COSAM Photobooth

COSAM Photobooth rents out a self-service photo booth for weddings, birthdays and company events across French-speaking Switzerland, with separate pages for Geneva, Lausanne, the Jura, Fribourg, Neuchâtel, Bern and Valais. Its three packages start at 699 francs a day, and delivery, installation and pickup are included in the price within the canton being served. The site is written in French and priced in Swiss francs, and it names the Geneva and Valais venues where the booth has already stood, which is a useful shortcut for a couple planning from abroad who wants to know whether a supplier knows their venue.

The booth and what it does

The machine is a booth with a professional camera and an HD thermal printer. Guests use a touchscreen, which the company describes as simple enough for everyone from children to grandparents to use without help. Prints come out in under 10 seconds, according to the FAQ, so guests leave the booth with a photo in hand. Every print carries a personalized frame: the couple's first names, the date, a logo or the colors of the wedding theme.

Beyond the prints, guests can send their photo to themselves by email straight from the booth on the two smaller packages, and the top package adds sharing to social networks. Digital photos are unlimited on every package; only the number of paper prints changes. After the event COSAM builds a private digital gallery with all the photos, which the couple can pass on to guests. During the event the team is reachable by phone, and the site describes that support as available seven days a week.

The menu also lists two other products, a "Cabine téléphonique" (a phone booth) and the "Cosam-Box", but the pages we read describe only the photo booth itself, so ask about the others directly if they interest you.

Packages and prices

The three packages are identical on every regional page:

• Instant Fun, 699 francs a day: 400 prints, personalized prints, instant email sending, all photos delivered after the event, a themed backdrop as an option, and delivery, installation and pickup in the canton.
• Instant Mémorable, 849 francs a day: the same, with 800 prints.
• Instant Magique, 1,049 francs a day: unlimited prints, social media sharing, a choice of backdrop matched to your theme included, and the same delivery, installation and pickup.

The extras are priced separately. A costume kit costs 60 francs and a backdrop 100 francs. A host who helps guests with the photos costs 60 francs an hour, and a technician who keeps the equipment running costs 70 francs an hour. The FAQ adds that a dedicated technician can be on site for large events. Because the rate is per day rather than per guest, the booth costs the same for a small wedding as for a large one, which makes it better value the bigger the party.

Where it goes

The Geneva page covers the whole canton, naming Genève-Ville, Carouge, Meyrin, Vernier, Lancy, Onex, Thônex, Plan-les-Ouates, Versoix, Collonge-Bellerive, Cologny, Chêne-Bougeries, Bernex, Satigny, Confignon and Avully. It also delivers to the neighboring Vaud communes of Nyon, Rolle and Gland, and across the border to Annemasse and Saint-Julien-en-Genevois. Within that area, delivery, installation and pickup cost nothing extra wherever the reception is. The page lists Domaine de Penthes, Château de Coppet, Hôtel Beau-Rivage, Domaine de Choully and Parc des Eaux-Vives as wedding venues the booth suits, and says it has worked at the Hôtel Beau-Rivage, the Four Seasons and the Palais des Nations (for corporate events).

The Valais page is the one that matters for an alpine wedding. It names Sion, Sierre, Martigny, Monthey, Visp, Brig, Nendaz and other towns, plus Aigle, Bex and Ollon in Vaud and Chamonix and Saint-Gingolph across the border, and says the booth has already been set up at Château Mercier and Château de Villa in Sierre, Le Petit-Sion, Domaine du Mont d'Or, Cave de Riondaz and the Hôtel Crans Ambassador. It mentions the resorts of Verbier, Crans-Montana and Zermatt for destination weddings, and it states plainly that travel costs apply for high-altitude or remote destinations, to be quoted on request. A couple marrying in a mountain resort should therefore expect a price above the package rate.

When to book

The FAQ recommends booking at least 2 to 4 weeks ahead and accepts last-minute bookings when a date is free. The Geneva page is more cautious for the wedding season: it runs from May to September, demand peaks in June, July and August, and for that period the company strongly recommends reserving 8 to 10 weeks in advance, because season weekends go quickly. Couples from abroad, who usually fix their suppliers months ahead anyway, will have no trouble with that, but anyone adding a booth late to a summer Saturday should ask early. Bookings go through a "Réserver" page and a free online quote request, and the site gives info@cosam-photobooth.ch and +41 78 237 47 32 for contact.

What the site leaves open

Several points a couple planning from another country will want settled are not on these pages. The site is in French only and does not say whether the team works in English, so write in English and see how the reply comes back. Prices are per day, but the site does not say how many hours the booth runs within that day or what happens if the party goes past midnight, which matters in Valais, where the page itself notes that weddings often go on until dawn. It does not say how soon after the event the private gallery arrives, how much space the booth needs, or whether it can stand outdoors in rain or bright sun. The travel supplement for altitude or remote venues is quoted case by case rather than published.

Who it suits

COSAM suits couples marrying in Geneva or Valais who want a booth with printed keepsakes and no fuss: prices are published, the difference between the packages is simply how many prints you get, and delivery is included in the canton. The named venue lists help a couple from abroad check quickly whether their château or wine cellar is familiar ground. For a large wedding, the unlimited Instant Magique package avoids guests running out of prints late in the evening. The caveats are the French-only site, the open question of hours per day, and the extra travel charge for a resort wedding up in the mountains.