Guests paint a canvas

Deborah79

Help! I want to have my guests paint on a canvas I'll have set up. Hopefully by the end of the wedding I'll have a pretty cool original abstract piece of art. Any tips out there as to keeping it coordinated and clean for the guests?

notyetavet

I think you will need some pretty explicit instructions or someone to man the station.  I'd also limit the color choices to 2-3 colors to minimize the chances of ending up with a big, brown canvas by the end of the night.

Also, I'd make sure that the easel is very sturdy and see if you can somehow anchor the canvas to it for the night so it can't get knocked over.  

A bowl of alcohol wipes on the table would also be a good idea. 

If you end up doing this, I'd love to see pictures!

Bay21

Ah we're doing this too since we're having an art gallery wedding! 

I really agree with the PP who said that you should get smaller one's, you could even put one to a table and have everybody contribute if you can't afford one for each set of guests. 

If you go with the big canvas, or even if you don't, I'd provide old shirts for people to throw on over their nice clothes. People will be more apt to participate in this idea if they don't have to worry about getting their nice clothes ruined with paint.

Swapping paint for crayons, markers, etc is also a good idea, or at least provide them as an option. I'm sure you'll have some guests do paint and others do crayons etc. I'd have the eisel set up out of the way of other areas (bar, dancing, tables etc) so it won't get knocked over, and have wipes, paper towels etc at hand for the guests to wipe up with afterwards.

Good luck with this!

emarston1

Double check with your reception venue to make sure they would allow it.  We couldn't use confetti because it was a pain to clean up, I can only imagine how they would view paint.

cwaggoner07

Depending on how much down time you plan on having, guests may or may not participate. If you are looking for something for them to do while y'all take pics for half an hour would be fine. But when I go a wedding, I'm not going to do anything that's going to take time away from eating, drinking, and dancing. For this reason we are also not doing a photo booth at our wedding.

I hope it works out for you!

LittleMissCutiePie

This is a cute idea. I hope it works out! My tips:

1. Make sure children are supervised at all times.
2. Like PP said, limit colour choices. Maybe keep it to your wedding colours?
3. Make sure you have a tarp to cover the entire area.
4. Get disposable paintbrushes. Not only does this save on money, but it also saves on mess. If you buy very inexpensive brushes, you could give one to every guest, so you don't have to worry about cleaning the brushes.
5. Make sure the paint is non-toxic. Even if the kids are supervised, they probably will want to put it in their mouths.
6. Consider buying a few children's painting smocks. Again, even with supervision children can and will drip the paint on their clothes.