Why Hire a Live Wedding Painter?

“I wish I knew this was a thing!” might be the most common phrase I hear from guests when I'm painting at a wedding. Despite being one of the oldest wedding traditions, so many newly married brides stand in awe at their friends wedding, wishing they too had been able to have a live painter at their wedding. While you may have heard the term "Live Wedding Painter", you may also have wondered what it was all about. Allow me to elaborate a little further on why hiring a live painter might be your favourite aspect of your wedding.

It allows you to slow down and live in the moment:

As anyone who has attended a wedding knows; it can be a whirlwind. Particularly when it is your own wedding day. But live painting gives you an opportunity to slow down and appreciate your day as it unfolds. No matter what moment you choose to have painted, aspects of the rest of your day will creep into the painting, because the painter is painting it in real time. Your joyous and heartfelt ceremony, emotional and entertaining speeches, and the magical feeling of dancing the night away with the people who mean the most to you, will all find their way into your painting. As the mood and lighting shifts, the painting too will shift and change as your day progresses.

The finished painting itself is also a way to relive the essence of your day in a way that traditional photographs can not offer. It is a combination of your whole day, wrapped up on a canvas.

It’s entertainment for guests who don’t dance:

Live painting uniquely offers both entertainment for your guests, and a physical keepsake afterwards.

For your guests who wont be spending the whole night on the dance floor, live painting offers an entertaining spectacle for them to watch. Guests are encouraged to pull up a chair and chat, linger in the background and watch, or even grab a brush and add a few strokes (under your painters watchful eye of course). From arrival, through cocktail hour, and late into the evening, your painter will be providing entertainment for your guests, who will watch the painting unfold from start to finish.

In this Digital Age, it is a tangible experience

Witnessing a painting come to life is a methodical event. The painter starts with a blank canvas, and transforms it over the course of several hours. In the age of immediate gratification and instant photos, live paintings allows us to slow down and live in the moment. It hales back to the romantic notion of slowly watching a photo develop over several hours. But in this case, the painter is able to shift and flow the painting as the day progresses. At the end of the night, what was a blank space, becomes a physical keepsake of your whole day.

Your painting will become a priceless family heirloom.

Not only is your live painting an entertaining event to have at your wedding, but after your wedding, after the artist takes your painting back to their studio, and finishes all the details, including the likeness of the bride and groom, and any additional guests you desire, your painting will be delivered to you in a dust jacket, ready to hang. When the painting is hung on your wall, every time you glance at it, every emotion from your wedding day will flood back. The weather, the atmosphere, the essence of your wedding, will all be felt and present. Your painting will remain on the walls of every home you inhabit, and eventually be a cherished family heirloom passed down to your children.