Live guest portraits
Live guest portraits are quick hand-drawn portraits of your guests, made at the wedding and given to them to keep. Rui Charnock draws them in ink and watercolour at two to three minutes a face — between fifty and seventy in a three-hour session, at weddings across Portugal.
A queue forms within ten minutes and does not stop. This is the part guests talk about on the way home.
How many guests actually get one
| Session | Portraits handed out | Suits a guest list of |
|---|---|---|
| 2 hours | 30–45 | Up to about 50 |
| 3 hours | 50–70 | Up to about 80 |
| 4 hours | 60–90 | Up to about 110 |
How it works
I set up somewhere with a bit of light and no music directly overhead — the edge of the bar, usually. People come over. They sit for two or three minutes. They take the drawing away with them.
In three hours that is somewhere between fifty and seventy portraits, depending on how much everyone wants to talk.
Why couples book it
It solves the favour problem and the entertainment problem at once, without a photo booth in the corner of your reception.
It also moves people. A queue forms, the queue talks to itself, and the two sides of the family end up standing next to each other.
Combining both
Guest portraits sit naturally in the gap between dinner and dancing, which is also when nothing else is happening worth drawing.
Combined bookings need six hours or more. Below that, one of the two ends up squeezed, and it is usually the illustration.
Prices are published on the pricing page. Nothing is gated.
Check your date WhatsAppWhat you actually get
- About two finished illustrations for every hour booked — roughly twelve across a six-hour wedding, plus fifty to seventy guest portraits if portraits are included.Getting ready, the ceremony, the speeches, the first dance.
- Guest portraits handed over on the night, as favours.Two or three minutes a face. People queue for them.
- Finished in studio, delivered within two weeks.Scanned at archival resolution. Prints and the original both come to you.
- From €X. Travel included within X km of Lisbon.Full breakdown on the pricing page. Nothing behind a form.
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.