A christening or a First Communion only happens once. The church part is short, the lunch afterwards is long, and in between you have three generations of the same family in one room, dressed up and almost impossible to get together again. A photo booth is the simplest way to make sure the day leaves you with more than a few blurry phone pictures.
At Pic Me Spain we have been running photo booths across Marbella and the province of Málaga for more than five years, and communions and christenings have quietly become one of our busiest categories. This guide covers how it works, what it costs, how much room you need, and what makes a family celebration different from a wedding.
Family celebrations have a rhythm of their own. There is a ceremony, then a drive to the restaurant or finca, then an aperitivo, then a long meal. The gap between the aperitivo and dessert is exactly when the children get restless and the adults run out of things to do between courses. That gap is where the booth earns its place.
Three things make it work better here than almost anywhere else:
If you want the wider argument for booths at any kind of event, we set it out in 5 reasons why a photo booth is essential for any event.
Our pricing is deliberately simple. Photo booth hire starts from 400 € for three hours, and that price is the same anywhere in the province of Málaga — Marbella, Estepona, Fuengirola, Benalmádena, Torremolinos, Mijas, Málaga city, Antequera or a finca up in the hills behind the coast. We do not add a travel surcharge for distance inside the province, which matters for communions, because so many of them are held at a family restaurant well away from the main resort towns.
The one optional extra most families ask about is the live flower backdrop at 150 €. For a christening it photographs beautifully and doubles as decoration for the room, so it earns its money twice. Everything else — the booth, the attendant, the props, unlimited photos and unlimited prints during your hours — is included in the base price.
For a full breakdown of what drives the cost of a booth on the coast, including how extra hours and add-ons work, see our guide to photo booth hire cost on the Costa del Sol.
Every booking, whatever the event, includes the same core package:
This is the question restaurants ask before families do. The booth itself stands on a tripod and reaches up to 1.8 m tall. The backdrop measures 2.5 × 2.5 m. In practice we ask for a clear area of about 3 × 3 m plus a standard power socket within reach.
That is less than one round table of ten, which is how we usually describe it to venue managers. A terrace corner, the end of a function room or a covered porch all work. What does not work is direct midday sun on the backdrop, or a spot where the queue blocks the path between kitchen and tables — both easy to avoid if we see the room in advance, so send us a photo of the space when you book.
We cover the whole province of Málaga at the same price: Marbella, San Pedro, Puerto Banús, Estepona, Fuengirola, Mijas, Benalmádena, Torremolinos, Málaga capital, Vélez-Málaga, Nerja, Ronda and Antequera, plus the fincas and country restaurants in between.
Communions cluster heavily in May and early June, and christenings follow the church calendar in each parish, which means certain weekends are busy for everyone at once. If your date falls on a Saturday in May, book as far ahead as you reasonably can. If you want to see how we work in a specific town, we have written town-by-town guides for Benalmádena and Torremolinos and for Fuengirola.
We offer more than one kind of booth, and the right answer for a communion is not always the one that looks most impressive online.
The classic photo booth is the safest choice for a family celebration: it prints instantly, needs no instructions, and the queue moves fast.
The 360 booth is spectacular and produces video rather than prints. It is brilliant with a crowd of teenagers and less useful at a christening lunch where half the guests are over sixty and nobody wants to climb onto a platform in their good shoes.
The magic mirror sits between the two: full-length photos, a bit of theatre, still printed. Our comparison of the 360 booth, magic mirror or photo booth goes through the trade-offs.
Three hours is the standard booking and it is usually the right length for a communion. The question is where to put those three hours.
For a lunchtime celebration, start the booth when the aperitivo begins and let it run through the start of the meal. Guests arrive, have a drink, drift over, and by the time the first course is served everyone has been through at least once. Starting after dessert sounds logical but wastes the first forty minutes, because people are still sitting down.
For an evening christening dinner, starting an hour after guests sit down works better: the children have eaten and the booth becomes the reason people get out of their chairs.
We arrive about an hour before the agreed start time to set up, so if you want the booth running at 14:00, we will be at the venue around 13:00. That hour does not come out of your booked time.
A small amount of planning turns a stack of prints into something the family keeps. The ideas that work best at communions and christenings:
Booking takes one conversation: tell us the date, the venue and the hours you want, and we confirm availability and hold the date.
Call or WhatsApp us on +34 610 816 283, email info@picmeevents.es, or send your details through the form on our contact page.
From 400 € for three hours, with the same price anywhere in the province of Málaga. The live flower backdrop is 150 € extra; everything else in the standard package is included.
No. The price is the same across the whole province of Málaga, whether the celebration is in Puerto Banús or at a finca an hour inland.
About 3 × 3 m of clear floor and a power socket. The booth stands up to 1.8 m tall and the backdrop is 2.5 × 2.5 m.
Around an hour. We arrive before your booked start time, so setup does not eat into your hours.
Yes. We design a custom print layout with the name, the date and any wording you want, and every strip comes out with it.
Very. The attendant helps younger children frame the shot, and the props we bring to family events are chosen with children in mind. Toddlers usually go in with a parent.
Yes. Every photo taken during the session is delivered as a digital gallery after the event, so you can share it with relatives who could not come.
For a Saturday in May — the peak of communion season on the coast — as early as you can. For other dates, a few weeks is usually enough, but the date is only held once it is confirmed.
Pic Me Spain has been photographing celebrations across Marbella and the province of Málaga for over five years, with a 5.0 rating on Google. Send us your date and we will tell you straight away whether it is free.
Call or WhatsApp +34 610 816 283, write to info@picmeevents.es, or use the form on our contact page. You can also read more about what we do in our guide to photo booth rental in Marbella.
