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How to Make a DIY Photo Booth

Have a special celebration coming up? Everyone loves a good selfie! Learn how to make a DIY photo booth for your next party.

Do you have a special celebration that you’re planning?

Maybe a graduation party? Or a birthday?

What about a wedding, anniversary or shower?

Everyone loves to take pictures & selfies when attending a celebration or party.

And why not…you’re all dressed up…your hair & outfit is on point!

Seriously what’s more fun than grabbing a group of friends for a photo op?

But renting a photo booth is expensive!

So today I’m going to share all the details of how I made a DIY photo booth on a budget.

How to Make a Simple Photo Booth

three teen girls standing with arms around each other in front of sheer curtain smiling

This is a super simple project that won’t take much time to complete.

Plus it’s budget friendly so that’s always a bonus too!

I made this photo booth for my daughter’s 16th birthday surprise party but it’s neutral enough to use for any occasion.

The theme of the party was Under the Stars and the color scheme was gold and white. I kept the food simple with a popcorn bar and dessert bar since the kids were busy dancing and taking pictures in front of the DIY photo booth.

If you plan to do this for a graduation party it would be so cool to use the graduates school colors!

We have more fun ideas for graduation parties here.

And how cute are these girls? That’s my daughter, Emma in the middle of Anne’s twins Katy & Olivia. Just love these three so much!

Ok let’s get to making this easy party prop!

Supplies Needed to Make a DIY Photo Booth

sheer curtains box of star string lights and clear push pins on wood table

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To create the photo booth you will only need a few supplies:

Where to Hang a Photo Booth?

double doors closed in hallway between living room and family room

There are double doors that lead to my husband’s office downstairs between the living and family rooms.

It was the perfect spot to hang the photo booth because I was able to use the door frame moulding to secure the curtains and string lights to.

The double door dimensions from the outside of the moulding is 71 1/2″ wide by 84 1/2″ high.

If you don’t have a door frame like this in your house you can always use command hooks to hang the backdrop on a blank wall.

How to Install a DIY Photo Booth

two woman facing eachother one on a chair the other standing on floor assembling diy photo booth

I needed two sets of hands to get this photo booth installed so I enlisted Anne to help me decorate for the party.

She’s such a good friend! 🙂

First, we hung the sheer voile curtain panels with push pins on the top edge of the door frame.

Using four panels allowed me to get a fuller look in front of the doors.

close up of top of sheer curtain attached to door frame with lights underneath

Here you can see that I left some extra material in between each push pin rather than pulling the curtains tight when securing them.

And at only $4 per panel, it’s a super affordable backdrop.

Then we secured the string of star lights to the top of the door frame so they hung over the curtains.

woman standing on ladder holding top of deco mesh ribbon while another woman sits on floor cutting ribbon

Next we hung gold and cream deco mesh over the string lights to give them a softer glow.

You have to look closely to see the gold mesh in this photo but in person, once it was all hung it really looked magical over the lights.

diy photo booth with star lights and sheer voile curtains and two bunches of star balloons on either side

To finish off the photo booth area I added two simple balloon bouquets with star-shaped mylar and white latex balloons.

A balloon arch would be so fun but remember I was doing this simple and affordable diy photo booth in the short time after my daughter left for dinner before she came back for the surprise party. But if you have time…do it!

Everyone had so much fun taking pictures at the party. Chris and I even got a selfie with our girl.

I would definitely recommend making a simple DIY photo booth for your next celebration!

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If you have any questions or suggestions, contact me or leave a comment!

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