Inspiration for Photo Booths and Backdrops
We’re heading down to South Florida today to celebrate the high school graduation of my niece. This post is dedicated to you, Alexis, and all other members of the Class of 2013! Congrats, graduates! Should you be on the hunt for a career, we wish you great success. Perhaps this photo booth sign can assist you (for a high-resolution sign to download, click on the image below).
You can find our full set of Graduation-themed printable photo booth messages here on Etsy.
Planning a wedding can be a daunting task — reason enough for the wedding planning industry’s very existence. The amount of details to handle, and associated options, is boggling. One item that might not come to mind immediately, if at all, but makes a huge difference in your wedding’s overall feel, is how well the guests interact with each other at the reception.
Just like with any good party — and this advice does apply to them as well — thinking ahead about who will naturally interact with whom is important, if not critical. The social butterflies aren’t the issue; your challenge is to figure out how to make everyone else mingle and loosen up in unfamiliar company. Imagine the almost inherent awkwardness of introducing a bride and groom’s parents to each other for the first time. Now scale that up to entire extended families and circles of friends.
There are a few tricks of the trade that work wonders in encouraging intermingling of mixed groups — not the least of which is an open bar. In-person introductions by a common bond, such as the bride introducing her sister to the groom’s sister, are ideal, but when a wedding includes scores if not hundreds of guests, there’s no practical way that can happen with everyone.
You’ll notice that there are common wedding traditions that are handled by a wedding planner or DJ, such as announcing the wedding party at the reception, and announcing planned toasts. Breaking with tradition, though, can really spice things up in a memorable way that leaves your guests smiling days later.
A friend of mine who married recently got the guests out of their chairs quickly, dancing, chatting and laughing, with a gift basket of glow-in-the-dark necklaces and bracelets, along with an assortment of feather boas and hats, delivered just as the music cranked up. Those party favors proved quite the ice-breaker. My own wedding to WhiskerWorks.com founder Amber also brings up fond memories.
An assortment of silly mustaches on sticks at our own wedding were a big hit — bringing guests together and breaking the ice. It also gave me and my beautiful bride Amber the gift of delightful photographs on old disposable cameras to keep as mementos!
Back then, before the “mustache factory” we report to every day was even a glimmer in our eyes, Amber used what was a simple idea, making a home-made mustache and putting it on a stick, as a fun way to get strangers to interact. She set up a display with an assortment of handmade clay mustaches in a vase near the entrance to our reception site, along with a few disposable cameras. People like playing with those old manual-winding cameras anyway, which when paired with the inherent silliness of a fake mustache, helped our guests loosen up, smile at total strangers and goof off.
More than three years later, that same simple ice-breaker idea has helped delight literally thousands of people at group gatherings of all types. Weddings, just like big parties, offer people, even when dressed to the nines, the opportunity to loosen up and have fun in good company. The more you treat it like a party and plan for breaking the ice between strangers, odds are, the more fun guests will have.
I’m not the best at keeping this blog updated these days (though I do have some fun ideas in the works). Running an online business means that we spend a lot of time on the computer. Therefore when I have free time, I don’t usually decide to do more computer-based stuff (unless it’s Pinterest!). I’ll usually try to spend free time outside, either in the garden or working on our 137-year-old house.
Lately, however, I’ve had requests from several customers to create specialty prop colors, so that takes me out of the office, away from the computer, and into our workshop in the backyard! Spring is in the air, and in our studio, with shades of lime green, bright orange and magenta. These first two photos were taken yesterday during a couple-hour afternoon pouring session. And below them, you can see examples of the colorful results!
Spring is in the air, and in our studio!
Have a party color theme? We can match it!
You can order colorful mustache props here, or by emailing Amber@WhiskerWorks.com.
The annual rite of facial hair abandon known as “Mustache March” may be officially and technically over for the year, but it’s still going strong in spirit, and on the faces of proud deniers now deep into Mustache Mapril revelry.
Just when you thought it was safe to go outside clean-shaven comes the revelation that the U.S. Air Force, or at least one unit within it, released a video acknowledging the existence of Mustache March and the official connection between the military branch and the now simultaneously beloved and reviled tradition.
Check out the Air Force Mustache March video at http://www.dvidshub.net/video/285106/mustache-march-going-strong-and-growing-long#.UW15hRlAGN5
It’s still Mustache Mapril for two more weeks, to be followed by Mustache May, Mune, Muly, Maugust, Meptember, Moctober, Movember (recognized outside fanatic circles), Mecember, Manuary and Mebruary. Bear in mind that for those ashamed to have shaved “prematurely,” WhiskerWorks.com still shamelessly supports mustache junkies with prosthetics that may actually outshine what you were, are or believe to be capable of growing yourself.
President William Howard Taft may not have known it, but when he left office in March 2013, he took the presidential mustache with him. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. National Archives)
America bid farewell to mustaches in the Oval Office 100 years ago this month with the departure of President William Howard Taft, the nation’s last leader to sport facial hair of any kind while in office. As a bellwether of national trends, presidential styles help establish what is acceptable, popular and admirable.
America has long held men of mustachioed magnificence in high regard, some of them celebrated to this day. Take Taft’s predecessor, President Theodore Roosevelt, the adventuring man’s man, legendary in his horseback-riding and gun-slinging, love of hunting and of wild lands. Once shot in the abdomen immediately before a scheduled campaign speech, Roosevelt famously opted to forgo hospitalization to deliver 90 minutes of oratory, bleeding through his shirt as he spoke. He clearly was a man who lived the philosophy, “with great mustache comes great responsibility.”
Albert Einstein, a man whose mind single-handedly advanced the course of civilization, too found might in a nose neighbor. Eccentric painter Salvador Dali, with his famed upside-down handlebar mustache, and Charlie Chaplain, renown silent-film comic star, both delighted the public in part through mustachery. Later on, “talkie” actor Tom Selleck wielded his own mustache against criminal scum in a T-top Ferrari.
Geraldo Rivera, a rare modern mustachioed professional, carries on the tradition of fashionable, high-profile mustaches with his broad, bold statement of shaving defiance. Each of these men deserves a plastic mustache in their honor. You’ll find them at WhiskerWorks.com. Geraldo’s and Dali’s will be easy to find — and Tom Selleck’s, well, that’s “The Captain.”
Think you can find the rest?
The tradition of silliness that is April Fools Day offers a welcome opportunity to eschew seriousness.
April Fools Day takes different names and forms, but the concept of a day of pranks and silliness has been around for centuries — possibly dating back to 536 BC. Iranians treat the 13th day of the Persian new year, which falls on April 1 or 2, as a holiday for pranking familiar to much of the western world. Called Sizdah Be-dar, the holiday is focused mostly on celebrating the start of the spring season, but among its traditions is prankery.
Similar traditions are celebrated throughout the world, including in Belgium, Italy, France and French-speaking Canada, where it’s common to attach paper fish to victims’ backs surreptitiously as a joke. References to the day in these nations make direct reference to fish, such as “Pesce d’Aprile” in Italian.
Traditions vary, including the extreme practice in Belgian Flemish culture of children locking their parents out of their homes with a demand of treats in exchange for entry. Light-heartedness, though, is typically the order of the day. What better way to inspire merriment than to cavort about with a perpetual smile, a la “The Tease,” or a big silly inspector’s mustache and monocle? Check ‘em out at WhiskerWorks.com, where there’s a 20% off sale through the end of March.
However you celebrate April 1, have fun!
U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Robin Olds defied regulations in protest by wearing a grand handlebar mustache. Eventually a general told him to ditch it, but not before inspiring what’s now military tradition in March.
As we near the annual facial-hair dare known as “Mustache March,” let’s take a quick look back at the man many would say gave birth to the movement, through unabashed mustachioed defiance.
United States Air Force Brigadier General Robin Olds, famed for his defiantly out-of-regulation mustache during the Vietnam War, inspired fellow airmen to grow mustaches of their own, instilling a spirit of camaraderie. The bond the mustache forged among the men was enough for those higher up in the chain of command to ignore the obvious defiance of facial hair regulation. That is, until Olds returned home, when a general commanded him, finger pointed directly at the famed mustache, to get rid of it. Olds, having grown tired of the mustache anyway, replied simply, “Yes, sir.”
His defiant, heavily waxed handlebar mustache, which stretched beyond the edge of his lips in violation of grooming standards, was said to be a protest against the Air Forces’ inadequate pilot training and lackluster support. More importantly, it’s believed this defiant ‘stache gave birth to Mustache March, an annual tradition in the Air Force, which spread to the other American service branches and the general public, when men grow mustaches as a bonding exercise, in defiance of clean-shaven normalcy.
Olds lived a truly manly life, flying in an open-air biplane at the age of 8 and pledging to become a pilot, excelling at football while at West Point Military Academy, earning a place in the College Football Hall of Fame. He married a Hollywood actress, Ella Raines, and had a generally high-profile life as an accomplished battle-tested fighter pilot in World War II and Vietnam. He earned acclaim as the top wing commander in the latter conflict as a man who knew how to command the respect of his subordinates and contemporaries.
Though his mustache was said to give him superpowers, possibly even immortality, he died of natural causes in 2007, leaving the world to speculate whether it was the mustache that made him great, or if he made the mustache great.
Mustache March is also the namesake of an organized charity mustache-growing competition based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which donates money raised during the month-long nose neighbor cultivation exercise to Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer. Moustache March, the other accepted spelling, is the namesake of an organization based in Oregon that, too, uses March-focused mustache growing as a means of fundraising for charity, including the American Cancer Society. Along the same lines, there’s Mustache Movember, a global organization focused on raising money for testicular and prostate cancer research.
Though no one knows who invented the mustache, modern mustache popularity is almost certainly attributable to Robin Olds, to whom, in the spirit of all the mustache embodies, we say thank you. In celebration of Mustache March, Whisker Works will hold a sale with special promotional pricing on top quality mustaches, to help less-endowed gentlemen and ladies honor Olds’ legacy.
For more on Mustache March and Robin Olds, please see:
National Museum of the United States Air Force
National Aviation Hall of Fame
As we bid adieu to a fine two-oh-one-two, find below a bit o’inspiration for your celebration! I mustache that you have a happy new year and a grand 2013!
Photo credits:
Happy New Year banner: Etsy
Confetti toss: Wedding Chicks
Scallop garland: Etsy
Balloon wall: Pinterest
New Year photo booth: Lowe’s
Silver heart backdrop: Cargo Collective
By pinning metallic pennant flags (the kind you see at grand opening events) to a wall, photographer Christa Elyse created this brightly-colored backdrop, full of sparkle and pizazz. “I went to the dollar store and picked up some odd Christmas things and also pulled out my old school light bulbs. I set up my camera on a tripod and put on the timer!” The result? A holiday photo booth that is full of merriment and cheer.
An alternate idea would be to purchase a thin sheet of wood from a home improvement store and staple gun your shimmery material to it. Then, because your board is double-sided, you can create two different backgrounds for your event.
Much thanks to Christa Elyce for sharing her delightful images.
Christa Elyse Photography / Facebook
Smile and ‘stache props from Whisker Works.
If you place a new order from the Whisker Works prop shop, you’ll find something extra in your package! For the remainder of 2012, all orders will include a double-sided, full-color postcard greeting, just waiting to be mailed to a friend. “This holiday season, let it grow, let it grow, let it grow.”
Starting in 2013, all orders will include a postcard that reads “With a mustache in your pocket, you’ll never face the embarrassment of being underdressed.”
Big thanks to PrintPlace for these beautiful, high-quality cards! Anna, you were a pleasure to work with.
