Prior to her June 2013 wedding at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Stacy Meteer’s
parents would stop by the venue to innocently “spy” on other weddings. If they
hadn’t, they might never have learned about the small but growing cadre of
artists around the nation who are live-painting weddings.
“My parents told me two days before the wedding that they hired a wedding
painter,” says Meteer, who has a degree in art history. “I had never heard of it
before, but it fit perfectly in the realm of what we were going for with our
wedding, and we now have a keepsake forever.”
Meteer’s parents hired Nicole Herzog, who has been live-painting weddings
since 2000. While live wedding painting has been popular on the East and West
coasts for a number of years, it’s just starting to trickle into the Midwest.
Last year, Herzog moved from Minnesota to Alabama, but she travels all over the
country to paint weddings.
“It’s becoming more popular,” says Herzog, “in part because couples want to
do something that is unique or unusual.”
While Herzog asks clients what’s important to them and if there are certain
elements or people to include, anything she observes at the wedding is fair
game. “I don’t go into a painting with any preconceived ideas. I get a feel for
the environment, follow the bride and groom around, sketch ideas. It’s very much
a fluid process throughout the night.” Conversations with guests who stop by her
easel also help give the piece direction.
In Meteer’s painting is a large sailboat that went past the window right
before she walked down the aisle. “It’s a detail that wouldn’t otherwise have
been captured.”
Parents of the couple typically hire Herzog as a wedding gift; her fees range
from $2,000 to $4,000. She works with fast-drying acrylics so the couple can
take the painting home with them at the end of the night.
“A painting is a piece of fine art, one that evokes memories and feelings,”
says Herzog. “My hope is that as the bride and groom look at it through the
years, they recall the many different memories that remind them of their special
day.”
To learn more, visit aweddingpainter.com.
