You know you had a good night when you wake up with a strip of photo booth pictures in your pocket. You know you had an even better night when the photos were taken inside the BuffaLoveBus.
The BuffaLoveBus is owned and operated by Michael Mitri, who is also a teacher in WNY. He got the idea for the photo booth VW bus when a fellow teacher suggested that he use his bus as a prop for a graduation party. So he turned the bus into a photo booth. The event turned out to be such a big hit that he decided to take the four wheel photo booth to more events and parties.
Eventually his bus, which he originally purchased in 1999, got pretty beat up due to all of the photo gigs, so Michael went out and bought another one, which he rigged up as a dedicated photo booth vehicle. The walls of the bus are papered with maps, and event the curtains are maps. He has a ton of props in the back (surfboards, hats, shirts, etc.), and mirrors so that people see what they look like before hopping inside the bus for the photo shoot. “People have so much fun,” said Michael, who attended an event at Lockhouse Distillery in the Cobblestone District last night. “That’s why I do it. I love to hear people laughing inside the bus. They are so happy – it makes their night. I have an old record player, so that people can listen to some tunes while getting their photos taken.”
It’s hard to tell what Michael likes more, the laughter, the road trips, the production, or the buses themselves. “A month ago some dude called me up and said that he had a bombed out VW camper for me, because he had heard about my business,” said Michael. “The guy gave it to me for free. I’ve already fixed that one up, so now I have three. I think that’s probably enough, because I also teach three sports. But this is what I really love – I do it for the fun, and the happiness that they bring to people. And after the party is over, I send out all of the photos to the event host so that they have all of the memories from the special day.”