Wedding Portraits, Hand-Painted From Your Wedding Photographs

Wedding photographs are the best-lit, best-composed photographs most people will ever have taken of them, and they paint beautifully. The first dance, the portrait on the steps of the venue, the walk back down the aisle, the two of you with the dog who was the ring bearer — send us three or four candidates and we tell you which will paint best.

From your photographer’s file

Ask your photographer for the full-resolution file; the version on social media has been compressed and will not support a detailed painting. Natural-light frames with a little space around the couple paint better than backlit or flash-lit ones. The dress, the suit, the flowers and the setting are painted as they are — lace and beading at the Refined or Hyperreal level from a sharp photo, the venue kept soft behind you.

Adding who was missing

A grandparent who could not be there, a parent who has passed, or a pet who stayed at home can be painted into the portrait from a separate photograph, matched for scale and light, with a sketch for your approval before painting.

Mediums and timing

Oil on canvas is the classic wedding portrait and the most-ordered; acrylic gives the same look with faster drying when the first anniversary is close. Charcoal on paper makes a quiet, elegant piece from a black-and-white frame; watercolour suits a light, outdoor photo. First-anniversary portraits are the most common commission on this page — order in good time and tell us the date when you ask for a quote.

Photographers and planners order wedding portraits for their clients at trade pricing from one piece, from their own frames.