Custom Monet Style Wedding Portrait from Your Photos

A wedding is photographed all day and looked at for years. A painting keeps one frame of it, the two of you with the light of that day, made by hand in oil from the photograph you love most.

Monet married Camille in June 1870

Camille Doncieux, who had posed for Monet since 1865, married him in a civil ceremony in Paris on 28 June 1870, shortly before the Franco-Prussian War. He spent 1870 and 1871 in London, and the family moved to Argenteuil in 1871. Camille appears in about fifty of his paintings, among them Camille Monet (1847–1879) in the Garden at Argenteuil.

How Monet handled a white dress outdoors

The painting to look at is Woman with a Parasol, from 1875. Camille wears a billowing white dress against fluffy white clouds and an azure sky. The green underside of her parasol picks up the grass of the meadow. White is not left blank in that picture: it sits between sky, cloud and grass, and the wind moves it.

That is what a Monet-inspired wedding painting does for a dress. Ivory or white takes touches of sky blue and the colours of the garden, and it holds its shape without turning to plaster. A dark suit gets the same attention: blues and browns inside the black, and no flat patch.

The painting is a contemporary commission in the manner of Monet. It is not an original by him and not a museum reproduction.

A garden day, or an indoor one

For a garden or seaside wedding, the Monet-inspired direction suits the setting: faces and dress stay exact, and leaves, grass, water and sky become short touches of colour. Garden at Sainte-Adresse, painted in 1867, shows a terrace garden above the sea in summer light.

For a church or a hall, the faithful direction keeps the room, the flowers and every colour as photographed. Mention which you want when you send the pictures.

Guests, parents and the rest of the day

A wedding painting usually holds two people. If you want a parent or a child included, the canvas grows and the faces shrink, so choose a larger size. A wide group of guests is better painted from one clear photograph taken from a little way back.

Picking the frame that carries the day

The formal portrait is not always the one. A frame from the walk, the toast or the first dance may show the real expression better. Look for the one where both faces are clear and the light is even, with the dress not lost in glare and the suit not in shadow. If one face is better in another picture, send both and say what to take from each.

If a parent, a child or a best friend should stand next to you, send their photograph as well. They join as one more figure.

Before the wedding painting is ordered

Can a parents’ wedding in black and white be painted?

Yes. Send the print and the colours you know: the bouquet, the dress, the suit. The rest can be described in your request.

Can the bouquet and the room be included?

Yes. If the flowers or the venue are not clear in the main picture, send a clear photograph of them as well.

How early should I order for an anniversary?

Work back from the date: painting time, the approval photograph, then delivery once shipped. The figures for both are in the details below.

Can the painting show just part of the day?

Yes. A close crop of two faces or a hand with the ring is a valid picture, and often hangs well in a small frame.

Wedding commission details

A half-length pair fits a medium canvas, and a full-length pair or a group with guests wants a larger one. Sizes follow your photograph’s proportions. The canvas goes out rolled in a tube, stretched over bars and ready to hang, or framed, and a frame suits an anniversary present.

• Price: a wedding couple on the smallest canvas, sent rolled, starts at $262 (30 × 40 cm, rolled canvas).
• Time at the easel: 2 to 4 weeks.
• A photograph of the finished painting arrives before dispatch, with corrections possible.
• Delivery once shipped: 5 to 7 business days.
• You can cancel your order at any time until it ships.
• Return period: 30 days.

Anniversaries of a long marriage are also covered on the grandparents page.

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