A few months ago somewhere there was a thread where someone asked what we thought about caricaturists. Several people said fun, a few said kids birthday party or carnival... I said that I went to an elegant wedding that had one and it was really fun and in no way kids birthday/carnival.
When our entertainment cancelled last minute for our wedding, we managed to find a caricaturist willing to come. Best.Decision.Ever. While I was originally bummed at the loss of what I had been planning, the caricaturist ended up making our wedding way more fun!!! We had people of all ages from 3 to 87 excited to get their drawing and people were walking around sharing them with each other.
She arrived after the meal and dances and cake cutting, 3 hours before the wedding's end. $110/hour. She said she averages 16-18/hour. in black and white and she was dead on. We hired her for 2 hours with the option of adding time if there were still people who wanted to get theirs done. She ended up staying for all 3 hours. We had 60 guests, 50 left before she arrived and he did the portrait of everyone remain who wanted one. We think about 45 people at minimum.
People stayed until the very end of the wedding, it gave a lot of laughs and excitement and a lot of reasons for people to converse.
The only suggestion i have is for people to have a signup sheet so they don't have to wait in line. That was my original suggestion because it worked with my friend's wedding just fine. The artist said normally people just wait in line and are amused by watching the drawing. Well that was true, except that it caused people to stay in line instead of feeling free to dance when they wanted to for fear of losing their place in line. People started saving each other's spots but....still...if I had it to do over, I would've just been more adamant about a signup sheet. People could till gather if they wanted to.
All in all, Im so glad my original entertainment cancelled!