22 Weddings, 13 Oil Paintings & Hundreds of Illustrations – My 2026 Wedding Season

What does one year in the life of a Live Wedding Painter actually look like?

Someone recently asked me a very simple question while I was painting at a wedding:

“How many weddings have you painted this year?”

I smiled and realised I actually didn't know.

I knew it had been a lot. My easel had travelled with me through Switzerland, Italy, Austria and France. I had painted in grand hotels, beside lakes, surrounded by mountains, near castles and in the middle of beautiful destination weddings.

But I had never actually stopped to count.

So I did.

22 weddings.

And somehow, seeing that number written down made me realise just how extraordinary this wedding season has been.

22 Weddings – But 22 Completely Different Stories

One of the things I love most about my work is that no two wedding days are ever the same.

Different countries. Different cultures. Different ceremonies. Different dresses, flowers, landscapes, architecture and traditions.

And most importantly: different people.

Some celebrations were elegant and intimate. Others had large guest lists, music, dancing and an incredible amount of energy.

Some took place in luxury hotels. Others brought me into the Swiss mountains, historic Italian locations, beautiful lakeside settings and landscapes that almost didn't look real.

My art has travelled with me from Zurich and Lucerne to Ticino and the Swiss Alps, and beyond Switzerland to Provence, Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast.

Sometimes I arrived with a large blank canvas.

Sometimes with stacks of illustration paper.

But I always arrived with the same question:

What is the story of this wedding and how can I capture it through art?

13 Original Oil Paintings

Of the 22 weddings I attended this season, 13 included an original Live Wedding Painting in oils.

That means 13 blank canvases arrived at wedding venues with me and slowly became memories.

For a Live Wedding Painting, I usually begin by observing the location and understanding which elements make the setting special.

Maybe it's the mountains behind the couple.

A historic building.

A lake.

A castle.

The ceremony flowers.

A beautiful staircase.

Or simply the light at a particular moment of the day.

I then photograph the couple during a carefully chosen moment and begin creating the composition.

What guests see happening over several hours at the wedding is only part of the process.

Depending on the painting and collection, I may spend many additional hours in my Basel studio refining faces, fabrics, architecture, landscapes, light and all the small details that make the painting personal.

And that's something many people don't realise about Live Wedding Painting:

The wedding is where the artwork begins, not necessarily where it ends.

And Then There Were Hundreds of Illustrations…

The remaining weddings brought a completely different kind of energy.

Instead of one large oil painting, I created Live Guest Illustrations.

Throughout the celebration, guests are photographed and transformed into individual hand-painted illustrations.

Suddenly my painting station becomes a little attraction of its own.

Guests stop to watch.

They return later to see the progress.

They compare their illustrations.

Friends pose together. Couples want one together. Families join in.

And, of course, someone eventually asks:

“Can you paint my dog too?”

The answer is usually yes. 😂

What I love about guest illustrations is how interactive they are.

A Live Wedding Painting captures one larger memory of the day.

Guest illustrations create dozens of smaller ones.

Instead of traditional wedding favours that may eventually disappear into a drawer, guests leave with something that was created specifically for them.

From Swiss Mountains to the Amalfi Coast

If I had to describe this season in one word, it would probably be:

movement.

There was a lot of travelling.

My brushes and canvases accompanied me across Switzerland and internationally, and every destination presented a completely different artistic challenge.

One day I might be painting an elegant celebration at The Dolder Grand in Zurich.

Another day, the backdrop might be the dramatic coastline of Amalfi.

Then there were the landscapes of Ticino, where castles became part of the composition.

There were weddings around Lucerne, celebrations on Isole di Brissago, historic settings in Tuscania, and beautiful moments surrounded by Swiss mountains.

As a painter, this is one of the most exciting parts of destination weddings.

I am not simply painting two people.

I am painting a place that has become part of their story.

What Guests Don't See

There is a funny thing about being a Live Wedding Painter.

Guests usually see me elegantly standing behind an easel, calmly mixing colours and painting.

What they don't see is everything surrounding those hours. 😂

They don't see me checking how to transport a wet oil painting.

Or calculating whether a 100 cm canvas will fit into the car.

Or carrying an easel, paints, brushes, lighting, canvases and materials through hotels.

They don't see the reference photographs, preparation and composition planning.

They don't see the hours spent afterwards in my studio.

They don't see me packing everything again for the next wedding.

And they definitely don't see how often I check:

“Do I have enough Titanium White?”

Being a Destination Wedding Painter is part artist, part traveller, part photographer, part logistics manager and occasionally part professional Tetris player when packing the car.

The Moment That Never Gets Old

There is one part of this job that still makes me nervous.

The reveal.

You can spend hours working on a painting, but eventually you have to turn the canvas around and show it to the people whose story you've just painted.

And then you wait.

Sometimes there is silence first.

Then a smile.

Sometimes laughter.

Sometimes tears.

Sometimes someone immediately notices a tiny detail I wasn't even sure they would see.

Those reactions remind me why I love creating wedding art.

Because ultimately, the painting isn't really about creating a perfect representation of a photograph.

It's about capturing how a day felt.

A Few Numbers From My 2026 Wedding Season

So far, my year looks something like this:

22 weddings

13 original oil paintings

Hundreds of guest and couple illustrations

4 countries: Switzerland, Italy, Austria and France

Countless brushes cleaned

Many kilometres travelled

Several castles, mountains, lakes and historic venues painted

A growing collection of very beautiful wedding stories

And probably far too much coffee along the way. ☕️😂

But there is another number that is impossible to calculate:

The number of conversations I've had beside my easel.

Guests asking questions about oil painting.

Children watching the colours being mixed.

Parents recognising a detail in the background.

Photographers stopping to see the progress.

Wedding planners checking in.

And couples seeing their artwork for the first time.

Those moments are a huge part of what makes live art so special.

What 22 Weddings Taught Me

This season also changed the way I think about wedding entertainment.

Couples today are increasingly looking for experiences rather than simply decorations.

They want their guests to participate.

They want something happening during the celebration.

They want moments people talk about afterwards.

And ideally, they want something that remains when the flowers are gone, the music has stopped and the wedding weekend is over.

That's exactly where live art becomes interesting.

It can be entertainment, storytelling and a keepsake at the same time.

And this idea has inspired me to continue developing new artistic experiences for weddings.

For 2027, I am expanding beyond traditional Live Wedding Painting and Live Guest Illustrations with more interactive concepts where guests themselves can become part of the creative process.

Because I believe art at a wedding doesn't always have to be something you simply look at.

Sometimes, it can be something you experience together.

The Biggest Lesson?

After 22 weddings, I've realised something very simple:

The best paintings aren't necessarily created at the biggest or most spectacular weddings.

They're created when there is a story worth capturing.

Sometimes it's an incredible landscape.

Sometimes it's the architecture.

Sometimes it's a tiny interaction between two people.

Sometimes it's a family member watching the couple from across the room.

And sometimes it's simply the way two people look at each other.

That's the part I want to preserve.

Because years later, I don't want my couples to look at their painting and simply think:

“That's what our wedding looked like.”

I want them to remember:

“That's what our wedding felt like.”

Looking Ahead to the 2027 Wedding Season

After such an intense and beautiful season, I'm already looking forward to the stories that will become paintings next.

My 2027 wedding calendar is now open for Live Wedding Painting, Live Guest Illustrations and selected destination weddings throughout Switzerland and Europe.

Whether you're planning a celebration in the Swiss Alps, beside Lake Como, in Tuscany, Provence, Mallorca – or somewhere I haven't taken my easel yet, I'd love to hear about it.

And perhaps wedding number 23 will take my brushes somewhere completely new. 🎨🤍

Planning your wedding for 2027?

Discover my Live Wedding Painting and Live Guest Illustration collections, or get in touch to tell me about your wedding, your venue and the moment you would love to turn into a piece of art.

Kuenzli Wedding ArtLive Wedding Painter & Wedding IllustratorBased in Basel, Switzerland – available for destination weddings across Europe.

See you soon! Your Artist

Stephanie