Chalkboard Flower Photo Booth

Dear Em,
My dear friend Colleen got married a couple weekend ago. While I plan to recap her wedding day tomorrow, right now I just want to talk about the wicked fun photo booth we made for her reception. On a hot & humid September weekend I got together with Colleen and a bunch of her super fun friends for a DIY wedding crafting weekend. There was a list of things to create, but my task was mostly the photo booth (are you surprised?).

Colleen really liked the chalkboard look, & wanted chalkboard elements to fill her special day. In fact, her online invitations were black with etchings of white flowers. She wanted the photo booth to have a similar design to her invitations.

We needed:
- Thick black fabric
- White chalk
- White acrylic paint
- Painters tape
- A digital copy of the invitation
- A computer or tablet
- A projector
- A stand
- Props

Colleen originally purchased 3 yards of thick black fabric, hoping to hang the fabric lengthwise. The fabric was probably less than two yards wide. Since weddings typically mean big groups, we worried about how few people would be able to fit standing in front of the fabric at once. Instead, we decided to hang the fabric width-wise, & Colleen bought an additional 3 yards of the fabric to tape underneath. This gave us a nice, large space to work with.

Using painters tape, we taped the first piece of fabric to a bare wall. Colleen & Erin measured to make sure the fabric was straight across. They taped a straight border of tape, leaving blank fabric that would be used when hanging the backdrop to the stand.

Next, I loaded a picture of the invitation onto an iPad & hooked up the iPad to a projector. It took quite a bit of fiddling with the size of the invitation on my screen & the position of the projector. After a while, it was perfectly lined up, & we had a great template shining on our black fabric. Erin was certainly the more fabulously artsy of the two of us, & I mostly tried to follow her lead. We traced the lines of the flowers underneath the painters tape with white chalk.

Next we painted in the flowers with white paint. It took at least a couple coats of paint, & I have to say I was pretty much over it by the time we were done.

But then I looked at the end result & loved it! The photo booth backdrop looked absolutely fabulous & was perfect for Colleen's wedding.

Ali made a very professional looking photo booth sign to go along with the backdrop.

For props, I painted chalkboard paint on two different pieces of wood we bought at the craft store. This way, people could write their own messages for their photos. I also printed prepopulated chalkboard messages on card stock & glued them to wooden dowels. We recycled some of the props we had made for your aunt Andrea's shower photo booth. I grabbed two large frames that we weren't using. Lastly, I raided your costumes for fun hats & headbands & boas & glasses.

Colleen dusted the backdrop with chalk, to give it a true chalkboard look. We used gorilla tape to hang the backdrop on a stand. I have to say, the final result was pretty freaking awesome!

Everyone had so much fun taking pictures at the photo booth- & I mean everyone, because we took a huge group shot before the day was through.

I think this was my very favorite photo booth yet. I hope you continue to like photo booths, because I see many, many more in your future.

I love you so,
Mommy