I'm finally ready to post the finished wedding box and as I stated in an earlier post rarely does a piece come together easily and without having to repaint parts or pieces as was the case with this box.  The center landscape went together really well and I was optimistic that the remainder of the piece would, I was happy with the mountains, the trees and the foreground.  I emailed a copy of the photo to my daughter and had her look it over with her "scientific" eye to make sure that I had stayed true to the look of the location.  She was thrilled and felt that I had really captured the essence of the area.  This is an actual location just outside of Yellowstone Park between Cooke City and the Beartooth Highway.  Fortunately I had been able to spend some time in the area the previous summer and was able to get quite a few great photos that I could use as reference.  I also knew that I wanted to show an Aspen Tree and her flowers for the wedding were going to be sunflowers and I knew that I wanted to paint those as well.  Both my daughter and her fiance are outdoor type of people, they love to hike, backpack, and camp and I really wanted to represent an area that they loved recreating in.  I began painting the Aspen Tree and when I emailed a photo to my daughter with the comment "there is something wrong with this tree" she responded that it looked like a Birch Tree so back to the drawing board I went.  I went up into the mountains and took a look at Aspen Trees to try to figure out what I needed to change, repainted it and emailed another copy to my daughter to look at.  Fortunately I live in an area where I can view the trees.  My daughter has a natural resources degree which is a science based program and I often use her as my "go to gal" for her opinions and suggestions for my paintings, she is an invaluable resource.  This time we were both happy with the result and I moved on to the sunflowers. 

 

Today I was talking to a friend who had asked how the wedding went and I mentioned that it was an amazing, emotional, and exhausting experience that both my husband and myself were grateful to be able to celebrate with our daughter and new son.  For us this was one of those amazing events in your children's lives where you reflect on their lives up to this point during the course of the planning and the ceremony.  We both kept asking each other where the years went, it seemed just like yesterday that she was playing Cinderella in her dress up clothes and now she was a young woman embarking on her new life with her spouse.  I have to admit that I was teary through the entire ceremony and then enjoyed the reception completely.  Below you can see the box on the gift table during the reception.  The day was lovely and the happy couple are starting an amazing journey of their own.

 

This card box will soon be available on my website as a pattern and if you choose to paint it I hope that you are able to paint it for someone that you love as I did.