You invest time, thought, money, attention, and an incredible amount of significance in the flowers that surround you on your wedding day. If only they could last forever! Commissioning a painting of your bouquet is a meaningful way to honor the work and beauty that went you’re your wedding-day florals–after all, a painting doesn’t fade or crumble as time goes on, and is a lasting and thoughtful memento of one of the most important days of your life.
This week, I’m sharing a few posts about what goes into creating a personalized wedding bouquet, including tips for brides looking to commission a painting, the complete artistic process, and my Top 5 suggestions for your finished painting.
In today’s post, I’m thrilled to bring you a written Q&A with a recent client, Laura. I loved working on her bouquet, and I think you’ll enjoy seeing the process and hearing what it was like from her side of things.
Laura, how did you find out about the wedding bouquet paintings?
I was looking online for independent artists who commissioned watercolor paintings, especially botanicals, and came across Alex’s Instagram and website.
In your own words, describe the process of commissioning a painting. What jumped out at you about the process and our communication? Is there anything you’d change?
I had the opportunity to tell Alex what the process of designing my bouquet was like, and how I wanted to replicate that same vision with the watercolor piece. She was super communicative, involved and very much understood my vision. I appreciated the updates along the way!
Why did you decide to commission a painting of your bouquet rather than simply frame a photograph?
Although I LOVE the photographs of my bouquet and am probably going to frame some, I had our venue watercolor painted by a local artist (she only does venues, no botanicals), and I thought that doing the same for my bouquet with a botanical watercolor artist would be a nice way to pair those paintings for a good memory “to hang”.
What were your thoughts going into creating this?
I wanted to eternize everything I loved about my bouquet, and I love art! So I wanted to make it something special that I could have around me for years to come.
Let’s talk about your original bouquet–who designed it, and what did you love about it?
Our wedding was a private family ceremony and not very traditional. I wore gold instead of white, and I didn’t really envision even having a bouquet (even though I was having A LOT of floral in the decor). A couple of weeks prior to the date, my mom started bringing it up to me that “how was I going to be a bride without a little bouquet?”. To be completely frank, I’ve always thought that “little” bouquets are tacky, so I said to my mom, “I’m either going to have no bouquet, or the most abundant, lush, overwhelmingly beautiful bouquet ever”. So I worked with my floral designer on exactly that, we had the most beautiful flowers (I didn’t hold back on that) and a gorgeous ribbon hanging from it. I wanted something impactful and to this day, when I look at my pictures, I’m in awe, and it happens to be one of the things I get complimented on and asked about the most about our wedding- my bouquet.
[Here’s a link to Steve’s Flower Market. Her bouquet was designed by Kylee Lynch.]
Was I easy to work with? Did I accomplish your vision for the painting?
Absolutely and yes!
Any suggestions or recommendations for other brides looking to commission a painting?
Know what you want and communicate it! The more details, vision, meaning you communicate about your goal, the more understanding and inspiration you provide to the artist to make their art. I loved the work Alex did and am excited to frame it!
Thank you so much, Laura, for taking the time to answer these questions and give other brides a peek into how the process works. I hope you love your painting for many years to come, it was a pleasure to create it for you!!
If you’re interested in commissioning a painting of your bouquet (or the bouquet of a loved one–they make great gifts!) you can get in touch with me by writing to hello [at] alexsgardenstudio [dot] com. You can also order one right now by clicking here.
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