Hello and Happy New Year! I’ve got a few more wedding projects left to share from my October Wedding. If you’re here for the first time or missed some of my previous wedding-related posts, head over to Our Wedding to check out photos and projects from our autumn affair!

Photo booths are cool. I liked the idea of having one at our wedding, but it just wasn’t something that hubby & I wanted to shell the money out for. So I got a little creative, and – with the help of my florist, a few strong groomsmen and a good friend with a camera – put together my own DIY Photo Booth area at our outdoor wedding for under $10. As my the great Charlie Sheen would say….winning!

I found a plain wooden picture frame in the Michael’s “oops” section – where custom frames that were the wrong size/etc. go to await a new chance at life on somebody’s wall. It was rather odd proportions, like 26 x 39. It was $8, so who cares.

I painted the frame white using some leftover trim paint I uncovered in our garage. My original plan was to hang it from a tree somewhere on the grounds of the lovely Inn where our wedding & reception took place. I scoped the area, but could not find a tree in the right location or with branches at the right height. Enter my florist – with the brilliant idea to lend me two large birch-tree-trunks cemented into pots (she typically uses them to frame out chuppas). The day of our wedding, I enlisted a few of our groomsmen to move them (they were super heavy) to a pretty corner near our ceremony area. I hung the frame from two hooks on the top of the branches, using twine.

Setting up the photo booth the day of the wedding!

Our brilliant photographer, Amy, scoping out the scene.

I set out a basket with chalk & erasers (those erasers have GOT to be antiques – they’ve been in my mother’s house for as long as I can remember), and two little chalkboard signs for guests to write us messages/draw us pictures/do whatever they wanted with.

I also placed a chalk board sign at the bottom with our Instagram/Twitter wedding hashtag, so guests could take their own pics using their smartphones & tag us!

Our good friend (and one of hubby’s groomsmen) manned his DSLR camera both pre & post ceremony, capturing some fun before-wedding shots like these:

My brother & sister-in-law

I love remembering how excited & giddy I felt during the entire morning/early afternoon period of setting up before our ceremony.

The addition of the little chalkboards was super fun, and I totally loved how our handmade YAY Flags became props as well!

We had such a great time looking through all of the pictures and reading the messages from our friends and family – both the thoughtful and the silly ones.

Overall, our little rustic photo booth was definitely one of my favorite elements. It was super easy to accomplish (thanks to all of the help!), and was probably our most inexpensive AND most interactive DIY project of the day. I love the pictures of our friends, and think the whole set up was rather charming. What do you think? Where do you find places to save money without sacrificing your vision in your own wedding or party planning?