How to Build a Vintage Style Kissing Booth

We’ve had nearly five years worth of photo booths for every special event that the Glendora Village has to offer! It’s hard to stretch our imaginations to do something different yet extravagant since we’ve done so many of them. But, we manage!

Our very first photo booth back in 2011/12?

For the Glendora Village Wine Walk this past Saturday, we themed our photo booth around a Vintage Carnival Style Kissing Booth. It seemed appropriate with Valentine’s Day just around the corner!

I asked Dad if he would build it for me out of salvaged pallets…not just any salvaged pallets, but three pallets from our last three paint deliveries! I’ve been stockpiling.

We needed a fairly sturdy, backless box with a mini ledge/counter to set things on.

Dad bolted all three pallets together and cut our a small ledge out of a piece of plywood, which he then affixed to the top of the pallets with his nail gun.

The posts are nothing more than 2×4’s that slide in between the ledge and the middle pallet support. Dad added a bolt with wing nuts so that they are easy to remove en-route.

Once dad got the booth built, I took it home to paint and sand. I used Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint and mixed a custom color for the blue…about two parts Ironstone to one part Kitchen Scale. The white slats are Ironstone and the top ledge is stained with Curio. When it was dry, I sanded the heck out of it using 100 grit sand paper on my palm sander.

The sign on top is cut out plywood. I just sketched out the shape so that it was a bit more decorative than a rectangular shape of wood.

The sign went through several revisions. I started by painting the letters red then staining it with curio. When it was dry, I sanded it down and finished it with hemp oil.

Once I got it all put together, I didn’t like how it looked. The red letters got lost in the wood finish and I felt like it was too heavy and dark in color. So, I flipped it over and did the other side using a white background.

The sign is also affixed with bolts and wing nuts so it is easy to remove and reassemble!

Once we had the photo booth assembled in the store, I got to do the fun part and fluff around it for the photo booth. I added vintage crates, trunk and suitcases…playing off of the traveling carnival concept.

We’ve been saving a vintage gumball machine for the past couple of months with this photo booth in mind. And, I ordered a handful of extra strings of carnival lights to hang over the top.

Then, Caitlin from Killer Cupcake Event Photography comes in, sets up her massive amounts of photography equipment and takes test photos to make sure the colors are calibrated….I totally made that up. I don’t know what she does!

When it’s all said and done, we have an awesome photo booth that no fewer than seven people helped to bring together over the course of an entire week!

Dad: built the booth
Caitlin: Killer Cupcake Event Photography
Mother-in-Law: Did all the shopping for the gumballs, balloons, popcorn, peanuts and other odds and ends.
Jamie from Marqueed by Love: Donated the lit up Love sign for the Photo Booth

Angela from La Petite Fleur: arranged the gorgeous flower bouquets