If you’ve got a good photographer and videographer on your team, you can rest assured that your wedding memories will be well documented. But some artsy couples are taking it a step further, hiring an artist to create an original painting of their big day. Twin Cities artist and illustrator Hugh Bennewitz read about an East Coast trend called live event painting, where an artist paints a celebration as it occurs, and decided to try it out in Minnesota. His first event was a friend’s Calhoun Beach Club wedding, where he commemorated the bride and groom’s first dance in canvas and paint.
“I sit on the edge of the dance floor with my easel and materials, and I react in real time to create the painting,” says Bennewitz. “I interact and talk with people, and when I sketch them in the painting they get excited. There’s real entertainment value for people to see the procedure completed right in front of them.”
“This is one thing that a couple can do that is truly out of the box,” says Rachelle Mazumdar, director of weddings and events at Style-Architects, who planned the wedding where Bennewitz completed his first live event painting. “It’s particularly interesting if you have your wedding at a museum venue or have an artistic interest as a couple.”
Bennewitz says he pays particularly close attention to showcasing the venue and accurately portraying the bride and groom. In the days before the event Bennewitz will go to the venue to study angles and take photographs, and will examine photos of the bride and groom and their apparel. Bennewitz largely completes the painting during the reception, but will add a few finishing touches the following morning, when the luxury keepsake is ready to go home with the newlyweds.
$3,000-$6,000 per painting. 612.396.3816, hughbennewitz.com