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.
We'll just start right off by saying: yes! we truly believe in the power of rockstar photo booth attendants. The truth is that when it comes down to it, photo booths are just a bunch of little machines that all need to work simultaneously together. And very rarely things CAN go awry because well you know – technology!
That being said, it should be standard that any photo booth company you rent from should include a photo booth attendant from set up all throughout clean up.
There are also some great perks that come with having a booth attendant!
For example, when we attend an event with our koibooth, part of our goal is to keep guests engaged the whole time. This is important to us and should be important to any photo booth company. As a client, you have paid for a service and you deserve to get the most for your money.
You may wonder, “how do you keep guests engaged in the booth the entire time?” OR you may even be thinking “that doesn’t matter, my guests will surely be interested in the photo booth the whole time!” Let’s talk about both possibilities real quickly.
Possibility 1: “how do you keep guests engaged in the booth the entire time?”
A couple of ways. At koibooth, we know that we love to meet new people! So we are always sure to introduce ourselves to the people/person that is running the show. Someone like a d.j. or an emcee. D.J.’s and emcees always have microphones and can make frequent announcements reminding everyone to go check out the booth. It works like a charm! And let’s face it – those are great people to meet! They’re also there to make your event awesome. So if we all become buddies, we become a group of support to make sure that your event is simply, perfect.
Another thing we know that we love (and that you will love too) are the memories! We are ALL about that. So we love to go around the party (especially to the people that haven’t tried the booth yet) and encourage everyone to hop in for a session. We remind them that our client can’t wait to see the images and it will make them so happy to see that all of their guests had a chance to enjoy their photo booths. These will be memories for them to cherish long after their event is over.
Now, let’s hop to possibility number two because our last little secret to being awesome boot attendants, ties in with that.
Possiblity 2: “That doesn’t matter! My guests will surely be interested in the booth the entire time!”
We hate to think about it too but it DOES happen. There are dull moments when guests just aren’t hopping in. But that’s where your awesome photo booth attendant saves the day, again!
There’s a great little trick we have over here at koibooth. During dull moments, we will go ahead and hop in ourselves! We grab some props and just have a good time. As soon as that flash starts going off and guests are reminded (again) of how fun the booth is, they just can’t help but start lining up again. Magic!
Still not convinced that a photo booth attendant is necessary?
Imagine this scenario for a minute:
You’re at an event. There’s a great photo booth but there’s no attendant.
Throughout the night, the props are being thrown about, the prints are stacking up in the printer, the wifi lost connection and now no one can instantly share their pics and gifs, and then at the end of night comes and the photo booth area is a total mess with no one to clean and pack up.
Pure chaos. Right?
With an attendant at your event, all of that is avoided. Plus, once the booking time is up, they are packed up and out of the way for the venue to be properly cleaned up.
So yes. The photo booth attendants are there for any technology issues. But there are so many other reasons to be excited about having an attendant. If you’re looking into booking with a company and they don’t include an attendant or if they charge you extra for one, consider looking somewhere else. A professional company wants to look good and represent their services professionally. A booth attendant really helps with that.
Convinced yet?
Bottom line is that if your booth booking comes with an awesome photo booth attendant, you and your guests are going to have an awesome and engaging experience!
One of our photo booth attendants, having a great time with clients at holiday party
