Watercolour wedding venue - apton hall, rochford

Wedding venue portrait: a gift, keepsake or unique art to use on your wedding day

Wedding venue portraits are getting more and more popular. Commissioning an artist to paint a wedding venue illustration is a really thoughtful wedding gift for a couple close to you, makes a wonderful 10th (or other milestone) anniversary gift and a venue painting can have so many different uses at your own wedding. As a wedding venue illustrator myself, let me run you through a few of the reasons past customers have commissioned a wedding venue portrait from me and how they have used them.

1. A thoughtful and personal wedding gift.

Obviously, this is on the more expensive end when it comes to wedding gifts, but for someone close like a sibling or your best friend, this could be a great option, as it is a really thoughtful and personal wedding gift.

 Woolwich town hall wedding venue painting

Often couples these days have a lot of what they need to set up home as people are getting married later, often living together before the wedding and a lot of the old reasons for wedding gifts (giving the couple with what they need to set up home) are no longer valid in many cases.

Of course, if the couple is getting married young and have been living at home or in student accommodation, forget the wedding venue portrait and get them essentials like saucepans or king sized duvet sets. However, a commissioned wedding venue painting illustration is a lovely thoughtful wedding gift for those who have everything and you’d like to give something that they will cherish for many years to come. It is a gift that will have a very special, personal meaning for them.

A wedding venue painting is an original and alternative wedding gift and can be of any size you’d like. My paintings come unframed, but are in all the common sizes, so finding a frame to go with it will be easy.

If the couple got engaged somewhere spectacular, an engagement location painting could be another really thoughtful wedding gift option. As well as wedding venues, I have been commissioned to paint engagement locations for a variety of reasons: one was commissioned as an anniversary gift (the year 1989 gave that away!), one was a wedding gift and a third engagement location painting was commissioned as an engagement present. The options are endless.

Personal Engagement or wedding gift

Oh yes, and on the date front, I can add in any hand lettering you’d like - a date, a location, names… again, the options are endless!

2. A wedding venue painting is a keepsake to bring back special memories.

If no one gave you a watercolour wedding venue painting as a wedding gift, why not commission one yourself? It makes a really lovely wedding anniversary gift for your spouse that both of you can enjoy for many years to come making it a special keepsake of wonderful memories.

 Knock Presbyterian church illustration

The traditional gift for your first anniversary is paper - a commissioned watercolour wedding venue painting fits the bill perfectly and celebrates a frost year of marriage beautifully.

Equally, a milestone anniversary is a good time to get such a keepsake - 10 years is a milestone I am fast approaching and a painting of our church with the date of our wedding is something I’d love to have hanging in our home. Maybe I should paint the church we got married in for my husband? Anniversary gift sorted! I’ll edit this blog post and add a photo in once I’ve painted it.

3. Use a watercolour wedding venue portrait on your wedding day.

During the Covid restrictions, a customer contacted me with a special request she had a vision for. She wasn’t able to invite all the people she would have liked to her wedding, so her and her fiancé wanted to honour them with a painting of their wedding venue and a rainbow over it symbolising better days to come and a pandemic wedding going ahead in spite of everything. I loved the idea and the heart behind this and painted their wedding venue specially which was beautifully displayed on their wedding day for them and all their guests to appreciate and to think of absent friends.

Apton hall rochford wedding venue watercolour illustration to remember absent friends

Watercolour illustrations can be used in many ways on the wedding day itself - to illustrate the order of service, or to make up a beautiful personal timeline of your relationship - you could commission watercolour illustrations of where you met, where you had your first date, where you got engaged, and where you got married for instance.  Or you could have a beautiful personal illustration for each table name if they have special meaning to you. The options are endless and if you have your very own idea, I’d love to hear it and help you bring it to life.

You can find lots of beautiful ways to make use of a gorgeous wedding venue watercolour painting - I hope these give you some ideas, whether you are a guest looking for a personal and unique wedding gift, on the hunt for an anniversary gift that is special and unusual or looking for ways to make your own wedding that little bit more special with commissioned art.

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.

1 of 3