For wedding planners
This page exists to be forwarded. Rui Charnock is a live wedding illustrator based in Lisbon, covering all of Portugal, with prices published in full, availability answered within 24 hours and a date held for seven days while a couple decides. Nothing on this site is behind a form.
Three questions decide whether a supplier makes a shortlist: what it costs, whether they come here, and whether they answer. In that order, then.
The shortlist answers, on one screen
| Based | Lisbon |
|---|---|
| Covers | All of Portugal; travel bands published |
| Prices | Published in full, never gated |
| Reply time | Within 24 hours |
| Date hold | Seven days, free |
| Deposit | To hold a date; balance two weeks before |
| Commission | None offered, none expected |
| Footprint | 1 m², no power, no table, no meal seat |
| Lead time | Eight to twelve months for a Saturday, May to September |
| Client-facing PDF | One page, same numbers, on request |
One: what it costs
Everything is on the pricing page, published, with the extras itemised. There is no form in front of it, so a client can be sent a link rather than a promise to find out.
Ask and I will send a one-page PDF carrying the same numbers, formatted to go straight into a client proposal. There is no commission structure to negotiate, which I realise is either a relief or a disappointment depending on how you work — either way you know now rather than after the call.
Two: whether I come there
Anywhere in Portugal. The coverage page has the driving time from the Lisbon studio, the travel band and the minimum booking for every region, as a table.
The short version: Lisbon, Sintra, Cascais, Setúbal and Comporta carry no travel line. Évora and the inland Alentejo are a day trip charged at cost. The Algarve, Porto and the Douro are overnight, and the Douro is two nights. Madeira and the Azores are quoted as a whole trip.
Three: whether I answer
Within 24 hours, and usually the same evening. A date can be held for seven days at no cost while your couple decides, and I will tell you if someone else asks about it in the meantime rather than letting it go quietly.
During the day of a wedding I am not reachable, which is the correct behaviour and occasionally inconvenient. Everything else gets answered.
What I need from you, and what I will not do
A running order as soon as one exists, and a warning about anything that moves. I do not need a meal seat, a power socket, a table or a place on the supplier list — a square metre and the timings are the whole ask.
I stay out of the photographer's frame and out of the video's line, and I will introduce myself to both before anything starts. Suppliers who have worked with me will tell you I am easy to have around, which matters more than it sounds when the room is full.
I will not draw guests who have not agreed to be drawn, and I will not hand a portrait to someone it is unkind to. That has come up twice and both times it was the right call.
For venues
The same terms apply to a venue booking me directly for an open day or a showcase, and the artwork from those days is genuinely useful to a venue: a drawing of your own space, made in it, that no other venue can use.
Ask about that separately. It is priced as an event booking rather than a wedding one.
Send me a date and a venue and you will have an answer before you need it.
Check your date WhatsAppSend your client one of these
Check your date
Tell me when and where. If I am free, I will come back with what it costs and roughly how the day would run — usually the same evening.