6 Small Things I love about being a Live Wedding Painter in Minnesota

I EASILY have the best job in the world, no contest. Getting to PAINT and CELEBRATE LOVE for a living?! Incredible. Incomparable. Getting to create artworks I’m proud of and have a relatively flexible schedule to be there for my baby? HUGELY blessed. I’m going to be creating a blog post soon about some BIG things I love about being a Live Wedding Painter, but first, here are a few of the smaller things, that in all honesty are some of the biggest things that keep me coming back for more!

1. Painting gorgeous landscapes!  Minnesota has such gorgeous weather particularly in May-October, which, of course, is when most of the weddings take place in the upper Midwest. I live in Red Wing, which is part of the “Driftless region” (meaning it wasn’t scraped flat by glaciers way back when), which gives the area some beautiful rolling hills and awesome bluffs. Some of my favorite venues which showcase the hills, bluffs, and fields of this region are Willow Brooke Farm (Red Wing, MN), Almquist Farm (Hastings, MN), and Woods and Co (right across the river in Pepin, WI), but there are TONS in this beautiful area! We’ve also got some incredible riverfront venues, as the Mississippi River runs along the eastern edge of the state – some of my favorite weddings & paintings have been at riverfront venues like Leopold’s Mississippi Gardens in Minneapolis, and Celebrations on the River to the south in La Crosse, WI. Wisconsin has goooorgeous scenic drives and has offered some of the most beautiful fall colors I’ve gotten to paint – particularly in the Milwaukee/Madison area (Bishop’s Bay Country Club), and up in Northern WI (I’m thinking Atrium in Solon Springs FOR SURE, as well as the Farm at Dover in Kansasville, WI, and The Enchanted Barn in Hillsdale, WI).
2. Painting Outdoors
   And not only do I love painting outdoor scenes, but I love actually painting outdoors! Minnesota gets a bad rep for being super cold – BUT, the other side of this coin is that the summer and fall in the Midwest are INCREDIBLE. Even in the heat of summer, it’s rarely too hot for a beautiful and enjoyable wedding. It’s not too often that I get to paint outside, as receptions are often indoors for the benefit of the guests, but when I do it’s always a treat! I just have to make sure to bring my sunblock!
3. Speeches
   One of the parts of weddings that gets a bad reputation for some reason – I personally LOVE speeches! I love getting to learn more about my couples, because usually we don’t have a lot of time together before the wedding day! I hear all sorts of cute and goofy and tear-inducing stories and it brings that much extra meaning to my painting when I get that extra context to you and your relationship. And in a silly way, it breaks up my night a little by being a break from music and ambient chatter and gives me something new to listen to while I paint!
4. Your Dad.
   When your dad watches quietly with a soft smile for a few moments, and the comes forward to pat me on the back with a small word of encouragement – love. Or when your mom or grandma looks on with teary eyes, points to the bride in the painting and says “That’s my girl”… It is such an honor to create these moments for not only my couples, but their loved ones.
5. The same jokes – over and over
   Your class clown uncles and groomsmen always think they’re the most clever when they say “Hey, you actually made the groom look handsome!” Little do they know I’ve heard that joke a hundred times 😉 But I love it, and each time it makes me smile. Whenever they ask me to add them into an intimate painting of just the newlyweds, I joke back “Can do! That’ll be five thousand dollars, would you like to pay in cash or card?” I enjoy an opportunity for a good quip every now and then 😉 I’ll be putting out a blog post soon about some of the most common comments I get at weddings!
6. Outdoing myself artistically.
   Each time I step into a new venue to paint a new scene for a new couple, I try to outdo myself in some way. I’m always trying to improve, whether it be at landscapes, florals, skin tones, portrait likeness, figures, fabric, architecture… There are so many painting skills needed to be a live wedding painter that I’m always trying to refine some skill just a little bit more. And when I do, and all of those skills come together, I love the thrill of having created some of my best work, and getting to give it to a couple who will absolutely treasure it with their family forever.
   
   There are SO many good parts about being a live wedding painter (and many hard parts too, but that’s for another blog post!) – and I am so grateful to God every day that I get to do this incredible job as my career (for three full years now!)

Love ya, thank you for being here!
Korianne
Live Wedding Painter
Minnesota, the Midwest, and beyond