What Is Included In the Price When Renting AJs Mystic Mirror Photo Booth In Winnipeg & Southern MB

When we first started our business we decided that we were going to provide our clients and their guests a high-end experience at the most affordable price we could. Those that know us, know that if we could provide our service for free, we would, and have. We knew that this was a very unrealistic thing to-do if we wanted to make this a successful business.

Our pricing did start out to be the lowest in Manitoba and as we added more options to our package, we did raise our prices slightly but remained the lowest price Mirror Booth in Manitoba. Covid hit and we felt bad for all the couples, and clients that had to cancel and postpone over and over during this time. Even thought the price of everything went up considerably, and we had to raise our prices once more, we decided to honour our contract and not raise the prices for these clients. In 2022 we honoured 20 contacts at 2019 (and in one case 2018) pricing. In one instant we made nothing on the booking and actually lost money, but that did not effect the service we provided.

At the time I am writing this blog our prices have not raise since June 2022. We charge $200.00 an hour for the first 3 hours, $750.00 for 4 our rental and $875.00. The only other charge is mileage, $35.00 for Winnipeg events and for outside of Winnipeg for the most part it starts off at $125.00 and goes up the further the distance. Oh and because we are a legitimate business we do have to charge taxes.

From our research we have found that we are still the lowest Mirror Photo Booth in Manitoba, for what we include. You may find cheaper booths, but they definitely do not offer what we offer. They may not be interactive like our booths, they may be iPad booths and not the quality of a DSLR booth, or they may have a base price that is cheaper but everything is an add on. (props extra, backdrop extra, digital or prints extra, photo album with all pictures extra…..)

I understand that most people, Including me before I started in the business, only think that the $200.00 an hour is for the time we are running the booth. Less than half that is covering the cost of the running the booth for that hour.

At the end of this blog, I will also provide a list of everything that we include in your rental. They are the items you see the day of your event and most likely are the only thing you care about when renting a phot booth, lol. Skip to the end if you are bored.

Behind The Booth

We have had two people recently state something along the lines of “What do you do during that hour to justify charging $200 an hour?” So I thought it would be great to direct the to this page should they really want to know.

Our billing time starts the minute you request a quote. We take the time to send you the quote, answer all your questions and if we are blessed enough that you decide to book with us we start to prepare for youe amazing event.

1.) If you decide to book with us, I then have to create a contract and invoice for you, enter your information into our data base, and add the event to our book – this usually takes about 15-20 minutes and there is the added cost of the accounting system we use, the cost of running our web page and any advertising we have done.

2.) Once we receive the signed contract and the $100.00 non-refundable deposit/retainer I spend time going through the contract to note any information. We also set-up a file in our computer system. If you have sent the customization items (picture, invitation, logo, colours etc.) I save them all to the appropriate file. If you have not sent this information, I send follow-up emails closer to the date.

3.) Closer to the date I fill out an order form for the customized pieces. I work with an amazing Graphic Designer who I pay to create something special for our clients. We create a customized overlay and animation to match your event. This is where the deposit comes in – we use this to pay our designer. We go back and forth with the client and designer until the perfect overlay and animation is created.

4.) For many events we are given a theme, or colour. Like a 1920’s theme. I am always sourcing out props that will match the event, I create signs, order in/create props that for the theme or colour, often spending over my budget but justifying this by reminding myself they will be used at future events. Have you ever bought a hat or costume form Party Stuff or online? They are not cheap.

We also decided from the beginning, after watching how much fun guests had picking props, that we would provide as many props as we can to our clients. We offer the most props in Manitoba for a photo booth, but that does mean we have to pay to replace broken / stolen props and continue to find new ones. Also finding display ideas to help keep our props organized.

5.) Once the overlay and animation are approved, we then have to load them to our Mirrors. This can take a bit of time depending on the event. I like to create the whole workflow basically from scratch. Yes, it would be easier to use the same workflow and most likely people would not notice but I would. I made a promise that each event will be different, even down to the workflow. I chose various animations that would with your them and create this workflow. I have to set everything up to test and make sure the printer works and the colours all print right. I test all the lights, the camera and clean everything. I test to make sure that the text goes through, and the timing is right. This can take a few hours depending on if there are any issues.

6.) As well I work with the client to match the backdrop with the overlay and décor. We are constantly adding to out backdrop collection and for specific themes, we will often purchase a backdrop that we can use again. We recently upgraded one frame to a higher quality frame that we can use high end backdrops on. These backdrops even come with gloves as they are an amazing quality. We still use our previous backdrops as they were of high quality as well, which gives our clients a great selection to choose from. Once backdrop costs close to $500.00 with exchange, duty, and taxes, but is so worth it!!