Nervous About Your First Dance? We Have Some Tips for You!

There are so many details to plan for when it comes to your big day, and you could say that the first dance is the last of the formal details, before the party really starts. But, if you’re someone who prefers to live ‘out-of-the-spotlight’, sometimes the thought of getting up on the dance floor in front of all your guests is anxiety inducing!

After all, everyone’s eyes are on you for the whole event. Especially when you’re saying your vows then of course, for the first dance! But, we’re here to tell you that doing your first dance doesn’t have to be scary, even if you’re feeling a little nervous about it now! 

With these tips, you will be able to relax and enjoy the moment, so that you can let loose and grace the dance floor with a moment you’ll cherish forever.

A Deeply Meaningful Song is a Must!

Picking a song that has significance to you as a couple can help calm those ‘all-eyes-on-you’ nerves. When you hear the first refrain, it can take you to a place that blocks out all of the eyes on you, and makes you focus only on your new spouse! Kind of like a scene in a romantic movie, when the couple is suddenly caught up in a moment and everything else fades away. So, we advise you to pick a song that makes you and your partner swoon a little. 

Consider the Song Length

As much as you may love certain songs, length is an important consideration when picking a first dance song. And if you are feeling nervous, a 3 minute song is much less intimidating than a 6 minute song! And, if it is choreographed, it won’t feel like you are just filing time with a little side to side shuffle. To gauge your comfort level with song length, we encourage you and your partner and dance to a couple of songs that you are deciding between and see how you feel dancing together through it.

Practice… But Not too Much

If you and your sweetheart opt to go for a choreographed dance? Practice, certainly. But not too much! Overdoing might backfire and actually make you feel more nervous because you’re going to try and get it just right. Of course, you want your first dance to be great, but perfect isn’t necessary, and a little bit of naturalness goes a long way! We also guarantee that you’ll have more fun if you don’t stress too much about the outcome! Everyone is going to think your dance was perfect anyway!

Savor Your Moment

After all, what really matters most is the person standing in front of you. So, do your best to focus on your new spouse and let the rest of the world fall away, and the dance will take care of itself! And, remember, your nearest and dearest, didn’t really come to see your dance skills, they’re here to witness and celebrate the love between you and your new spouse!

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Questions to Ask Before Booking a Photo Booth

Whether you’re planning a Birthday Party, Wedding, Anniversary Party, Corporate Party or Product launch, your celebration will benefit from hiring a photo booth! And, it will benefit even more if you hire a professional photo booth vendor! So, where do you begin?! And, what are the most important questions to ask before signing the contract?! Well… since you asked, keep reading and we’ll tell you!

What is the quality of the booth itself?

We know that your upcoming event – and every event –  is important and one of the last things you want when you hire a photo booth company is a silly DIY looking camera on a tripod in a corner at your event! In our travels we’ve seen quite a few different kinds set-up over the years. We’d go so far as to say that some of the set-ups we’ve seen hardly qualify as photo booths! We’ve seen ‘photo booths’ of all different shapes, sizes, and varying quality… and, while we understand that businesses have to start somewhere, we don’t believe your event should be the testing grounds. And, as the old adage goes “You generally get what you pay for.”

We believe that what you should be looking for is a photo booth that is elegant, streamlined and professionally constructed, and should also come with a beautiful interface, where you can see yourself and the photos as they’re being taken.

Are the photos and prints high quality?

To a casual observer, a photo booth might not seem very complicated, just a quick and simple set-up and BAM, you have a photo booth! But there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that allows the booth to take high-quality images! So, it’s a good idea to ask the company you’re thinking of hiring to show you sample images; that way you’ll know what you can expect from the photo booth you’re thinking of renting. You might also want to inquire if the booth has professional style lighting! This type of bright front lighting ensures that the photos turn out well exposed, sharp and clean looking. Also look to see if the people in the photos are washed out against the backdrop. We see a lot of companies using flat black or white backdrops, with poor lighting, which generally don’t work well when the bride is wearing white and the groom wearing black. Lastly, find out what kind of printer they use for the prints. The professional industry standard is using a dye sublimation printer that can print either beautiful black & white or color photos, and can do so in about 7 seconds.

Does the company have liability insurance?

This is a big one! Don’t worry, nothing is likely to happen, but it should bring you peace of mind if the answer is yes! This question helps to separate the unprepared, make-shift/DIY photo booth companies from the reputable professional ones. Generally those who run a photo booth business as a side hustle will not be able – or willing – to pay the costs of business insurance and licenses. In our experience, the more a company has skin in the game, the more invested they are in the outcome of the events they’re hired for.

What are the fees, and what do they include exactly?

From our extensive experience in the event industry, It’s been our experience that if a deal seems way too good to be true, it generally is! Sometimes companies have a low initial price, but once you actually receive a quote you see that there are all sorts of hidden additional fees that you weren’t counting on! So, sort out if the company you’re looking to hire is charging fees for mileage, delivery, setup/take down, props, USB drives, digital photo delivery, prints or an attendant. Sometimes a ‘cheap’ photo booth really doesn’t end up being a great deal!

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The 3 Most Important Elements For a Successful Event!

When you’re planning a celebration, an event-planning checklist is one the most important tools you can use to make sure your event is a successful one. Though it might seem like a small detail, a structured checklist really will help you stay organized and keep you on task as you plan, and best of all, it will ensure that you don’t forget any important details. 

When you go about creating your checklist, there are some things that are just more important than others! Specifically, in our opinion, the following three items are the most important things when it comes to planning your event!

Venue

When planning an event, your first and foremost concern is the “Where?” meaning, if you don’t have a venue chosen, your first priority is to create a checklist that highlights all the most important things you’re looking for in a venue. Things like size, location, capacity, lighting, and, of course, price are all incredibly important considerations to take into account. In fact, once you lay out all of your expectations and the requirements of your event, you will likely have a much smaller pool of possible venues than you started with. 

If, on the other hand, you have already chosen your venue, you can create checklists to ensure everything venue related will be taken care of before the event. And, this might seem like a small thing (and an impossible scenario) but could create a huge headache if there’s any misunderstanding. It is crucially important to make extra sure that you and the venue manager have the venue booked for the correct and same times, and that all the details of the contract are correct!. It’s also important that you do research in your own municipality to ensure you have the proper event permits (if you need to) in place well before your event.

Logistics

Logistics are very important when it comes to the flow and overall success of your event. One logistics mistake, and you could bring your event from truly exceptional to simply average. So, creating a logistics checklist is a great way to make sure the coordination and execution of all your chosen event elements. This part of party planning isn’t glamorous, but it’s important! Logistics directly affects your guests’ experience of your celebration.  Some of the important considerations that should be included included on your checklist are:

• Traffic flow and parking & coat check
• Distance from parking to venue
• Timeline and guest arrival and departures
• Creating clear signage (people like to know what to expect)
• Clarifying vendor expectations and set-up/tear-down times
• Event Floor planning and seating planning
• Event scheduling and timeline

Guest list and invitations

Creating the perfect guest list for your event and sending ‘keep the date’ cards & invitations takes both time and patience, but doing the work up-front will save you from many headaches down the line. Truly, in our experience speaking to clients, one of the hardest aspects of this part of planning is dealing with the paranoia that you might forget to invite someone important. And, you definitely don’t want to do that! 

A guestlist checklist, and giving yourself lots of time to complete this task, will help to ensure this doesn’t happen! On your checklist, you can include a list of all your guests and all your invitations. That way, if you forget to create or send an invitation, you can easily correct your mistake because your checklist will remind you!

I also suggest letting other organizers and guests of honor go over the event guestlist to ensure that you haven’t missed any important connections or people, before you get to the task of preparing your invites!

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The Perks of Hiring a Photo Booth For Your Wedding!

So, you’re engaged and are in the process of planning your wedding! Congratulations! 

Now onto the next question… Do you have to have a photo booth at your wedding? Or would you rather do without?! When your budget is set and the reality of the myriad costs of wedding planning start to set in, does hiring a photo booth for your reception end up on the list of “things to cut to save money”?

If you answered, “Heck, no!”, keep on reading for some of the reasons why you made the right choice! And, if you answered “Heck, yes!” to this question, I’d also like you to take a few minutes to read this post. It’s full of reasons why you should absolutely hire a professional photo booth for your wedding!

Once you’re done reading and are totally convinced that you need to hire a photo booth for your wedding, please reach out! We’ll be thrilled to hear from you! I mean, we know that you probably already hired your photographer (and like a videographer) for your big celebration, but we’re convinced that you can never have too many ways to capture your big day! 

We are of course completely biased, but in our extensive experience in the industry, we’ve seen firsthand that hiring a photo booth is totally worth it and in the long run, it’s never a waste of money! Here are 3 reasons why a photo booth plays an awesome and necessary role at your wedding!

Photo Booth Prints As Wedding Favors

Think about some of the weddings you’ve been to recently. Have you kept the favors you’ve received from the last weddings you’ve attended? We know from experience that they’re often left laying on the tables at the reception, or left behind at the hotel. In that spirit, if you’re choosing between favors or a photo booth; instead of going to the trouble of making and handing out a plant, homemade jam, or personalized candle holder, seriously think about giving your guests a photo booth experience! The prints that your guests receive can take the place of regular wedding favors, and better yet, they can be shared online, framed, and most importantly, kept forever!

Replace Your Traditional Guest Book

Having your guests pose for photos then write notes in a photo guestbook, will make your guest book so much more personalized and fun! And, truly, as the years go by, and you get further out from your wedding, those heartfelt or hilarious messages and photos will only increase in value exponentially! You’re going to love to see the faces of the guests you invited to celebrate with you, next to heartfelt messages from them! We also almost guarantee that if you have newly engaged couples attending your wedding, they’re likely to seriously contemplate hiring a photo booth for their big day! Especially once they see how much fun all your guests are having!

Photo Booths Are Good For Kids of All Ages!

Is your wedding going to be a true family affair, with lots of kids in the mix? Is your wedding guest list comprised of many different friend groups or social circles? Or, do you have several aunties and uncles or grandparents that have long since hung up their dancing shoes? 

In our experience… not every guest at your wedding – no matter how bumping the dance floor –  is going to get up and boogie down! So, a photo booth is a great idea, as a fun, alternative activity at your reception! 

Truly, people of all ages and sensibilities get into the idea – sometimes with a little persuading – of playing with props, using cute photo booth signs and taking photos! Seriously, put out a table of goofy props and suddenly you see a different side of people! And, a photo of serious Aunt Edna in a bowler hat and feather boa, holding a goofy sign? Priceless, and not likely to be caught by the wedding photographer! 

Final Note…

If this article confirmed your ideas about hiring a photo booth for your wedding, or has finally convinced you that you NEED to have a photo booth at your wedding, don’t hesitate to get in touch! The wonderful people at Snapshot Photo Booth Rental, a division of SCE Event Group can’t wait to hear from you!

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