diff --git a/booking.admin.inc b/booking.admin.inc
index d111c34..5afff15 100644
--- a/booking.admin.inc
+++ b/booking.admin.inc
@@ -345,6 +345,16 @@ function booking_admin() {
     '#options' => array(0 => t('No'), t('Yes')),
     '#default_value' => variable_get('booking_studygroup_csv_ages', 0),
   );   
+  $form['features']['booking_enable_emoji_removal'] = array(
+    '#type' => 'radios',
+    '#title' => t('Remove emoji from user input?'),
+    '#description' => t('Select whether to strip emoji from user input before saving to database. Useful if mysql does not support utf8mb4.'),
+    '#options' => array(
+      0 => t('No'),
+      t('Yes')
+    ),
+    '#default_value' => variable_get('booking_enable_emoji_removal', 1)
+  );  
   $form['misc'] = array(
     '#type' => 'fieldset',
     '#title' => 'Configuration Options'
diff --git a/booking.helper.inc b/booking.helper.inc
index 3f6d22a..375af2b 100644
--- a/booking.helper.inc
+++ b/booking.helper.inc
@@ -5,12 +5,32 @@
  * from https://stackoverflow.com/a/41831874/7638834
  */
 function _booking_remove_emoji($text){
-	// Taken from https://www.drupal.org/node/2043439#comment-8213973 but doesn't seem to work
-	//return preg_replace('/([0-9|#][\x{20E3}])|[\x{00ae}|\x{00a9}|\x{203C}|\x{2047}|\x{2048}|\x{2049}|\x{3030}|\x{303D}|\x{2139}|\x{2122}|\x{3297}|\x{3299}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2190}-\x{21FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2300}-\x{23FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2460}-\x{24FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{25A0}-\x{25FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2600}-\x{27BF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2900}-\x{297F}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2B00}-\x{2BF0}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{1F000}-\x{1F6FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?/u', '', $text);
-
-	//this one seems to work ok
 	$clean_text = "";
-
+/*
+	return preg_replace('/([0-9|#][\x{20E3}])|[\x{00ae}|\x{00a9}|\x{203C}|\x{2047}|\x{2048}|\x{2049}|\x{3030}|\x{303D}|\x{2139}|
+	\x{2122}|\x{3297}|\x{3299}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2190}-\x{21FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|
+	[\x{2300}-\x{23FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2460}-\x{24FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{25A0}-\x{25FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|
+	[\x{2600}-\x{27BF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2900}-\x{297F}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|
+	[\x{2B00}-\x{2BF0}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{1F000}-\x{1F6FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?/u', '', $text);
+*/
+	//don't try to strip emojis if that feature is disabled
+	if (variable_get('booking_enable_emoji_removal', 1) == 0) {
+		return $text;
+	}
+	else {
+		return preg_replace(
+			'/[\x{1F600}-\x{1F64F}]|' . 
+			'[\x{1F300}-\x{1F5FF}]|' . 
+			'[\x{1F680}-\x{1F6FF}]|' . 
+			'[\x{2600}-\x{26FF}]|' . 
+			'[\x{2700}-\x{27BF}]|' . 
+			'[\x{1F1E6}-\x{1F1FF}]|' . 
+			'[\x{1F910}-\x{1F95E}]|' . 
+			'[\x{1F980}-\x{1F991}]|' .
+			'[\x{1F9C0}]|' .
+			'[\x{1F9F9}]/u', '', $text);
+	}
+/*
 	// Match Emoticons
 	$regexEmoticons = '/[\x{1F600}-\x{1F64F}]/u';
 	$clean_text = preg_replace($regexEmoticons, '', $text);
@@ -49,6 +69,7 @@ function _booking_remove_emoji($text){
 	$clean_text = preg_replace($regexDingbats, '', $clean_text);
 
 	return $clean_text;
+	*/
 }