Caricaturing at Weddings is back in a big way. After the dearth of work for a live caricaturist that coronavirus brought, I’ve been back caricaturing at weddings and it’s almost as though nothing happened!
Because of the gradual ending of wedding restrictions couples across the UK have finally been able to schedule and re-schedule their weddings which has resulted in a glut of bookings across Birmingham and the wider UK in the past few months.
As well as my aforementioned live street caricaturing work for Friction Arts, since June began I’ve had events in south Birmingham, Leamington Spa, Doncaster, Alveley in Shropshire, Grasmere in the Lake District, Sutton Coldfield in the north of birmingham, Crewe, Hereford, Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury!
It’s not only been lovely to get more work and witness wedding happiness, it’s been refreshing to see more of the West midlands and the UK after being cooped up so long. To chat to strangers as the world opens up excitedly has been a treat too.
Here are a the stories of a couple of recent UK weddings were I was caricaturing;
Dani’s wedding at the Mill Barns in Alveley, Shropshire
Oh my, what a lovely wedding venue this was to be caricaturing in! It was a beautifully converted barn that, as you walked down the inside stairs, opened out to a first floor balcony that overlooked a gorgeous lake.
It was a feast for the eyes and it was great to work there. As well as me caricaturing the couple had booked a magician and I had an enjoyable chat with him about the ups and downs of being a wedding entertainer in the UK. Part of the job I had not realised I had missed was getting to chat to the wedding entertainer community, as you always learn something new (and generally hear a funny anecdote too!).
Dani’s wedding crowd was appreciative and jolly, and I had nice chats with them about being a caricaturist working out of Birmingham without a car and the trials and tribulations of UK public transport!
As you can see from the photos here is my caricature of the happy couple, drawn from a photo which I managed to snap moments before they were whisked away for their first dance!
I always love caricaturing my newlyweds!
Just a couple of hours by public transport from Birmingham was the grand and stylish Netley Hall were Abi and her partner were holding their wedding reception.
It was that part of July were the UK was experiencing a dreadful heatwave so I made sure to hold off putting on my suit jacket ’til it was ABSOLUTELY needed!
I stalked across the lawn asking guests if they’d like caricaturing and used my classic line of ‘Don’t worry, I’m not an evil caricaturist!’ which usually goes down well.
People were really decked out for this one and Abi’s partner was done up in Peaky Blinders-style garb replete
with flat cap which I appreciated as a Birmingham resident and fellow flat-capper!
People really seemed to dig me caricaturing them at this event. I’ve noticed people really loosening up recently since restrictions have been ended and it has been really great to see people letting their hair down and laughing a bit. It’s nice to know my caricaturing work can help them do that.
A chronic issue I suffer as a caricaturist(apart from my type 1 diabetes that is) is not remembering to photograph my caricatures, people reacting to the caricatures and people holding the caricatures.
It’s my summer resolution to correct this.
Here, as you can see are some photos of some of the results of my caricaturing which Abi very kindly photographed for me after I had left. The photos distort the caricatures a little but you get the gist!
In Summary
It’s been a crazy month or so bounding all about Birmingham, the Midlands and the rest of the UK.
There have been buses, trains, taxis and evening a wee spell of emergency hitchhiking needed to get me to everyone’s weddings, corporate events and parties.
It’s obviously been an emotional rollercoaster starting up again, but it’s such a relief to see the wedding industry back on it’s feet after such a trying year.
As a caricaturist I’ve been able to adapt by drawing gifts from home, but many wedding entertainers haven’t been able to do that, particularly the DJs, musicians and Magicians.
Even though as a new father I would like to do more work closer to Birmingham so I don’t have to travel so much, it’s been great to see the UK in the summer from a train window again, to smell the country air and to make people smile.
The life of a caricaturist aint so bad!
For more info on Netley hall- www.netleyhall.com
For more info on Mill barns- themillbarns-venue.co.uk
To book an event with me- Booking Enquiries ⋆ Pen Jones Cartoons