Fuji Instax Wedding

September 17, 2014 6:51 PM

We're having eight Fuji Instax cameras at our upcoming wedding and I'm trying to estimate how much film we'll need.

Six of them will be at the tables, one will used as a diy photo booth camera and one will be by the guest book. We're hoping that everybody will add some of the photos to the guest book.

There will be about 65 people attending and it's a mid morning ceremony followed by lunch. We will also have two professional photographers so we're not relying on the instax photos as our sole wedding photos.

Also, if you've used the Instax cameras before, do you have any advice? Are they easy to use? Will we need to write instructions on how to change the film?

posted by poxandplague to Technology (6 answers total)

We had a Fuji Instax camera at our wedding too - but just one that we passed around the tables and dance floor. We had about 80 people at our wedding, and I think we bought enough film to have about 120 photos. We didn't run out of film until the very end of the night - but I think you'd need more film than us since you have so many cameras. You'd probably be fine with 1 roll of film in each table camera, with substantially more film in the cameras at the guest book and photo booth.

They're really easy to change the film on, but you might want to put a label on the camera letting people know where they can find more film. Also, you may want to give some sort of written instructions as to whether people should take the photos or leave them for you - otherwise a bunch of people may just leave the photo booth pics for you (which may or may not be your goal).

I hope it goes well - we really loved the photos that came from the Instax camera, hope you do too!
posted by leitmotif at 7:54 PM on September 17, 2014

I was in charge of taking guest book pictures of people with an Instax once. I'd recommend getting more film than you need in order to allow for retakes. Sometimes you'll get over- or under-exposures with instant film and it's a shame if somebody's picture is basically a silhouette.
posted by Beardman at 8:50 PM on September 17, 2014

The Instax cameras are super easy to use, and I think anyone who's ever had a Polaroid or the like will be able to change the film. My Instax has short and long focus modes: you might want to make sure you set all of them to focus at an appropriate (close) range for portraits. The flash on the Instax is pretty good, but it can create a blown-out image if you use it at close range, so you'll want to keep that in mind. Have fun!
posted by torridly at 10:11 AM on September 18, 2014

We used an Instax at our wedding too. We had just the one for the guestbook, and we had 120 folks at our wedding. My niece and nephew took charge of it, so there were fewer wasted photos. They also made the rounds at the end of the reception and asked everyone if they'd had a photo taken, and took photos right then and there for the guestbook. It was probably the only way that we actually got photos of almost everyone.

I'd have to say that that's alot of cameras for 65 people. Do you need both a photo booth and a guest book camera? Can the photo booth serve double duty? Rather than hoping that people put photos in the guest book, tell them you want them to do this. We had a little chalkboard sign that explained the concept. You could have some kind of display board with pins or clips near the photo booth to encourage people to put cute photos there for you to take home. A sign saying "Take one for you and one for us!" might be cool.

Also, yea, put someone in charge of the cameras. Even if they aren't taking all of the photos they can refill empty cameras, change batteries, and the like. And, they can harass people to contribute photos to the guest book (in a fun way of course.)

Tips: Make sure there is a ready supply of batteries wherever you're stashing film. Also, the first "shot" off every roll is a plastic insert, which still trips me up every time I change the damned cartridge. ("Say cheese! Oh shit, no that wasn't a photo please everyone say cheese again!")
posted by cabingirl at 11:29 AM on September 18, 2014

Response by poster: The cameras are supplied as part of our photography package so that's why there are so many of them.

Thanks for the tips. I might ask the photographer if I can borrow one to play around with and show a few people how they work.
posted by poxandplague at 2:33 PM on September 18, 2014

Response by poster: For future reference I ended up buying 30 10 packs of film and printed off the official instructions and placed them with each camera.
posted by poxandplague at 1:53 AM on December 26, 2014