AI photo booth for bar and bat mitzvahs in Beverly Hills

Two congregations in the city publish event pages for outside celebrations. Nessah Educational and Cultural Center, established in 1980 and described as the largest traditional Persian Jewish congregation in the United States, says its banquet hall is available for Brit Milahs, bar and bat mitzvah parties, engagement celebrations and weddings. Beth Jacob Congregation, at 9030 W. Olympic Blvd., lists indoor and outdoor spaces that take everything from small parties to celebrations of up to 300 guests, and says it is reachable from both the Los Angeles and Pico-Robertson neighborhoods.

Away from the synagogues, L'Ermitage Beverly Hills runs five private event spaces on a quiet residential street moments from Rodeo Drive, and the City of Beverly Hills rents community rooms at its parks. Rodeo Drive sits in the Golden Triangle, the central commercial district between Santa Monica Boulevard, Wilshire Boulevard and Canon Drive. Roxbury Memorial Park is on South Roxbury Drive in the residential area south of Wilshire Boulevard.

The Talking Photobooth has a host character with its own voice. It greets each group out loud, asks for names and uses them, reacts to every photo after seeing it, and announces that the strips are printing. The lines are different each time. To be clear for anyone who searched "AI photo booth": the photos are not edited or restyled in any way. The AI is the host's voice and conversation, and the pictures come out as taken.

At a mitzvah the booth serves guests from grandparents to the bar or bat mitzvah's classmates, so a host that talks to everyone works better than one built for a single age group. Charlie is easygoing and suits any party. Lola is warm and uses everyone's name. DJ Pulse talks like a dance floor DJ and fits the party half of the evening. The client chooses one host and can switch mid-party, so the host can change when the dancing starts. All thirteen are on hosts.

Room size changes the setup. L'Ermitage's Rotunda is an indoor room with high ceilings and garden views, listed for 40 guests seated or 75 at a reception, and it sits next to the kitchen. In a room that size the booth is better as a single stand or a pipe-and-drape backdrop than as a larger enclosure. In a large hall such as one of Beth Jacob's spaces, a 5x5 enclosed booth with red velvet curtains lets guests talk to the host away from the music. An outdoor space with a garden or terrace can use a backdrop, as long as there is covered power and a decent signal nearby.

Every guest leaves with a printed 2x6 strip from three photos, and iPhone users can AirDrop the photos from the booth. The strip design can carry the bar or bat mitzvah's name and the date. Examples are in gallery.

The city's rental page says reservations must be made in person by an adult aged 18 or over at the facility, and requests are not final until approved by department staff. Residents and businesses can reserve up to three months ahead and non-residents up to one month. That window is short for a mitzvah date, so a family who is not a resident should plan around it. The city's page does not say anything about power, wifi or equipment, so ask the Roxbury staff about outlets near the auditorium and whether a booth can stand by a wall.

None of the congregation or hotel pages state power or wifi details either. Before the date, ask each venue where outlets are in relation to the open floor, whether guest wifi or a wired connection reaches that corner, and whether the booth can stay clear of the dance floor and the buffet line. The host needs a connection to use names, but if it drops it keeps going with recorded lines and the booth keeps printing. An attendant sets up, stays all event and packs down. For packages, see packages.