Painting Progression

A couple months ago I was asked to begin a portrait for a friend of mine on her wedding day. She came up with this amazing idea to have me begin the portrait of her and her husband during the ceremony. In the back of the church. Right then and there. Of course I was thrilled (I wish I had thought of it for when I got married!). I love weddings and being apart of hers was so special. I started off doing a series of sketches trying to prepare, knowing that completing a full length portrait during a 30-45 minute ceremony wasn't practical so I started off just sketching them on canvas during the wedding and took it home to finish in my studio with tons of reference pictures.

It took me way longer than I expected (hadn't worked with oils in a while) but I'm satisfied with it and I thought I'd show the progression of the painting. 
This is Lisa and I before the wedding started!

Just laying in the groundwork for the proportions

Getting her proportions straightened out

Laying in more color

adding the dress and darkening the tux

first bits of the background

Beginning the background flowers

close up of her dress

Lots more flowers

Close up of Lisa

Decided to brings the flowers all the way to the bottom

Close up of them together

The finished piece!