Wedding portraits
A wedding portrait, painted from the photographs
One moment from the day, in oil — usually assembled from two or three frames taken by different people with different cameras in different light.
Wedding photographs are taken quickly, in poor light, by a photographer managing a schedule and then by forty guests with phones. So the picture everyone loves is rarely the picture that is technically good: the best expression is in a frame that is slightly soft, and the sharpest frame has somebody blinking. A painting can take the expression from one and the light from the other, which is the whole reason to commission one rather than enlarge a file. A photograph records what the sensor saw at a fortieth of a second; a painting can record what the day was actually like.
It also has to solve the dress. A white wedding dress in a photograph is often a white shape with no information left in it — pushed to the top of the range by flash, or by a bright window behind the couple. That is not something we can paint around afterwards. It is a decision made before we start, and usually the answer is to work from a second frame where the dress held its detail. That frame nearly always exists, because somebody's phone was pointing the other way at the time.
A white dress is not white
Wedding white is the colour of the light in the room plus whatever the dress is reflecting. In a church it goes cool and faintly green; in a marquee at golden hour it turns cream and pink; under flash it is simply the brightest thing in the frame. Painted as one flat white it becomes a paper cut-out, and the lace, the beading and the fold across the hip all vanish.
So the dress is built in three values — shadow, mid, highlight — with a warm or cool tint in each, and the lace is painted as pattern over those values rather than as white lines on white. It is slower than people expect. It is also the part owners look at first, because they remember how the dress felt rather than how it looked.
Working from flash, phone and guest photographs
Direct flash is the hardest source there is. It throws a hard shadow on the wall behind the couple, flattens the face, and crushes a black suit into one dark shape with no lapel, no pocket and no fold. Some of that can be rebuilt from a second frame and some cannot. If the only photograph of the first dance is a flash shot from across the room, we will tell you that the result is a painting of a moment rather than a portrait of two faces.
Phone photographs are usually better than people fear, provided they are the originals rather than screenshots. What kills them is zoom: a phone at 3× in low light smears faces into soft shapes that look acceptable on a screen and cannot carry a painting. Send the file as it came off the phone, and send the imperfect ones too — a soft frame with the right expression beats a sharp frame of the back of a head.
Two photographs into one moment
Combining frames is routine here and costs $60–$70, the same as restoring an old photograph. The rule is that the light has to agree: if the ceremony frame is lit from the left, the close-up we take the faces from cannot be lit from the right, or the painting reads as assembled even to people who cannot say why. Where the light disagrees we adjust one side in the mock-up, and you see it before we paint.
We also take things out — exit signs, a guest in the aisle, gaffer tape on the floor, the photographer's bag — and we choose the frame where both people have their eyes open, which sounds trivial and eliminates about half of the candid shots. If the moment you love is a laugh with eyes shut, that is a different and better painting; just tell us it is deliberate.
Size follows the composition. Head and shoulders of a couple sits at 16 × 20 in; a full length with the dress wants 20 × 24 in; a wedding party or a family group needs 24 × 36 in or larger, or the faces fall below the size at which they still read as individuals.
What it costs
Price is set by canvas size and the number of subjects — not by the occasion, the deadline, or how much detail you ask for. The table below is the same one used on every painting page, so there is no quote to wait for.
| Canvas | Metric | 1 subject | 2 subjects | 3 subjects | 4+ subjects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 × 10 in | 20 × 25 cm | $189 | $259 | — | — |
| 12 × 16 in | 30 × 41 cm | $289 | $379 | $459 | — |
| 16 × 20 in | 41 × 51 cm | $389 | $499 | $619 | $749 |
| 20 × 24 in | 51 × 61 cm | $549 | $699 | $849 | $1,029 |
| 24 × 36 in | 61 × 91 cm | $789 | $1,059 | $1,290 | $1,560 |
| 30 × 40 in | 76 × 102 cm | $1,090 | $1,449 | $1,749 | $2,090 |
| 36 × 48 in | 91 × 122 cm | $1,390 | $1,849 | $2,249 | $2,690 |
Shipping is free worldwide. Framing is optional and quoted separately — most customers have the canvas stretched by a local framer for $60–$120.
How it works
Send the photograph
One sharp phone photo is enough. Tell us the deadline, the wall it is going on, and anything that must or must not be in the picture.
See the mock-up within 24 hours
A digital composite at the exact canvas size and crop, so size and composition are settled before any paint is bought. Nothing is charged until you approve it.
Watch it being painted
Three to five weeks in real oil, with two progress photographs. You can raise a concern at either one — that is what they are for.
Approve, then it ships
You see the finished canvas first, with one free round of adjustments. Then it travels rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured, with the numbered certificate inside.
Real oil, not a print
Hand-painted on cotton canvas, varnished, signed. Brushwork you can see in raking light.
You approve before we paint
A digital mock-up at the exact size and crop, within 24 hours, included in the price.
Numbered certificate
Every painting ships with a signed COA stating artist, medium, size and year.
Free worldwide shipping
Rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured. No minimum, no distance surcharge.
Questions
Questions we actually get
From $189 for 8 × 10 in, $289 for 12 × 16 in, $389 for the 16 × 20 in most couples choose, and up to $1,390 at 36 × 48 in. A couple counts as two subjects; a group is priced by headcount. Shipping is free worldwide and combining two frames into one composition is $60–$70.
Usually, with adjustments. Flash flattens the face and can blow out the dress, so we look for a second frame where the detail survived and rebuild from both. Send the whole folder rather than the three you like best — we are looking for information, not for the prettiest shot of the day.
Yes, standard practice for wedding commissions and $60–$70 on top. The two frames need to agree on the direction of light, or we adjust one side first. You approve the composite as a mock-up before any paint is mixed, so there is no moment where you open a box and find a surprise.
Yes — exit signs, cables, bags, a stray guest in the aisle. We keep the place recognisable and take out what distracts from the two of you. Anything structural we change, such as a whole row of chairs, appears in the mock-up for you to approve or send back. The background is painted last, so nothing in it gets fixed before you have seen the whole thing.
Three to five weeks of painting plus three to five business days shipping, so six weeks from approval is comfortable. Rush delivery is three weeks including painting for $90. If you are working towards an anniversary, count backwards from that date rather than forwards from the wedding, and tell us the date first.
Send the wedding photographs
Send the folder, not the favourites. We will tell you which two frames combine into the moment you remember, and what it costs, before you pay anything.