Cameras on Reception Tables

[bride2be007]

What is everyone's opinion on this? I am still deciding whether or not to do it. I know there are chances of children getting ahold of them and getting pictures of the floor, ceiling, etc. I would probably spend more on developing the cameras then my actual photographer.. what does everyone think?

[brendalin]

One of my friends did this at her wedding and she had mixed feelings about it when it was all over.

1.) People are not respectful witht he camers and take bad pictures.
2.) They are not always of high quality.

3.) You can get pictures of people that may tend to not be on the dance floor.
4.) You can get them back a lot faster then your photographers pictures.

Overall she said that the amount of money she spent could have been spent better on something else, but it helped with the post wedding blues to have them.

Sorry, i am not much help! This is just how she felt! You could always do the cards with a photohunt thing attached to them. Telling people what pictures you want taken.....

[Jacobs_Girl]

What is everyone's opinion on this? I am still deciding whether or not to do it. I know there are chances of children getting ahold of them and getting pictures of the floor, ceiling, etc. I would probably spend more on developing the cameras then my actual photographer.. what does everyone think?

well you can actually look at the pictures before you buy, most places will let you do that. You will probably spend a lot on cameras itself.

I spent $9.99 per 3 pack bundle of the wedding design ones. I printed a little paragraph and glued it to the camera. "Use this camera to help capture memories from our special day. When you are finished leave the camera on the table. Thank you"

[sweetvenus]

Since most everyone has a digital camera now, a very similar (and cheaper!) thing to do is to put cards on the tables telling people where they can upload their digital pictures after the wedding. The disposable camera pictures never come out that well and the cost of purchasing and developing adds up.

[bride2be007]

Great, thanks! I actually had never thought about a photohunt thing before, thats a really neat idea! I've never seen anyone do it either! What types of things would you put on the photohunt paper?

My friend had cameras on her tables... she got some good shots, but she also got some "interesting" ones, once the night was coming to an end and everyone was drunk...

So I don't know.. I'm still considering it.

I have never heard of being able to view your pictures before you buy them, unless its on a digital camera. Around here, you take your disposable cameras to where ever, they print them, you buy... no looking prior! It would be nice though!

[bride2be007]

Well, thats a good idea too telling people where to upload their pictures! Yoiu guys are just a load of information! Anyways.. what kind of place is there where I could have them all upload their pictures too?

[grapefruit]

My fh's cousin did that on her wedding in lieu of a professional photographer. The picture quality wasn't great but everyone was respectful and did as requested --> group photos and lots of photos of her and the groom.

I will be having cameras on each reception table. I assume that guests will know not to let children play with it. In the thank you notes, I want to include some of pics of them at my wedding. I will also have a professional photographer though.

[Jacobs_Girl]

Great, thanks! I actually had never thought about a photohunt thing before, thats a really neat idea! I've never seen anyone do it either! What types of things would you put on the photohunt paper?

My friend had cameras on her tables... she got some good shots, but she also got some "interesting" ones, once the night was coming to an end and everyone was drunk...

So I don't know.. I'm still considering it.

I have never heard of being able to view your pictures before you buy them, unless its on a digital camera. Around here, you take your disposable cameras to where ever, they print them, you buy... no looking prior! It would be nice though!

I go to CVS all the time and they develop them for you and before they ring you up the girl always asks me to go through them and see if I like them. I think it goes with most places they just dont tell you.

[sweetvenus]

Well, thats a good idea too telling people where to upload their pictures! Yoiu guys are just a load of information! Anyways.. what kind of place is there where I could have them all upload their pictures too?

Snapfish has a service where multiple users can upload to one area. Some other photo places might as well.

[SerendipityCrafts]

Well, thats a good idea too telling people where to upload their pictures! Yoiu guys are just a load of information! Anyways.. what kind of place is there where I could have them all upload their pictures too?

We used our flickr account. We upgraded to the "delux" version ($20 -25) so that we were able to upload an unlimited number of photos.

You give your guests an email address which is exclusive to your account. Your guest can send the photos 1 by 1 (any size) to your flickr account and they will appear in your photo stream. I believe (not 100% sure) it's also possible to give out "guest" passwords so that they can go to the site and load the photos there.

Flickr then makes 4 sizes of the photos which are available for other guests to download to their own computers.

[Scrwballsgrl]

I've thought about this but was undecided also on account of people possibly being disrespectful with the types of pictures they take....but it would be nice to get some candid shots of the guest & ourselves and family:)

[grapefruit]

We used our flickr account. We upgraded to the "delux" version ($20 -25) so that we were able to upload an unlimited number of photos.

You give your guests an email address which is exclusive to your account. Your guest can send the photos 1 by 1 (any size) to your flickr account and they will appear in your photo stream. I believe (not 100% sure) it's also possible to give out "guest" passwords so that they can go to the site and load the photos there.

Flickr then makes 4 sizes of the photos which are available for other guests to download to their own computers.

This is a good idea... but I think most of my guests aren't technologically savvy...

[val24]

i was going to do the cameras at each table. but all my friends own digitial cameras. I am going to have them upload the pictures to an account. It is cheaper then the digitial cameras. Before the wedding i emailed everyone reminding them to please bring the digitial cameras. alot of people bought them and i saw tons of pictures being taken.
i personally wouldnt waste the money on disposable cameras now that digitial is out

[PGDesigns]

We set up a free, customized site on Shutterfly for our guests to upload. We are including info in the invites with the web address and guest password.

[bride2be007]

Thanks for the opinions! I think I am going to do the upload thing!

[LoLo62808]

I got mine for cheep. $2.99 a piece. Complete with a placecard for the table explaining to leave it behind. All together $41.40 for 10 of them, shipped.

I think that they offer candid photos that you're just not going to see otherwise. sure you'll get a few lame ones. But when it's all said and done, I'd rather have those memories.

Just my $0.02

[CelticAngel]

We set up a free, customized site on Shutterfly for our guests to upload. We are including info in the invites with the web address and guest password.

This sounds like a good idea. Possibly add a note on the invites telling everyone to bring their digital camera if they have one.

[bride2be007]

I think cameras would be too expensive for me to buy. I would want one on each table, if not more... so I would need about 35 of them.

I am pretty sure I'm just going to have the guests upload their pictures, and just put a note on each table setting at the reception about how to do it. Any ideas on what I should write?

[sjk1431]

I'm doing them. I got them on e bay and they were cheap. I'm also letting people know with digitals to upload them to my snapfish site. :D

[SerendipityCrafts]

I attended my nephew's wedding this weekend, they did this .... here is how it went down ....

I sat at a table with a young girl (about 8-12 years old), her mom, her dad & her grandma. The young girl saw the camera and immediately wanted to take the photos. Her permissive relatives were not at all concerned about this ("we bought her a digital camera for Christmas and she takes wonderful photos!).

Although the bride and groom attached a photo hunt list to each camera ... the last line on the list was "get any other photo that is interesting" and so that is what the child did. She took photos that were interesting to her.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3074/2485345894_a616725d09_b.jpg

A lot of people do not realize that the flash on these cameras are too powerful for shots taken closer than 5 ft (the subjects will look washed out) and not powerful enough for shots taken further than 10 ft. (the photos will be dark). Most of these cameras do not come with an automatic flash so if the person taking the photos doesn't turn on the flash (argh) then there is no hope that the pics will turn out at all. The odds of getting a "great" shot with a disposable camera are slim.

I hate to say it (and I don't know who was taking photos at the other tables) but I think the bride and groom are going to be paying to develop a lot of "not so hot" shots.

In that so many people own digital cameras these days .... I think it's a far better idea to set up an online photo account before the wedding and ask your guests to bring their cameras (slip a little note in with your invites or spread the request via word of mouth).

You can still print out a scavenger hunt photo list but rather than spend so much money developing not so great photos ... just print the instructions + password to your photo account and give it to your guests with each wedding favour :). The guests can then upload all their photos to one spot and then you can pick and choose.

*I am now uploading 500+ photos to my flickr account for my nephew and his new wife* LOL

[bichonlvr]

A few things...Costco.com has a cool thing you can upload into a group and people can get them there too!

You can always just order the CD for the table camera's! You get some really good priceless ones!

[HisMuse]

I don't think we'll do it. Maybe I'll buy a few to put at the front of the room or something but most people I assume with bring their cameras and several of my guests are trained photographers as well. It's hard to decide because maybe most people won't bring cameras and all we'll have is the professional photographer.

[BelhurstBride]

If you decide to put cameras on the tables.. I found a really cute poem to use!

"I am your camera so scavenge around,
Hunt for those pictures that need to be found
Shoot away and complete the list
Add any more that we may have missed
Snap away as best you are able
Then leave me right here at your table
Thanks for helping us capture the fun
So we can make our album a special one!"

I know I saw the first part of this earlier in a post... but this one is a bit longer.

Also, I'm not sure if somebody already mentioned this or not, but FH and I are thinking about possibly getting camera cards, since most people have digital cameras. We already have a bunch lying around our place, and you can get small ones for super cheap these days, especially if you buy in bulk. We were thinking of letting people know ahead of time on the invitations that we would be providing camera cards, and if they would like to, they could let us know what type of camera they have so that we could get matching cards. Then, people could hopefully leave the card in a basket on their way out, and we could simply upload the digital pics onto our computers, and only develop the good ones!

I know that this would require some trust that people would actually leave them at the end of the night, but we could possibly even ask our DJ to remind people, and could also try to place somebody in charge of reminding people as they walk out of the door. If you aren't comfortable with providing them for a bunch of people, you could always just provide them for family members and close friends. You would still ensure that you're getting more pictures than what your photographer takes!

If we can pull this off, it would be much much cheaper than disposable cameras!

[kaoslover4life]

What is everyone's opinion on this? I am still deciding whether or not to do it. I know there are chances of children getting ahold of them and getting pictures of the floor, ceiling, etc. I would probably spend more on developing the cameras then my actual photographer.. what does everyone think?


hi there i am new to this forum and i feel that it is ok to do this with the cameras keep them out of reach if possible if not have the adults hold on to them i dunno it is just an idea im thinking of doing that as well

[Ninedays9]

I always thought it was a kind of neat idea to have them, but now that so many people have digital cameras, it'll be easier to have them use those. I was just going to tell them to e-mail them to me, but now I'll have to look into photo uploading sites since that sounds a lot easier.

[NOTKT]

I initially liked the idea of cameras too, but I never saw the benefit as much as I hoped. IMO