Think Outside the Budget

I'm working on a brochure right now that will be passed out to college students, as well as play a role in a campaign to re-energize one of the communities in our church. In our brainstorming, we came up with the idea to have a photobooth for members of the congregation to get their photos taken to be used a as a background. Playing off the "behind every face lies a story" phrase, we were really excited about the idea. So, I began to research.

I found that renting a photobooth would run around $1700, while buying one would set us back a little over $6,000. So, it was time to think outside the budget. As I was researching photobooth photos to use in the initial brochure design, I found a lot of people posting pictures they took on their macs, using a program called photobooth. Great program with limited practical use...or so I thought. I figured, because the photos are going to be small and in the background, quality might not be an issue. So, we gave it a shot. After the services each weekend, the leadership invited people to come out and be a part of the project by getting their photos taken. We had over 130 people stop by to get their photos taken, and it really showed a great cross section of the types of people who "fit" here at church. More than anything, I was excited to see an idea work so well that was a result of not being able to do what we would have done if we had the money.

I think big budgets are often a hindrance. They allow us to rest on the fact that we can afford to do whatever we want. Sometimes not having enough money can in fact limit a project, but I think true creativity shows up when we are low on funds, and still deliver outstanding results.