Live Wedding Painter vs Live Guest Portraits: How Do I Choose?
- Rachel Shannon
- 11 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Your big day is months around the corner and the big picture is shaping up beautifully. You have the venue of your dreams, a caterer that actually serves good wedding food (yeah, it’s hard to find), and gosh darn it, you’re even a little giddy about your napkin colors.
But what else, what else is missing? With the big ticket items checked off your list, you still long for those touches that will give one of the most important days of your life that je ne sais quoi.
That’s when a lot of my couples find me. They’re looking for a few extra special touches for their wedding and live wedding painting or guest portraiture is the perfect solution. And usually, they’ve never actually seen it at a wedding before, so they’re excited to surprise and astound their guests. But there’s still one problem.
As a wedding industry professional, I hop on calls with my clients all the time where they have one core problem: they can’t decide what extra special touch feels just right to them. And that’s fair– in the modern day of weddings you can literally have miniature donkeys deliver beer to your guests if that what strikes your fancy (yes, I kid you not).
But, as an artist serving my clients, they usually come to me with the core question: should I capture one of the biggest days of my life with a live wedding painter or should I astonish my guests with live guest portraits?
Cause here’s the thing. The bride who needs a live wedding painting is usually different than the bride who needs live guest portraits.
It all depends upon the priority you have for YOUR day and YOUR guest experience.
I’m sure you’ve been asked it a million times, but you have to go back to the core question: what do you want your wedding day to feel like?
When you picture this day in your head, are you dreaming of the moment your hands meet at the end of the aisle? The moment he gasps and he brushes back a tear when he sees you for the first time, adorned in white, your grandmother’s sapphires around your neck?
Are the hours of planning worth it to you because you can. not. wait. to get down and dirty with your girls, boogieing on the dance floor? Because for you, this is a party first, and an everything-else second?
The reason I ask is because what you value most in your wedding day is a great way to determine if live guest portraits or live wedding painting is better for you.
I’ll break it down simply (and yes, there are exceptions to this rule):
Live wedding painting is the right choice for the sophisticated and sentimental bride, the connoisseur that prizes the arts and dramatic moments. An Adele song and glass of wine while she reads sounds like a delightful evening to her.
Live guest portraits are for the hostess with the mostess, the lady who delights in surprising her guests and curating a celebration that won’t soon be forgotten. If this was the 1920s, she would surely be Gatsby.
Rachel, you say, is it really that simple? And of course, as with anything in the finer details of life, it depends, but based on my experience with brides and couples, you can easily decide if you should opt for live wedding painting vs live guest portraits based on if you value preserving your most precious memory or throwing the most unique, fabulous party.
And of course, for those of you who are still saying, This isn’t an easy decision at all! You can always book both. I do provide custom quotes for bundling both live guest portraits and live wedding painting. Even if you’re not throwing your bash in the Philadelphia area/along the East Coast, I’d be happy to chat with you. (And yes, girl, I do travel). No matter what camp you fall into, I’d be happy to talk you through the process.
Talk soon! (Schedule time with me here).
X.O.,
Rachel
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