If you’re reading this you probably already know all about South Farm, a fantastic and truly unique wedding venue on the border of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. Right next to us!
We’ve been a preferred supplier of photo booths at South Farm for 5 years now, and so we’ve seen more than our fair share of weddings here. For lots of reasons, it’s one of our absolute favourite places to supply to due to the helpfulness of the staff, the building itself, and most importantly the extremely happy couples we’ve been privileged to meet over the years. So the good news is that if you’ve booked your wedding here, you’re already well on your way to a fantastic day. Take a moment and give yourself a pat on the back.
Now, photo booths. The spaces at South Farm are very flexible and so every wedding we’ve seen here has been quite unique with slightly different requirements for their booths and entertainment. Luckily, over the years we’ve set up in all three of their main party areas with our enclosed and open photo booths, and so we’ve learned a thing or two about what works best, and developed some special packages and prices to suit them (more on that soon).
In our experience there are definitely a few things you should keep in mind when choosing where to put your photo booth to make the most of the booth experience and the venue itself. So whether you choose one of our own booths or you go for another supplier instead, hopefully this short article will help you make the right decision for your own special day.
I wanted to say thank you so much again for the photobooth hire over our wedding weekend. The guests absolutely loved it, and apparently there were queues all evening! You and your assistant were fab.The quality of the photos was great and we really appreciated everything you did in the run-up to make sure our wedding theme worked with the booth. People are still raving now about how much fun the booth was!
Thank you, thank you!
Laura Wheeler
South Farm bride
As the biggest space at South Farm and the main room of your evening celebrations, the Tudor Barn is the obvious choice for somewhere to put your photo booth. And it’s a great choice too, it’s right in amongst the action and so it gets plenty of use, and if you’re planning on having a DJ/disco area in the adjacent Horse Barn it can really help to add to the atmosphere for guests still at their tables and the bar area.
Where exactly to put it?
A great location for the booth area in the Tudor Barn is just to the left as you enter the barn, on the opposite end and opposite side of the room to the bar. This spreads people throughout the room nicely and avoids groups at the bar/buffet clashing with groups at the booth – something we’re always keen to achieve when setting up our photo booths whatever the venue! The space here is ideal for both our open style ‘Spotlight’ photo booth, and is even large enough for our extra large ‘Big Top’ photo booth.
Why not the Tudor Barn?
If you’re planning on having a live band/DJ and dance area in the Tudor Barn, both experiences would probably benefit from being kept separate. We’ve set up almost on top of many a dance floor, but we’d never recommend it if it can be avoided!
Our ‘Enchanted Forest’ real life scenery inside the ‘Big Top’ is a great match for the rustic style of the Tudor Barn, and they compliment each other perfectly!
CHECK OUT ‘THE ENCHANTED FOREST’
With it’s glass dance floor and high-tech lighting options, the newly converted Horse Barn is extremely well equipped to be home to your DJ and disco area. But the options for mood lighting and it’s location right next to the Tudor Barn means it also works really well as a chill-out area (South Farm will even provide comfy lounge seating here if you choose that option). In these circumstances, it’s also a great place for your photo booth. It’s close enough to the main room to still see plenty of use by your guests, and it can be a great source of entertainment for guests using the comfy seating (there’s plenty of room for both a booth and the seating). The integrated slideshow screen outside our ‘Big Top’ booth, and the open air nature of our extremely social ‘Spotlight’ booth are both especially good fun to watch!
Where exactly to put it?
Our ‘Big Top’ photo booth will work anywhere in this room, but an ideal location for it is inside the smaller area sectioned off by the wooden beams. It fits perfectly and leaves the rest of the room free for whatever else you have planned.
But for us, a great way to use this room is with an open style booth such as our own Spotlight photo booth. One of our themed 8ft pop-up backdrops may be an ideal match for your own themes and colours schemes here, but the Horse Barn provides a great opportunity to run an open booth without a backdrop at all, making use of the natural beauty of the venue as the background for your photos and boomerangs – it’s a shame to waste it!
Choose this option and our in-house designers will create bespoke digital graphics for your prints and photos that match your colours/themes perfectly, whilst complementing the rustic nature of the venue in your photos. It creates a really personal reminder of your big day, your guests, and the venue itself!
The Horse Barn has some fantastic lighting options, but so does the ‘Spotlight’ photo booth with it’s internally lit, customisable side windows. Colour match all the lighting with your print/photo designs for a perfectly themed photo booth experience.
CHECK OUT THE SPOTLIGHT PHOTOBOOTH
We’ve been set up in the Old Dairy on a few occasions, and we recommend the photo booth is set up and ready for guests as soon as they come to the Dairy for tea and coffee after the wedding breakfast. This works great to give guests something to do during this time whilst South Farm turn around the Tudor Barn ready for the evening celebration. The booth gets very well used at this point!
The Old Dairy is just a few short steps through the beautiful courtyard and so it can be a fantastic space to make use of to enhance your big day. If you’re keen for guests to explore all the areas at South Farm throughout the evening, placing a photo booth here can help draw guests back into the room well into the night. This works especially well if there’s other entertainment or activities and other reasons for them to explore the venue.
That being said, there is potential for the booth to be underused in this location. At any event and location, 99% of guests will use the booth at least once, they just can’t resist us. But if there is no other reason or reminder for guests to return once the evening celebrations have begun, you may find that some guests neglect to return as much as they might otherwise. There’s no real right or wrong answer here, it wholly depends on your own plans and how you imagine you and your guests using the space!
Where exactly to put it?
Booths work nicely when located at the far end of the Old Dairy, (that’s against the back wall on the right as you enter) to make the best use of the space inside the room and to leave plenty of room for guests to mingle. Both our Big Top and Spotlight booths work equally well here, and so you’re free to simply choose which style of photo booth you prefer.
NOT SURE WHAT STYLE OF BOOTH TO CHOOSE FOR YOUR BIG DAY? BROWSE BY THE COLOUR SCHEMES & THEMES OF OUR BACKGROUND OPTIONS instead.
CHECK OUT OUR SCENES & BACKDROPS
If nothing else, here are the thoughts you should take away from this article:
If you’re planning on having a band or DJ in a specific room, it’s probably best to choose another location for the booth area to make the most of the booth experience, and the fantastic spaces at South Farm.
You’ll have your booth photos (and Boomerangs) forever, and how they look is as important to us as your experience on the night creating them. Make sure the output of any booth you choose suits you and your day personally and give careful thought to if you want a simple set up (such as our plain coloured backdrops), something more elaborate (such as our real-life scenery), or if the venue itself should feature in your photos.
Something we haven’t really touched on – what times should the booth run? Read below to learn how we’ve made this the easiest decision yet…
As promised, we offer special prices and packages for events at South Farm, designed to work around their schedule and your own day perfectly: our ‘South Farm’ package includes a chunk of extra time (above the industry standard of 3 hours) with no extra charge.
This means we’ll be ready to roll as soon as your guests enter the room you want us in for the evening celebration, (usually sometime between 7pm – 8pm, but this will of course depend on your own schedule & your wedding planner at South Farm will be able to assist) and we’ll operate right up until midnight (if you want us to!) when the evening draws to a close. And with no additional travel or delivery costs (we’re extremely local) you’ll always get our lowest prices for an extra special service!
LET’S TALK.
Still have questions or want to check availability for your date at South Farm?
LET’S TALK.
Still have questions or want to check availability for your date at South Farm?