Photo booth, selfie booth, mirror or disposable: which to choose?

All these activities promise the same thing (fun photos of your guests), but they don’t produce the same result at all. Here is how to choose between them.

1. The photo booth

Price: €350 to €900 for the evening.
Space: a table, a socket, a backdrop, about 4 m².
What you get: 40 to 80 photo strips, often printed on the spot.
Strength: instant printing, and the ritual of the guest book where people stick their strips.
Weakness: one booth for everyone, so a queue, and nothing of what happens elsewhere in the room.

2. The magic mirror

Price: €600 to €1,000.
Space: bulkier than a booth, and it needs plenty of clearance.
Strength: the “wow” effect. It is spectacular, and children love it.
Weakness: the most expensive on the list, for a photo result quite close to a classic booth.

3. Cardboard disposable cameras

Price: €10 to €15 each, plus developing, so €200 to €400 for around fifteen tables.
Strength: the charm of film, and the constraint of 27 shots that makes people aim carefully.
Weakness: you never get all the cameras back, you have to go to the lab, wait a week, and some of the films are unusable. The details are here: cardboard or app?

4. The digital disposable camera

Price: €0 to €40 for the whole wedding.
Space: none. It is a QR code printed on your menus.
What you get: several hundred photos, taken everywhere, in a single album.
Strength: coverage. Every guest becomes a point of view, across the whole room and the whole evening.
Weakness: no printing on the spot: you need to like the idea of a delayed discovery rather than leaving with your photo strip.

“We put the same QR code in five places. The result: 90% of the guests took part, even the grandparents.” Léa & Marius · May 2026

How to choose with one question

Ask yourself what you really want: something to take home the same night, or as many memories as possible from the whole day?

If it is the first, get a booth: that is what it does best, and the price is justified (we compare the two options on our wedding photo booth page). If it is the second, a booth is a poor investment: it costs a lot and only sees one square metre of your party.

And if you want both?

You can, and it is even the smartest combination: a second-hand booth or a minimal package for the printing, and a digital disposable camera for general coverage. You stay well below the price of a single high-end booth.

Time to Flash covers the second part: one QR code, no app, a limited number of shots per guest, and an album revealed the next day.