructed in front of the hall where they also intend to hold outdoor weddings. From the plans we were shown this is going to be one killer garden.

All of this will be finished soon, their first wedding reception will be held there on February 9 so there is less than a month till it opens.

For me though, the true test of a banquet facility, no matter how pretty the interiors or friendly the staff is the food. When you are paying $30 and up per person to hold a reception and you are served crappy food, well that's not a hall I'm going to refer. So it is always with some trepidation that I have approached a new hall and it's cooking. I've been shocked by how bad some places are. If you're wondering I have nothing but praise for Palais, Windsor, Knollwood and the Marriott listed above and St Hedwigs for it's west side Polish dinners... After a look around we were invited into the kitchen by Jim, Nicole and Leanne to enjoy a dinner from their Chef Kirk Dixon.

We were of course given a run down of the Chef's accomplishments and while many the one that stuck out to me is he was once in the employee of Chef Puck at Spagos. Okay that' s impressive, but how was the food? EXQUISITE! Anyone planning a wedding at Hilton Garden Inn has to have, without a doubt the Crab Cake with remoulade and roasted corn relish, you will be in absolute heaven! These are a regular item on their Bistro menu inside the hotel, so if you get a chance try them, if you are having a wedding there you have to have them!

The whole seven course meal we were served knocked my socks off. Even the Tuna Sashimi was fantastic and it takes a lot to get me to eat sushi and usually that has to be in a rice roll before I'll even contemplate it. Also of note was Chef Dixon's creamy stilton Blue Cheese soup with Granny Smith Apples. Everyone in attendance was all a twitter about this dish. It really tasted like nothing I've ever had the pleasure of eating, it was just fantastic. Unfortunately it is not a regular item in their Bistro, but if you ever get the chance, you'll be begging for more, like most of us were.

The big city has finally come to South Bend, the biggest small town in America as I heard someone refer to us today. If you have not found a banquet facility for your wedding reception yet, then my advice to you is to set up an appointment with Nicole and check out the Hiton Garden Inn's banquet facilities, I'm sure you will be as impressed as I was.

Brian Peterson
River City Productions

Labels: banquet facility, Fleur de Lis Ballroom, Hilton Garden Inn South Bend, wedding reception

This weekend we tried to get the website update with the new listing requests that have come in over the summer. I was very surprised when I encountered an unknown Hilton Ballroom listing for Indiana... Where did South Bend have a Hilton hotel and ballroom?

Ladies and gentlemen a little snooping and it appears that opening in 2008 on the St Mary's campus next to the Inn at Saint Marys will be a new 700 person capacity ballroom for your weddings and social events. If I'm right the only facility larger than this one will be the Century Center!

According to the Hilton Garden website the facility will be called the Fleur de Lis Ballroom. Opening date is not listed. While I love Palais Royale, Windsor Park and Century Center, this market needs a high end facility that rivals what you find in Chicago or New York. Hopefully this one will meet the need.

You can find their listing on our Banquet Halls page!

-Amy

Labels: banquet, Fleur de Lis Ballroom, Hilton Garden Inn South Bend, social events, wedding reception

Hello everyone and welcome to our new blog. Please excuse the empty posts below this one, they were tests as we set up the page and unfortunately we do not seem to have the ability to remove them.

I am so excited about our new blog and I have a lot of ideas on what I will be posting here.

Please feel free to leave question about any wedding subject you need more information about in the comments. If I can't answer your question I will find someone who can!

As my first official post on the Michiana Wedding's blog I would like to share with you one of my favorite You Tube videos. This bride and groom is just sooo Fun! What a great way to start off a marriage, just having fun.

Labels: first dance, Michiana Weddings, video, wedding reception