It’s that time of year again. Romance is in the air, over 36 million boxes of chocolate are being gifted and an estimated amount of $3.3 billion worth of flowers are being sent and received by loved ones all over the nation. It’s Valentine’s Day.
Don’t get us wrong! We love chocolates, flowers, nice dinners and cute stuffed animals. But as a husband and wife team here at koibooth we’ve been taking some time to reflect back on the little things that happen throughout the year that give our hearts all the feels.
Rewind just a month or so ago...
...to a review we were doing of all of our past koibooth events in 2019. After sorting through all of the images we realized that we had captured TONS of images of couples kissing each other and we thought: “this is just the best thing!" How romantic is it to find yourselves in front of a photo booth capturing your love, kisses and just overall cuteness in a matter of seconds?? It actually brought us back to our dating days before we even ventured into the photo booth business. If we happened to be somewhere with a photo booth we ALWAYS took photos. The best part was receiving a print right away that we could display anywhere and look at every day.
Hey! That's us! Even before koibooth we LOVED taking pictures at photo booths. This was in Portland, Oregon at the famous Voodoo Doughnut shop 🙂
TALK ABOUT WARM FUZZIES <3
We’ve talked before about why prints are so special and if you didn’t believe us then, check out this adorable video of all of our koibooth couples below. We're confident that they would tell you how much those prints mean to them even long after the event:
Share many kisses with your loved one this Valentine's Day XOXO
San Diego Valentine's Day Date Ideas
In the spirit of pictures and treasuring moments and experiences to celebrate with your boo thang this love day, we’ve put together a list of great spots in San Diego to go and spend the day or the weekend at. We even suggest bringing a camera with you so you can have highlights of your special day. If you REALLY want to go for it - stop by a Walgreens or CVS and pick up a disposable film camera (yes, they still make them). The beauty of disposable cameras are that you'll have no idea what you've captured until you develop the film! You never know, you might just capture something really unique.
Treat your sweet tooth to delicious & beautiful desserts at Extraordinary Desserts (our personal favorite for sweets in San Diego)
Whether you’re newly dating or partners of many years, next time you pass by a photo booth, give it a try! Or if you happen to be located in the San Diego area, feel free to contact us directly to book us for your next event. We promise to capture the timeless gift of super warm fuzzies for all your guests.
Mesa Rim and REI worked creatively together to make this years Halloween about more than just your usual tricks and treats.
A short highlight film capturing all of the excitement and silliness from Rocktober.
Sticking to your workout routine takes dedication and sometimes a little encouragement. On top of that, it’s easy to find reasons not to go. Maybe you’re tired after a long day or maybe it’s a holiday and you’d rather be around friends and family.
But what if you were a member at a gym that knew how you felt? What if you belonged to a gym whose enthusiastic staff valued your commitment so deeply that they worked hard to create much more than a place to work out. But rather, they created a community. A second home.
So that even when thoughts of “maybe I’m too tired to workout today” cross your mind, you can’t help but want to go. Because it’s more than a workout routine among strangers. It’s a camaraderie among familiar faces.
That’s what we have found at Mesa Rim and if you were to ask any of their other members, we bet they would tell you the same. Their innovative and passionate team has thoughtfully established a well rounded and inviting, work hard, play hard environment. From a dynamic facility that is changing up every few weeks to keep things fresh to multiple events happening every month, it’s no wonder this place is so loved by San Diego locals.
Mesa Rim inspires a safe, non competitive community that helps members to grow and cheer each other on. Here you can see members watching and supporting the climber ahead successfully (Halloween costume and all!) lead climb his way up the wall.
Speaking of amazing events, Rocktober was no exception.
Mesa Rim Mission Valley partnered with REI to throw a Halloween extravaganza and it was a fantastic way to celebrate the spooky affair. There was everything from a costume contest to games, to booths giving out more information on how to get more involved in the community.
As the event revved up, nestled all around the gym’s 55 foot high rock climbing walls you could find members of all ages dressed up in a variety of costumes. Many were even homemade - from a bouldering crash pad to a bag of dried mangos to a pink unicorn. It's safe to say that when it comes to costume contests, these folks have it figured out.
Members dressed to impress for Rocktober's costume contest!
What was even more incredible was that at any given time, you could look around and find members still working out and participating in the event games in their costumes!! We’re talking climbing, bouldering, lifting weights, crate stacking and even doing various acro stunts. We were so intrigued by the acro stunts and the crate stacking. We’ve never tried either but find them to be so inspiring. They appear to take not only an immense amount of focus and strength, but a strong form of collaboration between each person involved. Throw in a couple of people with Halloween costumes on and it just gets even better.
Mesa Rim and REI did an excellent job making sure that members could enjoy the party while still completing their workout for the day. Because Halloween or not, you can't give up on your practice.It's all fun and games! Mesa Rim members and staff work together for the crate stacking challenge. The winner received a swag bag from REI filled with goodies.
So what inspired everyone to still workout even during the party?
We mentioned above about sometimes needing a little encouragement to get to going on your workout...and great food can be great encouragement. Dos Tierras Tacos made the night with their deliciously satisfying tacos complete with fresh homemade corn tortillas. From the moment they started serving tacos until the moment they ran out there was a line. And it was totally worth it. If you missed out or didn’t get one, we highly recommend checking them out. They’re local, they have extraordinary customer service and they know how to make a great taco.
The Dos Tierra's team moving quickly to make sure everyone got their fill of delicious tacos.
And if great tacos weren’t enough to get people going, there was a selection of craft brews from Pure Project and refreshing cider from Bivouac Ciderworks for anyone 21+.
Bivouac Ciderworks provided the perfect refreshment to go along with the tacos.
Free tacos and beer? C’mon, can it get any better?!
Oh wait...it can. And it did.
First, let us first just take a small pause and give another HUGE shoutout to REI to Mesa Rim because they thought of everything. Because just when you thought it was awesome - it turned into incredible, as dessert came through with none other than Ben & Jerry’s. On a cart. Mobile. With two of the nicest employees to scoop ice cream of your choice for you right there on the spot. We’d thought we’d seen it all. But this...this was absolutely - 100%, the cherry on top.
Ben and Jerry's was serving four delicious flavors - Cherry Garcia. Phish Food, Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Berry Berry Extraordinary.
Okay, okay, so it was not all just tacos and ice cream.
Afterall, what would an event be without some great swag? REI pulled out all of the stops with their hat pressing station. They must’ve had hundreds of plain baseball hats and one of a kind patches out for you to choose from. They would press it right there and members would walk away with a custom hat and a very generous coupon to any REI store.
REI provided great Halloween swag for Mesa Rim members to take home.
And course, we can’t leave out our photo booth. Yes, we love our props but nothing could beat having guests come through all dressed up in their Halloween best. There were many giggles all night long and watching people light up when they take photos is really why we do what we do. We love seeing our guests happy we and we feel so grateful when we get invited to be a part of events as rad as Rocktober.
Members just loved hopping in front of our koibooth to capture the great costumes they'd put together!
To the hardworking and creative collaborators from Mesa Rim and REI who made it a Halloween to remember, thank you again for inviting us to join in on the fun.
A standard photo booth hire can range a bit here and there. But there are some things over here at koibooth that we consider to be must haves for any event.
When it comes down to it, booking your photo booth should be a very easy and straightforward process. Mostly because everything is already sorted out and included. You just have to make a few decisions regarding the backdrop, photo strip designs, props, you know - the fun stuff!
There are always add ons and customizations you can make here and there. But if you were to just book the standard package without all the extras you should have everything you could possibly need to make your booth hire a hit at your party.
Here’s what any standard photo booth hire should include:
Unlimited sessions with prints
Props
Backdrop
Print design
Photo booth attendee(s)
Instant social media sharing
Gifs
Link to digital library after event (sent to the host)
Delivery, set up & breakdown (30 min. prior and 30 min. post booking time)
If any of those items are not included when you go to book your photo booth I would say that you’re not getting the best deal. Even the instant social media sharing and gifs are standard these days because we photo booth folks know how important those things are to our guests. It wouldn’t be right to charge extra for something that everyone will absolutely want!
I should mention that this information is also based off of the most common type of photo booth hire. Should you chose to go another route such as something like a photo booth camper type of set up or a ring light selfie booth set up, there may be other standards for those that I cannot speak to.
But I cannot stress enough how important it is to go over this with the rental company that you choose. Make sure that there are no hidden fees for things... like extra prints. If there are, just make sure that you’ve considered that into your budget as I promise, it will come up. At koibooth for example, it happens frequently (as I’m sure it does with many open-air booth styles) that you have a large group of guests hop in for a session and they all want their own print when it’s done. Our printer automatically prints out two prints. But if we need to print, say six more, we’ll happily do it right there on the spot. And we don’t charge extra because...well that would suck for our host.
Some companies may have it in their policy that they must charge more if they need to print more on the spot but hey, to each his own. I can't say that it’s an “industry standard” that they must print more if guests ask for it but it’s just something to be aware of. For us here at koibooth, we just want every guest to walk away with that special memento from your party.
Something else to note...
One last thing I will touch on is travel costs. Now, I wouldn’t say this is hidden because it should be the companies right to charge a little extra for travel if they have to travel a pretty significant distance. But it shouldn’t be much! Maybe it’s an extra $1/per or so. Honestly if the company is transparent, they will tell you if you need to pay extra for travel as soon as you give them your event location.
And that’s everything, folks! I hope this helps clear the air for what should be expected when booking your photo booth. Just make sure that you remember to ask questions if something isn’t noted or it’s even a little unclear. The more you know, the more you can be positive that it’s the right photo booth for you.
"...gifs are standard these days because we photo booth folks know how important those things are to our guests. It wouldn’t be right to charge extra for something that everyone will absolutely want!"
