August 12, 2022 Wedding & Marriage Photography

Why You Should Get Film Disposable Cameras For Your Wedding

For our Cabo Wedding, we bought disposable Fujifilm 35mm film cameras to get the best and most fun party photos.

I've always loved the lo-fi film quality of disposable cameras, and from 2010 to 2012, I was always carrying one around New York City for my party photos. When it came to our Cabo Wedding, this was a simple and pretty low-cost add-on that we are so happy with!

Overall, we used these cameras instead of a photobooth, and the photos really speak for themselves.

To cut to the chase of where can you buy disposable cameras that are affordable (being a relative term) and reliable, I found these 2-packs from CVS.com that came very quickly and turned out perfectly.

These are the exact cameras we bought!

Tips to make the most of Disposable Cameras:

Give a couple of cameras specifically to people you trust to make the most of them
Before putting the cameras out at the wedding night, turn on the flash for every camera and just leave it on, that way people won't forget to use the flash, leaving you with unusable dark photos.
The film uses in disposable cameras should be fine to go through airport security scanners, however to be extra safe you can request a hand check. Simply put them all in a clear ziploc bag, and hand them to the TSA agent. Almost all airports will let you have them hand-checked instead of going through the X-ray.
Don't wind the camera to the next frame after you take a photo! When you have the camera pre-wound, it's much easier to accidentally waste a frame. Just leave the camera after taking a photo and only wind it when you're ready to take another one.
When you get your film developed, have the photo lab make digital scans, so you can have perfect digital photos instead of trying to take photos of the prints with your iphone. How great do these digitals look?

One of the most fun benefits of getting disposable cameras is that they usually take only a few days to get developed, and if you get them done right after your wedding, they will likely be the first photos you see! Most wedding photographers take between 1-3 months to deliver your entire album of photos (and previews are often only the most important portraits, party photos are almost always are saved until later.) Having all of these to hold us over helped keep the fun and excitement alive as we waited for the rest of the photos, and gave us a chance to really appreciate each one, since our wedding photographers delivered so many photos all at once.

These dance floor popsicles really had a major moment.

One of the add ones that was the most worth it was the cold pyro sparklers for both our first dance and for the first opening of dance floor. Everyone LOVED these so much, and they were exactly what I dreamed of.