Planning A Wedding or Party Can Be A Surprisingly Stressful Experience.
Just look at these stats:
- 71% of people getting married worry about having to cancel their wedding
- 52% of people worry about problems with their supplier or venue
- The average cost of a wedding in the UK has now hit £30,000
- Couples, on average, take up to 10 years to pay for their wedding day
- There are approximately 247,000 weddings a year
- Supplier difficulties are considered one of the main reasons for stress resulting in financial challenges, relationship and health problems.
Not the way to start married life!
What You Should Know…
The chances of an event supplier not delivering the service they have been booked for is unfortunately, remarkably high.
There are two main factors that contribute to this –
- The average engagement in the UK is 20 months (based on a recent report by bridebook.com )
- In the UK 50% of all start up businesses fail within the first 12 months and 86% fail within 5 years.
For many the chances of the supplier providing the service is, at best, 50/50
Photo Booths have grown exponentially in popularity over the last 5-10 years and hiring a photo booth is now considered an essential for a wedding celebration.
Alongside the pure entertainment value, one of the highlights of hiring a photo booth service is spending time looking through a guest book filled with messages and photos from loved ones after the event. This combined with your guests returning home with handfuls of prints makes the photo booth service a compelling addition to any wedding or party.
(Photo from our Smiley Station Photo booth Hire)
Hiring a photo booth is considered one of the most effective ways to bring guests together whilst simultaneously creating fun and memorable experiences for the whole wedding or party.
In a recent survey brides and party hosts stated that hiring a photo booth was one of the “most impactful and important aspects of their celebration”
The Photo Booth Industry
In the UK there are approximately 500 – 600 active photo booth hire businesses of which a vast majority are owner/operator businesses. Meaning that many of them are run and delivered by one individual.
Unfortunately in the last two years there have been two high profile Photo Booth Scandals
Photobomb UK
The owner of this photo booth hire company received thousand of pounds in deposits but only delivered a handful of events. In the hope of growing the business they found themselves agreeing to deliver an enormous amount of events without the resources or ability to deliver. Resulting in hundreds of brides without a photo booth for their celebrations.
Bake A Cake
( See the full story here – BAKE A CAKE )
Low prices and “too good to be true” offers meant that hundreds of brides who booked with Bake a Cake were left without a photo booth and other services for their wedding day. Using facebook advertising they offered incredibly low prices resulting in many couples handing over deposits or balances that were never returned.
9 Questions You Should Ask a Supplier Before Booking
What should you look for when hiring a Photo Booth?
What does the above look like when hiring a photo booth? First let’s look at a few more statistics:
- The average number of guests at a UK wedding is 158
- The average number of photos taken during a 3 hour hire is 450
- The average number of photos taken during a 4 hour hire 600
- The most important aspect of hiring a photo booth is the quality and number of photo prints and the professionalism and friendliness of the booth attendant
- The most popular additions to basic photo booth hire are to customise the photo prints, a photo guest book service and props and accessories.
Now armed with all that information you need to look for all of the following when hiring a photo booth service:
- You should not entrust your wedding photo booth with any business except one with a sterling reputation
- They should have many years of experience in delivering Photo Booth hire. You deserve a company who has demonstrated an ability to consistently deliver excellence no matter what curve ball is thrown at them. This goes for the booth attendants as well as the company itself.
- Many weddings are booked between 12-18 months in advance. Be aware that suppliers with less than 3 years experience will be unlikely to have delivered a significant number of events to ensure they have the experience you deserve for your celebrations.
- Ensure the photo booth company has systems, checks, and processes to be sure you receive a perfectly delivered photo booth service that you and your loved ones can enjoy. This system should ensure you receive your photo booth exactly at the time you requested it.
- If the price sounds too good to be true it usually is. A company offering a similar service for a far lower price should be avoided.
- Check the details of the package offered. Ensure there are no hidden costs such as travel costs and restrictions such as only 1 print per session.
- Check their work. A photo booth is obviously a visual service and it is therefore easy to check their work. Look at the relevant social pages (particularly Instagram and Pinterest) and ask for examples and testimonials.
When hiring a photo booth with Smiley Booth you’ll go through the following check points to ensure you receive our best service.
Checkpoint 1
- Select And Agree Package
- Complete Booking Form
- Complete payment of the deposit
- Introduction made to your photo booth team member who will be looking after you from now through to the day of your event
Checkpoint 2
- 30 Days before your event your photo booth team will guide you through the steps of creating the bespoke artwork for your photo booth prints
- Artwork completed and sent to you for your approval
- After any amendments you sign off the art work and receive the invoice for the final balance of the hire
Checkpoint 3
- 15 days before your event your team will liaise with the venue to ensure they have everything required such as PAT test certificates and the photo booth company insurance documents
- Confirmation that your venue has been contacted and re-confirmation of all booking details.
Checkpoint 4
- One hour before the hire time starts the photo booth team arrive to set up and prepare for the event
- Photo booth service is delivered to a very enthusiastic and happy group of friends and family
Checkpoint 5
- 24 Hours after the event you receive an email confirming all the images from the photo booth hire are now available on the online gallery
- Relax and enjoy looking through your very full guest book of messages and images.
Smiley Booth are photo and video entertainment specialists who build world class experiences that deliver a lasting and meaningful impact long after the event has past.
- A Photo Booth hire company passionate in delivering excellence with the most innovative and advanced photo booth solutions available in the UK and Europe
- Delivering Photo Booth hires for weddings, parties and corporate events since 2008
- We deliver approximately 1500 photo booth hires each year to an audience of over 80,000 people
- The largest photo booth hire company in the UK
- Our staff are friendly, professional and highly trained. We also have a technical support team available to our staff at every event should any issues arise.
- Our prices are transparent and all our packages are fully inclusive.
