Commissioning a Painting of your Wedding Bouquet: Tips for Commissioning!

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, click on the posts below to read more about each stage of the process. Check out a Q&A with a happy customer here, and see behind the scenes of the whole artistic journey here.

Today’s post is all about my top tips for brides looking to commission a painting of their bouquet–whether it is a watercolor painting with me or a different type of painting with another artist. These tips apply to any bouquet commission situation 🙂

• Communicate exactly what you’re looking for.

Communication is key! Let me know your timeline, your style, the story behind your flowers. Let me know what you like about my style. Send me pictures of your inspiration or paintings that I’ve done that you connected with. Is the painting a gift? Would you like updates? Do you want to see the painting from initial sketch to drawing to finished product, or do you want to be surprised? I like to go above and beyond expectation, but it helps when I know what the expectations are, so remember to communicate.

• Know the styles of the artist you’re working with.

If you’re looking for a stunning watercolor rendering of your bouquet–I’m your girl! But if you’re looking for a detailed oil painting of your wedding bouquet, I’m going to tell you to look elsewhere. Equally, if you request lots of artistic changes that don’t resonate with my style, it will be difficult for both of us.

I personally paint wedding bouquets in two different styles and I find brides are usually pretty clear on wanting one or the other. Above, you can see the tighter ink-and-watercolor style I offer and below, you can see the looser, more expressive style.

This is the looser style I offer. Still lots of color and details, but no ink outlines and looser, more expressive hand.

Remember, you are approaching the artist because something about their style has resonated with you and attracted you to their work. So, let us do what we do best and that way we’ll both enjoy the process.

Note: This really goes for all commissions. Lots of artists become frustrated when someone approaches them for a commission and then picks apart everything about their unique style and voice or asks them to paint something in the style of a different artist.

• Great reference pictures:

This one is a game-changer! The better the photos you provide, the better the end product will be. Remember, your bouquet is a 3D real-life object, so the more angles and views the artist can see, the more true the end product will be. When I get sent really great photos I do a little happy dance because it makes the process so much smoother!

Featuring a photo by Bradley Moss

• Commission the biggest size you can afford:

If an 8″x10″ is in your budget, go for it. It will be beautiful!

But I will say that typically customers regret going small and wish they had gone up a size. Imagine your bouquet framed and hung above a mantel or your bed or as an eye-catching centerpiece of a gallery wall!

• Follow up after you receive the painting.

Okay, so this one is optional, but I wanted to add it because it makes a huge difference to me (and I’m guessing to other artists!) when we hear what you think after you receive your painting. The truth is, I only hear from clients about 10% of the time after they buy an original painting or commission art from me. I’m guilty of this myself–I don’t always reach out to creators once I receive what I bought, even when I LOVE it.

BUT when something is totally handmade and has so much thought and effort behind it, it makes a world of difference when the client reaches out to say, “thank you I love it!”

SO, any questions about commissioning a painting of your wedding bouquet? I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment, write to me at hello [at] alexsgardenstudio [dot] com or click here to read more about how to purchase your painting.

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Commissioning a Painting of your Wedding Bouquet: BTS of the Artistic Process

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, and if you didn’t have a chance to read the earlier Q&A with client Laura, hop over to this post to read her take on the commission process.

In today’s post, I’m going to walk you through the actual artistic and creative process that goes into creating a painting of a wedding bouquet using Laura’s bouquet as an example of the step-by-step process.

The finished painting. Let me show you how we get to this point 🙂

The first thing is to communicate quite a bit up front–it’s so important for me to understand what you’re looking for, the style you’re interested in, and what you hope the end product will look like so that I can have those goals in mind while I draw and paint.

I always start by asking for lots of good, clear images of the bouquet. These can be from your photographer or from your own camera, but the more pictures the better!

One of the reference photos I used to create Laura’s painting. This was taken by Bradley Moss, who you can find here.

I don’t ever want to just copy directly from a photograph–the photographer is an artist, too, and no one likes to have their work copied–but I do need lots of reference pictures to get a clear idea of what the bouquet looked like. This is especially true because a bouquet is a 3D object, and a painting is a 2D object, so to translate it beautifully and accurately it’s important for me to see the bouquet as close to realistically as possible.

Once I have an idea of what I’m working with (I know your vision for the piece and I have good reference material–I start to sketch out composition ideas. These are usually big, messy shapes on drawing paper so that I can get an idea of the scale that I’ll be working with.

The very first sketches I do are usually just roughly done big shapes.

Next up? I start to pencil in the details. This can be a bit time-consuming, but it is critical to get this stage right before moving on to adding ink or watercolor. Angles, ruffles, petals and more come under scrutiny as I try to translate their shapes and movement to the page.

The drawing on top is the initial pencil sketch, the one on the bottom is the final sketch transferred to watercolor paper.

I offer two styles of art for the wedding bouquets. One features tightly-detailed ink lines and watercolor washes (like the banner of hellebores here:

Ink and watercolor.

And the other style is a looser more free-handed interpretation consisting of only watercolor, like this:

Depending on which style you’re interested in, I’ll either start inking or I start painting. Here’s what it looks like when the inking starts–lots of tiny lines and details, and the shapes really start to pop off the page. (If your bouquet has lots of white flowers, I typically recommend inking just to give the painting more definition.)

Adding inky detail stroke by stroke and line by line.

And then the best part! Watercolor! Lots of beautiful layers add up to gorgeous watercolor paintings. The layers start with watery, pale washes and build up into vivid and deep swathes of color. This is my favorite part as I watch the bouquet transform into a finished and fully realized piece of art.

Layer by layer, the painting starts to take shape.

And the first layers of a looser piece.

Once I’m finished with the painting, I take a break from looking at the piece so that I can come back to it with fresh eyes and add any last-minute details in. I sign it, take a lot of pictures, let you know that the bouquet is done, package it, ship it, and wait to see how you frame and display your finished painting.

Watch a timelapse of the first layers of watercolor on Laura’s bouquet.

Aaand…that’s it! The whole process typically takes between 1-2 months depending on how many other commissions I’m working on. I really enjoy creating these and would love to hear from you if you have any questions about the process or if you’re interested in commissioning your own painting. You can write to me at hello [at] alexsgardenstudio [dot] com or you can go straight to my website and order your own beautiful painting. Stay tuned for the next post in this series–my top tips for brides looking to commission a wedding bouquet painting.

Commissioning a Watercolor Painting of your Wedding Bouquet: A Q&A

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.

A glimpse of the finished bouquet!

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!

An update from 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. 

Some up-close details.

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.]

A shot of Laura’s beautiful bouquet — photo by Bradley Moss, who you can find here.

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!

The finished painting!!

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.