Over the past 4 years as a wedding photographer I’ve come across a number of fun and interesting wedding reception keepsake activities you might undertake to produce a physical keepsake for your reception guests so they remember your wedding reception. The following suggestions are designed to put a smile on your guests face beyond the usual delicious food and drink they’d be served at a wedding reception and of course seeing the lovely newly wed couple.
Wedding Reception Keepsake Activities
Photo Booth
Photobooth
Having a photobooth at a wedding reception has almost become a standard that produces a wedding reception keepsake. The above image was taken from a recent wedding I covered where the photobooth printed out numerous copies of a strip of photos that your guests can keep as their wedding reception keepsake, while the other copy could be glued into a blank album allowing them to write well wishes and document the reception in a way that nothing else can. SvenStudios now offers their own photobooth solution geared towards the budget conscious.
Sketch Artist
SketchArtist
A really novel idea I’ve seen twice now at different weddings is the idea of having a wandering sketch artist sketching caricatures of your guests as their wedding reception keepsake. The benefit of this is the production of a really personal image that is really quite different than the vast majority of wedding receptions out there, so if you want to make an impression, having a sketch artist present may be a winner. The above image is a caricature of myself by sketch artist Peter BroelMan who was present at a recent wedding I was wedding photographer at. I really hope this idea catches on as it produces some awesome reactions from guests and can provide a truly unique wedding reception keepsake.
Polaroid Cameras
Poloroid cameras
Perhaps the most common of wedding reception keepsake ideas is having a polaroid camera, or several sitting around the wedding reception venue available for guests to use themselves. The idea being that your guests would wander about shooting their own photos of the night hopefully capturing quirky situations your professional wedding photographer wouldn’t. The great thing about polaroid cameras is that it instantly prints a small square image as soon as you take the photos, thereby becoming your wedding reception keepsake. You can see a few of the square polaroid prints on the table in the shot I took above at Leonie & Andrew’s Monarto Zoo wedding. The problem with polaroid cameras however is that often, unless you invest well in the cameras, they don’t like low light situations, such as the typical wedding reception venue, so beware. But they do tend to be better for the purpose of creating keepsakes than your typical disposable camera, which are also very popular at wedding receptions, as they allow your guests to take something home.
