Your thoughts on disposable cameras?

[sunnyd]

Basic question: You provide disposable cameras for guests to take pictures, or hope that they bring their own and provide them a photo sharing site to upload?

FMIL mentioned something about putting disposable cameras on the tables at the reception. I''ve seen this at weddings I''ve been to, and it was fun as a guest to snap pics of ourselves that wouldn''t be taken by the pro. But it''s another cost and another thing to remember and set up. Blah...

What do you think? Did people bring cameras and take pics? If you provided a site to upload pics, did guests actually use it?

 

[fieryred33143]

My friend did something that I thought was pretty cool at her wedding but not sure if it would work with large groups (she had 40 to 50 guests).

1. She had a polaroid (sp?) camera on the table with the guest book. Guests would take a picture of themselves, pop it into the slot, and then write a little note. Some made funny faces/poses, others were more serious but still a neat idea.

2. (again don''t know about large weddings) She had her laptop hooked up to where the guest book was with a bunch of different ports for cameras. When guests were exiting, they could just transfer their pictures onto her laptop and she had everyone''s photos. This probably worked well for her because her small group knew ahead of time that she was going to do this. Probably not so much for larger groups.

All that said, I think the photos are a great idea except that sometimes guests end up taking it home.

 

[rhbgirl24]

I think thats a great idea. We are putting those on our tables. Even though most people have digitals now and will bring them with them, its fun to day anyway.

 

[princessplease]

I''m planning on providing disposable cameras to my guests, even though I know plenty will bring their digital cameras, but I think it will mostly be FI and I''s family that will bring the dig cameras. I think it''s an awesome way for them to photograph the night without having to worry about bringing their cameras and possibly losing them.

 

[Allison D.]

In the days before digital, I think disposable cameras were a fantastic solution, but nowadays not so much.

Since digital cameras have become so prevalent, it seems the disposables go largely unused. It''s even worse to spend that money developing the cameras only to get a couple of pictures per unit from them.

Instead of disposable cameras, I''d probably set up a special account on Shutterfly or another online hosting service prior to the wedding. Then I''d put printed cards at each place setting (or maybe on their place setting cards?) that says "Help us build our wedding memories" that lists the login/password info needed to load pictures up to Shutterfly.

Creative folks could find a way to incorporate the information into their favors (i.e. on chocolate bar labels, etc).

Most people are perfectly happy to share their digital photos with you, especially if you make it really easy for them.

 

[loriken214]

We received several disposable bridal cameras at one of our showers...the ones with captions on them. They were placed on tables at the reception and different guests picked them up and took photos of whatever they saw. My Mom had them developed while we were on our honeymoon and the photos were AMAZING! They are some of the best photos from our reception....they aren''t posed or formal.

Lori

 

[MakingTheGrade]

The other problem with disposables, is that people you probably won''t get many good shots (many will be fuzzy, off center, cutting off people''s heads, etc), and it''d be annoying to spend all the money developing film that turns out too dark and fuzzy, or washed out.

I think it''s a better idea just to ask people to upload pics into a website, or have a laptop at the reception and have guests load pics before they leave.

Personally though, I''m just relying on the photographer, lol.

 

[AmberGretchen]

We had disposable cameras at our wedding (almost 3 years ago now) and in retrospect I don't know that it was worth it. We just recently got around to having them developed, and the pictures were all really poor quality compared to what we've all gotten used to these days with really high megapixel point and shoots.

I think a better option might be to ask several guests who you know have decent cameras if they'd mind bringing them and keeping an eye out for fun shots that the photographers might otherwise miss.

Alternatively, ask members of your bridal party to bring cameras and try to snap shots during the reception.

 

[sunnyd]

Sounds like everyone is leaning away. I agree. I''d rather not have the cost, and the quality is always crappy on those cameras anyway. Maybe I could put it somewhere on the website to bring cameras? Maybe not...

Thanks for all the responses!

 

[Squirrly]

i don''t know if your wedding party is bringing dates but my boy was in our friends'' wedding two weekends ago, and as such i had nothing to do but sit with the other bridal party girlfriends/wives and be the unofficial paparazzi. also, since we carpooled i had no choice but to stick around for the photos afterward, and then i was sitting away from boy for most of the reception and well, i ended up with about 300 pics (BF took some too, like the bouquet toss since i was participating)
so you could always ask your party to bring cameras and pass them off to their dates, and then just snag em off of FB

 

[FrekeChild]

When I was 11, my 5 year old cousin and I chased around my 11 male cousin flashing the camera bulb in his eye. All of the pictures that resulted were blurry closeups of his face. It cost the bride $1000 to develop all of the cameras.

Just something to keep in mind.

 

[sunnyd]

Date: 6/1/2009 5:32:10 PM
Author: FrekeChild
When I was 11, my 5 year old cousin and I chased around my 11 male cousin flashing the camera bulb in his eye. All of the pictures that resulted were blurry closeups of his face. It cost the bride $1000 to develop all of the cameras.

Just something to keep in mind.

Hahahaha!!! Funny.

Yeah I think we''ll stick to shutterfly or similar. My family was good with the cameras last year at the reunion, hopefully this will be the same!

 

[jstarfireb]

I had digital cameras at my dad''s request...very few of the pictures turned out well. Some were streaked with red, I guess due to a light leak or something? And one of the cameras didn''t even make it back to us, despite the little cards we left with each camera asking people to take the pictures and leave them on the tables! On the other hand, my friends with digital cameras took very nice pictures. Most of them put them up on Facebook, and some burned CDs for me.

My SIL did something interesting...she had a computer set up with a card reader and asked guests to upload their photos right there at the end of the wedding. It worked out well and would be a good option if you don''t want to try to track people''s photos down later.

 

[Sabine]

We put a disposable camera on each table, and then never developed any of them. We still plan on it...and to avoid paying for all the pictures, we are going to take them to Walmart and pay the really small fee to have them put the images online, then we can see if there are any we actually want to order. Who knows if it will ever get done though.

 

[mintve]

We had the disposable cameras. Guests had fun with them, but I would say less than 1/2 of the photos turned out.

 

[kama_s]

Hmm, I dont want to sound like negative nancy....but, for a while I really wanted to do something with either disposable or polaroid cameras at our wedding, and the more I read/researched it, the more I was put off. From my understanding, it works only if you have serious/responsible/non-drunk people at your wedding and if your wedding is of a smaller size.

So, I just decided to ask our photog to take lots of pics of our guests. Another option, but most certainly not half as fun! If you love the idea, go ahead and do it - it's not too costly an affair (well, compared to how much the entire wedding would be costing!), and you won't regret not doing it later down the road. I'm sure your guests would have a fun time with them.

 

[diamondgirl5k]

I did it at my wedding and I love how it turned out. We got some really cute pics from it, and the kids (we had about 10 at my wedding) really enjoyed it and took some great pictures!

 

[jstarfireb]

Date: 6/1/2009 8:56:51 PM
Author: Sabine
We put a disposable camera on each table, and then never developed any of them. We still plan on it...and to avoid paying for all the pictures, we are going to take them to Walmart and pay the really small fee to have them put the images online, then we can see if there are any we actually want to order. Who knows if it will ever get done though.

We did something similar to this - we took them to Costco and had a photo CD made for something like $2.99 per camera. That way I have all the photos without having to pay to print them, when most of them didn''t turn out all that well anyway.