Instant Photography for an Instant Hit with Your Wedding Clients

Whether you are the bride, groom, or photographer, there are plenty of reasons to consider bringing instant cameras to your wedding. They are fun, somewhat retro these days, and can add another element to a wedding photography package with very little investment.

As a photographer who was recently married—to another photographer, no less—the decision to add instant cameras to our wedding plan made sense. The what and how to best use them were the only thing we needed to figure out. After brainstorming for a little bit, we had a list of ways it could happen.

Visual Guest Book

This was the option we went with—a visual guest book is easy to create, doesn’t require more than one camera, and, with minimal instructions, most of your guests should have no problem figuring it out. Basically, you have a standard guest book set up, something most people should know what to do with. Next to it you leave an instant camera (we went with a FUJIFILM INSTAX Mini 9 in Cobalt Blue), some extra packs of film, and a few spare AA batteries. Add some tape to the table and a small sign saying to leave a photo alongside their notes and, ta-da!

If you make sure to have a generous amount of extra film on hand, people will love to snap a couple of extra frames to keep for themselves, which is always a nice option to offer your guests. Other extra photos can be integrated into the wedding decorations in another way, too. We had a small setup with twine to which our guests could clip photos, making a small display of the wedding that was built during the reception. We collected these at the end of the day and filled in the remaining pages of the guest book.

Interactive Table Settings

A bit more investment can get you a lot more photos and provide more of your guests the opportunity to play with an instant camera. By placing a camera and some film at each table, you are more likely to get a larger collection of images at the end of the night, as well as provide your guests with their own photos to take home.

As the official photographer, having these on each table provides you with a couple of benefits. The first is that you can collect these images yourself and present a sampling of images for the couple to bring home that night. It goes a long way to have something immediate to look over as they wait for your proofs and the eventual final photos and prints. It also means you have the opportunity to capture more interesting images than just people taking selfies with their phones.

Photo Booth

Digital photo booths can be fun. So can instant ones. My recommendation, if you want to set up a photo booth at your next wedding gig, is to try a combination of both. A modern take on the instant camera is a combination of a digital camera and a printer. The Canon IVY CLIQ+ is a prime example, which uses ZINK technology to pop out photos immediately after use.

Setting up a hybrid instant camera in a well-lit booth with some props for people to have fun with will provide wedding photographers with a multiple benefits. First, the guests get to take home a print. That is always a lovely gesture. Second, you still have a memory card filled with all the photos to add to a wedding album, create an online gallery to share, and more.

Also, the ZINK paper has a bonus of being sticky on the reverse. This makes it easier to stick up on a wall, in a book, or somewhere else.

Thank You Add-On

Long after the wedding, you are likely going to have a pile of thank-you cards to write and mail. It is too easy to lapse into writing generically after the first dozen cards, and that isn’t what you want. Instant printers (and instant cameras with a printer component) can help spice up your thank-you notes. Taking some of the images you may have snapped with your camera, or were shared on social media by your friends, you can easily connect to these portable printers with your phone and pop out a photo or two to include in the envelope. It’s a personalized touch that will likely last longer than the thank-you note itself.

As a Gift

If you are a guest at a wedding, you could always consider gifting an instant camera to the couple. If you are the couple, these are nice favors for your wedding party, too. It’s a fun, relatively affordable item that everyone should be able to enjoy.

Hopefully, we have given you some ideas for the next wedding you attend, whether you are working, attending, or starring. Do you have any of your own ideas to add? We would love if you would share in the Comments section, below!