Wow, That was a cold one!! This month we had the pleasure of attending the wedding reception of Heidi and Rich in the beautifully historic town of Hay on Wye. We set up in a gazebo in the patio area of the venue which did get a little chilly – in fact the reported temperature did reach -2c and there was a flutter of snow!

But we weren’t there to get warm, we were there to celebrate with the Heidi and Rich on their wonderful day :) And I must say, what a lovely group of people they were – so nice that I felt it a bit rude when we had to leave. Which we did after being given a plateful of the worlds thickest lasagne surrounded by slices of ham and beef.

It was a really great night indeed – why not check out the photos on our facebook page!

On 10th February this year Penyard House hosted another of the amazing Ellis Wedding Shows. Situated out in Ross on Wye, Hereford, Penyard House was absolutely full of wedding suppliers and bursting at the seams with brides to be and their partners.

Spanning god knows how many rooms and over 3 floors, there was a look of products and services on offer, from wedding photographers in Hereford and the West Midlands to Chocolate Fountain hire, suit hire, harpists, sweets, stationary, flowers, wedding DJ’s… the list goes on!

Being big fans of the Ellis Wedding Shows, we try to get to as many as we can. This time Ellis really outdid herself. As well as taking over even more of the lovely wedding venue, Ellis added a chillout area for the men who were, reluctantly, dragged along when they’d rather be in the pub or watching the football! On top of that, Ellis put on a complete catwalk show exhibition to show off the wedding dresses from Lily Oliver Bridal and Amore Bridal Wear with mens suits from Bill Child Formal Wear with commentary by wedding DJ Pete Stead.

Hire a Photo Booth!

And, let’s not forget, myPhotobooth was there! As usual, we had the photo booth all setup and running so the visitors could have a go and see how everything works – and, or course, take some photos home with them. You can find the photos from the day on our facebook gallery.

So remember! If you are looking to hire a photo booth, give us a shout!

You might have heard about QR Codes – or “Quick Response Code” – you will certainly have seen them. The QR code is often a small 2 dimensional square barcode that, once scanned using your phone or other mobile device, will offer you various new bits of information. It might contain a virtual business card that you can save to your phone, maybe a message or a link to a website.

QR codes are becoming more and more popular, with many graphic enthusiasts going nuts with the various design options available. So when we decided to make our latest QR Code, we wanted something that would stand out, something that wasn’t just a coloured in picture with a logo slapped in the middle. And what we came up with might just be the worlds first shaped QR code! (possibly, we couldn’t find any others :P)

There are many QR codes hidden in shapes, but they are always square, or soft squares with the shape built around them. What we wanted to do was change the perceived shape of the QR code itself – ok so it’s still “square” overall, but we wanted to chop pieces out to change the perception of the shape from looking like a standard QR code that had been coloured in. It actually worked surprisingly well, in fact, so well that we expected Google to be full of chopped up – working – QR codes; but it wasn’t.

So here we have it, our new Shaped QR Code! Designed by Jamie O’Rourke of our parent company Voodoo Red Media ltd.

(It scans faster in black, but it does also work in colour.)

It’s that time of year again, when the lovely people at Krispy Kreme open up a new hotlight store full of their tasty doughnuts! This time we took a photo booth all the way up to Edinburgh for Scotlands first ever Krispy Kreme store opening!

After a long drive from deep in the West Midlands, we arrived at Hermiston Gait ready to set up the photo booth for the evening launch party. By 5pm the doughnuts and coffee were flowing (the MC2 girls doing a fantastic job as always) and the music pumping courtesy of Edinburghs ForthOne (FM) Radio team. Everyone had a great time, and who wouldn’t with a factory belt of non-stop doughnuts! Anyway, Jamie whipped out his compact camera and captured a bit of video…..

What a year 2012 has been for our photo booth hire teams! We’ve been out all over the country, from Worcester and Birmingham in the West Midlands all the way out to reading, London, Somerset and South Wales! With clients from California, Australia, Norway and France and enquiries from Germany, Italy and Berlin! Back in September we made the trek up to the Metrocentre in Newcastle for the opening of a new Krispy Kreme store and this month we’ll be off to another grand opening at the Krispy Kreme Hotlight store in Edinburgh – the first in Scotland!

We’ve had a great time throughout the year, starting off with Amir Khans engagement party with his beautiful fiance Faryal Mahkdoom at the Reebok Stadium in Manchester. There were about a thousand guests in attendance including boxer Ricky Hatton and a variety of big Bollywood acts and performers providing the entertainment alongside us! A month later and we were off to Birmingham for the 26th birthday of premier footballer Luke Moore. Needless to say, Luke seemed to be having a great time!

In March we were booked by Sport Relief to take the photo booth to the big run at Cardiff Bay in South Wales. It was a very early start but well worth the time as Sport Relief raised an astonishing £68 million for vulnerable people in the UK and abroad. Fortunately, the rain held off and everyone enjoyed a fantastic summers day. A big congratulations to everyone who took part, especially the giant Bananas, the green girls and the guy in the female Viking costume!

May saw one of the most elaborate birthday parties that we have been to so far! It was Georgias 18th, out in the Cotswolds. We were told “it’s a circus theme, can you make the photo booth pictures like a circus?” – of course we could (custom print designs are included in all of our packages!). As we rounded the corner and popped out from the trees we saw, not one, not two, but three circus tents in the grounds of Georgias home! As well as the circus tents there were a number of stalls full of sweets and candy floss, there were stilt walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and performers! The weather was perfect and the whole place glowed as the sunset and fireworks show started.

In July we were off to Manchester once again, this time to Rio Ferdinands Rosso Restaurant in Spring Gardens for the Inside Soap TV Awards launch party – sponsored by Boohoo.com. It was a beautifully stylish venue, full of paparazzi and celebs. Being the Soap Awards, we met lots of fantastic people from Eastenders, Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Hollyoaks as well as a few extras who popped in for a bite to eat like, The Only Way is Essex’, Mark Wright. Everyone was fantastic and had a great time and we got some amazing photos on the night.

By September we were well underway. Another sports trip down to Cardiff, this time on behalf of Sports Wales for the homecoming party of the Welsh paralympians – a remarkable group of people to say the least. And it wouldn’t be long until we were in Cardiff again (weddings aside) as we were booked by, the world famous, Hamleys toy shop from Regeant Street London for the opening of their store in St Davids, Cardiff! And I must say, the enthusiasm and excitement of the staff didn’t go by unnoticed.

“But hang on!”, I can hear you say, “I thought you did photo booths for weddings!?” And you are, of course, absolutely correct. We have been to fabulous weddings all across the country, from Ascot and Reading to Bournemouth, Somerset and Bristol to Cardiff, Newport and Swansea – not forgetting all of the lovely weddings in Birmingham, Chester and Coventry! One of the best things about going out with the photo booth is that you get to meet so many people and see so many different sights. We’ve set up the photobooth in castles and manors, peoples gardens, hotels, pubs and restaurants and every single one has been fantastic. And, lets not forget, the exciting situations that we have landed ourselves in; like the time Jamie turned around to see the wedding magician at Kerry and Scotts wedding to find that they had booked the legend that is Paul Daniels! Or when the marquee at Polly and Loughlinn’s wedding became waterlogged, the roads flooded and the security guards car ended up sideways in a ditch!

There really have been too many fantastic times to mention. But we would like to thank all of our clients, all of the brides and grooms, the University leavers and HR people that we have met over the past year. We’ve had an absolutely amazing year and we are looking forward to doing it all again in 2013 – this time even bigger and better!

On behalf of myPhotobooth, thank you for all of your support and he’s to a great 2013!!