Blog
The photo booth craze continues!
10th Feb '12
Wedding fair season is well under way and the BIC wedding fair always draws 1000's of enthusiastic brides. The Smiley Booth team drew a crowd as engaged couples and, in some cases, their parents queued to get their photos taken and to take a look at our new green screen and video messaging technology. Not forgetting the new addition of the brushed aluminium photo booth. Last year we got hundreds of responses to our question "what makes you smile" this year we were asking couples to tell us their engagement story. Our favourite story will WIN 2 hours photo booth hire for FREE! Call us romantics but we are running this competition to celebrate Valentines Day! The competition will run throughout wedding fair season. Email us, tell us on facebook or tweet us with your engagement story in less than 100 words and you could be in with a chance of winning 2 hours free!
PS - If you want to book the photo booth to make sure you reserve your date you can still enter the compeition, if you win we will credit you the two hours free photo booth hire. We can't say smilier than that!!
All smiles for LBA win!
18th Jan '12
Back in December we wrote a blog about being chosen as a local finalist for the Local Business Accelerators initiative. I'm delighted to now write:
WE ARE WINNERS!
We are smiling from ear to ear at having been chosen from over 1000 local businesses by the Daily Echo and a panel of judges.
Our first meeting with our mentors has already been scheduled and later in the year we will have the opportunity to compete to become the national winner and receive mentoring from none other than Deborah Meaden, of Dragon's Den.
The full article in today's Echo can be seen here: http://ow.ly/8ykeL
Watch this space for exciting new developments at Smiley Booth as a result of this fantastic opportunity.
Wedding Fayre mayhem
16th Jan '12
I said we wouldn't do as many wedding fairs this season but now we've got a record 12 to go to! There are just too many good wedding fairs and we love meeting lots of happy couples planning their big day. The season started yesterday with the FJB hotel group wedding open day. We were at the Haven Hotel and enjoyed a lovely day and got some fantastic bookings, all for this year, we look forward to seeing you all again later in the year. Next up is Salisbury racecourse on Sunday 29th January and then the big one at the BIC, February 3rd-5th. Make sure you look out for us at these fairs and other throughout the season (you can see the other dates on our events page). You get to see and try the photo booths and we are always offering great bonuses for bookings made on the day! See you soon!
A Snap-Happy New Year!
6th Jan '12
I'm just soooo excited for 2012!! Despite not a particularly good start as I am currently laid up with a bad back (I'm only 30!), We are still very excited by all the new things going on at Smiley Booth HQ. We have new staff, not one but two shiny new photo booths, new props, a new product range which will be available to purchase on our website and ebay, and new photo booth technology including video messaging and greenscreen!
Phew its going to be a very busy year! I'll post details of the individual items on her asap. Happy New Year everyone we look forward to making you smile very soon!
A great opportunity
14th Dec '11
We are honored to be one of ten local companies chosen by the Daily Echo from over 1000 entries by the Daily Echo for the Local Business Accelerators campaign. On the 11 January three winners will be announced and will win the opportunity to receive top professional advice from local business mentors and advertising in the Daily Echo. One business will be chosen as the overall winner from hundreds of regional finalists and will be mentored by Deborah Meaden throughout 2012.
We are in good company! The top ten includes a diverse range of talented businesses and we wish our fellow competitors the best of luck, lets keep the flag flying high for Dorset Businesses!
Delayed news!
13th Dec '11
Oh my it's been some time since we blogged! We've been so busy making everyone smile in the run up to Christmas we've forgotten to share our exciting news! We've been nominated for not one, not two but three awards! We were shortlisted for a Wedding Industry Award, and we are eagerly awaiting the shortlist for the Wedding Ideas Awards. We were also shortlisted for a Dorset Business Award but unfortunately didn't make it to the finals, but there's always next year!
From Christmas themed weddings to birthday parties and of course those annual office bashes we've had a blast watching you all letting your hair down! Check out our facebook gallery for lots of festive cheer!
And we're not done yet! With several bookings still to go, I think a little R&R will be on our Christmas list this year!
Celebrating 10 years of Smiles
11th Nov '11
Last night we joined the glittering Operation Smile Anniversary Ball "10 Years of Smiles". The 600 attendees set about raising an incredible £150,000 in one evening through live auctions and generous donations. Operation Smile is a children's charity treating facial deformities such as cleft lips and cleft palates for free, all around the world.
We captured more than a few smiles from the rich, famous and distinguished guests and had a ball doing so! Not wanting to feel left out we also donated £1000 to this very worthy cause through the use of the booth and our facebook and twitter campaign.
For more information on the charity and the event see www.operationsmile.co.uk or www.facebook.com/operationsmile
Smiley supporting Smiles
1st Nov '11
In 2001, Operation Smile UK was founded as part of a global organisation working to provide free cleft lip and palate surgery to children and young adults born with facial deformities.
10 years on, Operation Smile is celebrating a decade of success at the 10 Years of Smiles Ball being held in London on 10th November 2011.
The star-studded evening will bring together friends, supporters and celebrity Ambassadors of the charity for a truly memorable evening with live entertainment, dinner and dancing. Smiley Booth will be there to capture the smiles of all those who have shown their support to such a worthy cause and will be donating their time and photographs to help the charity's proceeds from the evening.
A short smiley story...
30th Oct '11
Today we met a lovely couple who are planning their wedding. When they saw us at the wedding fair they told us how they had seen us at their friend's some time ago and loved the booth. We asked if they still have their pictures, in response to which the bride-to-be pulled out her wallet and there were her pictures proudly displayed in the clear plastic section of her wallet. They then went on to tell me how that was their first ever picture taken together, as a couple. Now that's what makes US smile!
Smiley Theo
18th Oct '11
When Smiley Booth won Small Business Sunday we cheekily replied to Theo Paphitis that may one day we would see him in the booth! Little did we know that just two months later we'd see exactly that!
Theo and his event team booked a Smiley Booth as part of the entertainment for the annual Ryman and Boux Avenue Conference which took place at the Sherwood Forest Centre Parcs.
We arrived towards the end of the conference to set up for the evening celebrations. Within an hour the production team and staff at Centre Parcs had transformed the conference suites into a glittering black and red banquet, and the booth fitted in beautifully. Shortly after the guests started to arrive, all dressed as different film characters for the Hollywood Legends theme, this made for some fantastic booth pictures!
The frivolities continued into the small hours and a weary, (but still smiley!) booth team hit the sack at 4am! The following day we asked Theo if he enjoyed the Smiley Booth experience to which he replied, "loved it, would highly recommend". Another satisfied Smiley client!
