NEW BUSINESS SP OTLIGHT : Making Memories Photobooth
Posted on Sunday, February 3, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE — Everyone always leaves their business laughing, Marcy Hill, 27, said. She and business partner Sherry Schwartzman, 60, think that’s a good thing, because it makes event planners eager to rent their photobooth for party guests’ entertainment.
“It’s always busy, definitely an attraction. There’s always a line,” said Hill, whose sister is Schwartzman’s daughter-in-law.
Guests at Walton Arts Center’s Imagine a Moment event Dec. 29 kept the booth in demand throughout the night as they gathered their friends to pose for the camera. The booth also proved popular last fall outside a Razorbacks game and at Lights of the Ozarks on the Fayetteville Square in November, Schwartzman said.
For the Walton center event, they gathered costume hats, tiaras and feather boas for picture participants. For the University of Arkansas game, they had a Razorback logo on the booth’s background, and a football and Razorback hat to use in silly poses.
Schwartzman and Hill suggest the booth as a fun activity for family or class reunions, anniversary parties, school events, fundraisers and corporate events or openings. Renting the booth provides an unlimited number of photo prints in black-and-white or color.
Photos are printed in 10 seconds, so guests have a personalized souvenir of the event. The 4-by-6-inch print shows a single shot or a strip of three photos down each side with space in the middle to place customized graphics and words about the event, which could include the event’s name, place and date.
For wedding receptions, the photos can be set up to print the bride and groom’s names and the date in their chosen colors for guests. A fundraiser or corporate event might add an organizational logo to the description down the middle of each print.
The photobooth fulfills a different need than the regular wedding photographer does, Hill said. Bridal couples will still choose formal wedding photographs. But the booth gives everyone a chance to drop into the seat and lose their inhibitions since there is no photographer standing in front of them.
“It’s just the camera and you,” Schwartzman said.
Throughout the contracted event, an attendant is available to help guests, along with the in-booth instructions. Hill and Schwartzman provide delivery, set-up and takedown of the 750-pound booth.
No chemicals are used in these modern digital photographs, Hill said. The prints are a better quality than those produced by the photograph booths of an earlier era.
“This photobooth combines the vintage look of the ’ 50 s with the technology of the ’ 90 s,” Schwartzman said.
All the photo images are compiled onto a digital disk as a scrapbook, which can have guests’ comments added during the event. The party’s organizer can later edit the photos or comments on a personal computer.
The standard contract lists prices of $ 900 for three hours and $ 1, 200 for four hours. Additional hours cost $ 100 per hour.
Since starting their business in September, Hill shifted to part-time work as an accountant and Schwartzman switched to substitute teaching. A saying from her career as a first-grade teacher gave Schwartzman the name for the new business.
“Making memories — I don’t know of anything more important than that.”
DETAILS LOCATION: 1608 Briarcliff St., Fayetteville; makingmemoriesphotobooth. com PHONE: (479 ) 466-7235 Marcy; (479 ) 466-7235 Sherry; info@maki ngmemoriesphotobooth. comHours: Flexible to suit events OWNERS: Marcy Hill and Sherry Schwartzman PRODUCTS / SERVICES: Photobooth rental for events, providing highquality photos; customized graphics on photos; attendant with booth; disk of all photos taken TYPE OF BUSINESS: Photobooth rentals START DATE: September 2007 START-UP FUNDS: Did not disclose FUNDING: Personal funding If you recently opened a business or know of a new business in the area, please call Sue Morris at (479 ) 770-8468 or e-mail:
smorris@arkansasonline. com
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