Is it worth spending money on wedding art?
Budgeting Advice
By
on February 23, 2010
45
We're trying to do our wedding on the cheap but still have it be unique and cool. So, we decided that our theme needs to start with the invitations! We hired a local tattoo artist to draw up [Editor's note: DRAW, not design!] a 50's-60's rock concert poster for us that we plan on printing off at Kinko's and mailing as our invite. The problem is, he just told me it's going to cost $500 in order for him to draw up the original! So, I'm thinking $500 for the original + ($.48 X 150) for printing + small manila envelopes for mailing + postage + home printed response cards = me being taken to the cleaners on my "cheap & cool" invites? Or, is it worth it for the cool factor and the fact that we will forever have original artwork to remember our wedding by? I have to laugh that our invites could cost us more than our rock-club reception space! -Becky
Photo courtesy of Anne Ruthmann Photography. To clarify, this is NOT the art Becky is talking about.
Ultimately, I can't really tell you what's "worth it" for your wedding. But I will say that I see spending money on your offbeat wedding to be a great exercise in prioritizing your splurges. Is original artwork commemorating your wedding worth spending money on? If art is important to you — then fuck yeah it is! I'm reminded the conversation I had a while back with an artist friend. Artwork honoring your wedding is an amazing heirloom, one that's infinitely more compelling than silver candlesticks. For some people that means commissioning a gorgeous Ketubahs, for others it means having a local tattoo artist draw up an original rock concert poster. If visual art is important to you, I'm gonna say investing the money in a poster you can hang in your home for years ... I say go for it.
That said, I think it's important to think about priorities — for some people, it's not worth it to spend money on the invite because they want to invest in the photography. Or the food. Or the perfect venue. Only you can know your priorities. Whatever your one priority is, go for it.
UPDATE WITH A CLARIFICATION:
From the comments, it's clear that there's some confusion between custom illustration vs. graphic design. They're very, very different things. Becky says the tattoo artist is going to DRAW their invitation, which means it's a custom illustration — not just a photoshop job. Not that graphic design can't be art, but it's not the same thing.
About Ariel Meadow Stallings
Author of Offbeat Bride: Creative Alternatives for Independent Brides, Ariel acts as the publisher of all the Offbeat Empire websites. She lives, loves, and dorks out hard in Seattle, WA.
sandra said
Given the going rate of $100-125 an hour for tattoo artists, which normally would include artwork (like you said, draw not design!)$500 sounds ridiculously overpriced. Do you have a friend or family member who is artistically inclined? Or a tattoo artist who has done work for you in the pat that might give you a better price? Or how about local art programs or even an ad for talent on craigslist or a similar local website?
Melissa Burbank said
Here is a trick I've used for deciding what to spend money on for our wedding: I take a coin out and say, "Heads I spend, tails I don't". Flip and if I'm disappointed with the outcome, then I know that I really want whatever was opposite of the outcome. Granted, this is just the manifestation of what you really want and sometimes what you really want is less clear.
If you pick the custom art- could you do more research and find the rest of the stuff for your wedding cheaper? For instance, I'm modifying a gown I found on ebay for $50. I was going to spend 300 or 400….the way I look at it, that is at *least* 250 in savings and therefore money that I could use somewhere else.
Worse case scenario—are either you or your fiance at all artistically inclined? Maybe a fun doodle made together would ultimately mean more to you than custom made wedding art- a decision that obviously only you can make
What my fiance and I did for our fall themed wedding was take a bunch of scrapbooking paper in fun patterns and colors and created this autumn scene of a tree with two love birds and photocopied this original. It was kind of neat because it was a lot neater than I could have drawn it, it look polished/finished, it was relatively easy, and we created it together. The color photocopies onto cardstock at staples came out AWESOME and the whole thing was reminiscent of those childrens' books that use ripped paper collages as illustrations. And it only cost 50 dollars for 50 invitations (plus the three dollars in scrapbooking paper we bought to make the original). Experiment and who knows what you'll get- you may find that you have an inner artist that will emerge
Brittany Nichole said
I'm having a custom coat of arms created for me & my fiance. It's costing us about $60.00 for the artwork plus the copyright. The artist I went to is a place that has beautiful artwork, but that I would never actually let them put ink in my skin. Look around at the tattoo artists, remember just because you would let them tattoo you, doesn't mean they can't draw. Also, if you have any tech schools in your area, lots of them have art programs…high-schoolers can be very talented & often charge much less than college & professionals just because they need the word of mouth.
PixelFish said
As an artist, illustrator, and graphic designer, I've got to say I appreciate Jessica, Shannon, and Dixie weighing in on the subject of price. Original art done to spec can be time consuming to create. From the sketches of layouts all the way through to the final piece, there may be more work involved than just putting pen and paint to paper. The artist may be budgeting for revisions as well as pricing according to their interest in the project and schedule. 500 dollars will get you roughly 20 hours of work (or half a work week) at the hourly rate of my day job. So sure, figure out your priorities. If you want to spend that money, go ahead. But the artist isn't trying to gouge you, per se.
(Also, it might help not to think of original art as something that is cheap–unless you are the artist making something for yourself. I myself am making tiny 2×2 paintings for wedding favours because our party is small–only fifteen people–and it's relatively cheap for what will be completely memorable and unique favours, but only because I'm also the artist. If somebody else were asking for the same little paintings, it would be about 750 for supplies plus time, which breaks down to 50 bucks per tiny painting. Me, I just have to pay for the supplies.)
Emery said
I would never say its a "rip off". Art, or design, is completely subjective and is worth what it means to you. I was simply trying to give alternative sources for custom artwork/designs for some of the readers that may not be able to afford to pay so much. I apologize if it came across as being rude.
Melissa Hazelton said
Most of the tatttoo artists I know are NOT rich, and struggle like most artists do. They work on commision, and usually work long hours. They have to be not only a good artist, but also a good tattoist, and good with people to boot. You are not going to let some jerk put needles in your skin! Most artists I know charge 120/hr for tattooing, but that does NOT include the hours they spend prior designing each custom piece, or the time they spend talking with client/potential clients in consultations (where they get an idea of what the client wants), nor does it include touch-ups where they fix whatever might not have healed ideally. Not to mention the time spent mixing ink, cleaning their tools/workspace, in some cases making their own tool. Plus they have to rent a space outside their homes, tattooing at out of a 'home-office' just does not fly.
Sure you can live comfortably, but it's not a cash-cow.
Erin said
I agree with Emery on the harshness here towards designers. Ariel, I understand your need to distinguish "art" vs. "graphic design" — as an independent graphic designer and custom invitation creator myself, I consider the difference to be simply the use of a computer, or not. I don't think you can say one is more valuable than the other. While one hand-drawn (or painted) piece may scream "details" and "unique," another could turn out incredibly rudimentary or simple. Conversely, a standard "template" design may be created by one graphic designer, but I consider a true *custom* invitation to be specifically crafted — from the font choices, original illustrations, unique execution, etc. — to fit the couple's one-of-a-kind tastes. I just finished up an invitation suite featuring a variety of original digital illustrations I created based on the wedding venue and mountain location of the event. Is this worth less because it was created on the computer as opposed to using pen and ink?
I want to be clear that a *custom* invitation is not, or should not, be simply about "arranging words in a document", or filling a pre-determined template with clipart. It's about truly crafting something that will speak to the couple and the message that they'd like to establish for their wedding. In this way, I don't think there is a difference between "art" and "design," whether created by hand or by a digital artist.
So, I guess the root of what I'm trying to say is that with regards to the original question about price, I think it's worth it if the artist (whether digital or traditional) can prove to you that he or she can capture exactly what you're looking for. In the end, you pay for quality, whatever the form. As with any art purchase, however, you unfortunately won't know whether it was worth it until the job is done. Just like commissioning an original piece of art for your home, you take a big risk by forking out $500 for one illustration.
Good luck!
Emery said
You're right Melissa, I have yet to find any type of creative career that makes tons of money. Thats why the people that do them, no matter what kind of artist they are, do it because they love it. They all deserve to get paid and they must charge what they need to in order to get by.
I was not trying to insinuate that they do not work hard or that they are undeserving in any way. Just that it seems that apparently this guy is making pretty good money if a couple hours of his time is worth $500. But his work probably is THAT GOOD and he is probably in high demand.
Jennifer said
I agree. I also do custom invitation work, although I've never considered myself a graphic designer. I am a printmaker, though sometimes I print from a computer instead of a press. A lot of presswork comes from computers now anyway, especially if text is involved. Most of the time I hand-draw elements for the design, scan it in, and add text in Photoshop. Truly custom invitations (as opposed to customized templates) are unique pieces of art and shouldn't be looked down upon in comparison to an illustration being used as an invitation. It's insulting to artists who work in other mediums. With regards to the pricing of the custom illustration, I am not one to judge what another artist charges for their work. With regards to "Is it worth it?", I may be biased, but original custom artwork is always worth it.
Mariel Ashlinn said
I totally agree and would like to add that (as an illustrator and graphic designer who did my first set of custom drawn and designed i nvites this year) when it comes to custom stuff: it takes a HECK of a lot longer to "arrange words in a document" and have it look well-done then I think many people give credit for. It was probably the most difficult and time-consuming-crazy-making part of the whole process. Even if there was no "illustrating" involved it would easily still be a 5 hour job!
k.k. said
How is it different? Is it mainly a difference of media?
katie said
Emery – I think Ariel was agreeing with you – and reminding other posters that paying for original work should not be misconstrued as being "ripped off"!
OffbeatAriel said
Katie's right — Emery, I was agreeing with you! A previous commenter had mentioned "it's a rip off," and I was trying to agree with you and point out that no, it's not a rip off.
Megan said
Who did you use on Etsy? I'm looking for just that thing!