So you’ve decided to take the plunge and rent a photo booth for your wedding reception. You love how it adds a one-of-kind element to the reception. Plus you just adore the idea of a guest book filled with photos of your family and friends. But now you must decide between a digital booth and an antique photo booth.

Your options may be limited by the models offered by vendors in your area. Vendors are slowly replacing vintage photo booths with newer digital models. Restoring and maintaining an antique photo booth is both costly and difficult. With today’s new digital options, many brides are leaning towards the newer technology and expanded options.

To help guide your decision, let’s explore the advantages and disadvantages of both.

Going Old School

A vintage photo booth is an American tradition -- a hallmark of malls, arcades, and amusement parks. Presenting familiar turf, you won’t have any problem encouraging your guests to participate.

Vintage photo booths use a traditional chemical photo printing process, take a bit longer generate the prints and present photos in black and white. But there is nothing like listening to the mysterious whir of a vintage photo booth and seeing the small black and white photo strip appear like magic. The traditional black and white photo strip usually measures 1-1/2 inches by 8 inches. Your guests hold in their hand an original work of art.

But with the nostalgia and uniqueness of a vintage booth comes the quirks and hiccups of an antique technology. Vintage photo booths must be carefully maintained by a qualified operator. Photos can not be easily duplicated after the event because there is no copy of the photos other than the original photo strips.

New Technology, New Options

As photo booth rentals grow in popularity, rental companies are increasing their supply of booths by purchasing new digital photo booths. Modern digital booths allow vendors to offer more options such as online photo galleries, photo CDs and reprints. Best of all, because they are easier to maintain, digital photo booths are often cheaper to rent.

In addition to making prints, many digital booths save the images to an internal hard drive. After your event, the images can be burned to a CD or uploaded to an online photo gallery. You and your guests can view the images online, download them and make prints. Be aware that some vendors charge for extra prints ordered online after the event. Don’t be surprised if these precious images appear on your friends’ MySpace or FaceBook pages.

The new digital technology also allows for on-photo customization for your event. Your wedding date, the bride and groom’s names, a corporate logo or the event location can appear on each photo strip. This is one way to personalize the photo booth experience for your event. Keep in mind that vendors require some lead time, typically two to four weeks, before your event to customize your photo strips and may charge an additional fee.

Consider offering a miniature photo album as a wedding favor and encouraging guests to swap photos. By the end of the reception, each guest will have a small photo album full of smiling faces and you will have a one-of-a-kind guest book.

Both the vintage and digital options usually include delivery, set up, unlimited photo taking and an on-location technician. Regardless of your choice—traditional or digital—you can be sure that your guests will enjoy every minute of the picture taking and the one-of-a-kind favor of a personal photo strip.