Sentimental 60th wedding anniversary gift that tells the couple’s story

I paint a lot of custom family trees for all kinds of special occasions (birthdays, anniversaries, christenings). However, the family tree paintings I create for couples 60th wedding anniversaries are among my favorites. They are such a great reminder that it’s possible to stay in a loving relationship for a long span of time. For whole sixty years!

Unfortunately, as a society we are more focused on divorce rates, as opposed to long happy marriages.  I’m very lucky to be constantly reminded that they exist. As a hopeless romantic I LOVE discovering my clients life-long love stories.  They inspire me.  While I do get paid to illustrate couples love stories I also want to paint them.  I want everyone to see that love could be everlasting.  A picture is worth a thousand words, right?  Every amazing love story deserves to be illustrated.  I feel very lucky that I’m the one who gets to illustrate so many of them.

2 Custom couples portraits – One Love Story

I’m a terribly sentimental person.  I love reading old letters, and looking at old photos. One of my most popular family tree illustration styles (“Then and Now” family tree) came to me as I was looking through old family photo albums. There were quite a few old wedding photos there.  Some of them were of random friends of my grandparents.  Others were of long-deceased relatives I couldn’t name. One commonality among all the newlyweds in the photos was the hopeful look on their faces.  Not necessarily happy or smiling.  In the beginning of the 20th century it wasn’t really fashionable to grin in your pictures. But their faces did look hopeful.  Two people starting on a new journey together and hoping it will last a lifetime.  It was so beautiful.

That’s when it hit me that I should start offering my clients an option to include their wedding photo into their family tree paintings.  Apparently it was a great idea, since my “Then and Now” family tree option became the one my clients commission the most.  I’ve heard so many times from my clients who have ordered that option for their parents’ or in-law’s wedding anniversary how moved the couples were to see their wedding photos in the paintings.

watercolor couple portrait painting

Personalized family tree illustration for parents marriage anniversary

Hand-painted watercolor custom couples portrait

Creative anniversary gift for parents featuring the portrait of the couple as well as their portrait on their wedding day.

unusual couple portrait painted in a style of a family tree

Custom couple portrait of the couple as they are now + their portrait on their wedding day

Family Tree painting – a visual record of a couple’s life together

A custom family tree painting is basically a visual record of a couple’s life together.  Family tree art is more than just a painting.  It’s a reminder of a life well-lived, of a love shared, and of children raised together.  Personalized family tree painting is a meaningful and sentimental anniversary gift.  Sentimental being the key word.  When you commission a family tree painting for your loved ones you want them to feel positive nostalgic emotions on their anniversary day.  A wedding photo is a detail that takes the couple back to one of the happiest days of their life.  Having a wedding picture is like adding a starting point to the painting.

Custom painting of a couple's family tree hand-painted as a 60th wedding anniversary gift60th wedding anniversary family tree gift for parents

Another reason why I love working on my “Then and Now” family tree illustrations is that I get to see how the couple looked when they were younger.  It’s amazing how many times I note to myself that they haven’t changed that much at all.  Yes, they look older, but you can tell they’re the same people as they were 60 years ago.  With the same sparkle in their eyes, and the same love for each other in their hearts.

This was the case with the couple pictured in the enclosed illustration. I created the artwork for my client’s parents 60th wedding anniversary.  She send me her parents’ current photos alongside their wedding photo from the late 1950s. I simply fell in love with the latter.

My client’s parents looked so young (as was the norm for getting married back then) in the photo.  And they looked so happy!  When I compared their wedding photo to the pictures of them now I could still see in their older selves the same happy couple from 60 years ago.  This realization really warmed my heart and definitely inspired my creativity.

I painted the couple seated side by side, holding hands, and smiling.  This particular family tree painting was medium size, which gave me plenty of space to not only include the names of their children, and grandchildren, but also their family pets. Past and present!

Adding the names of the ancestors to the tree roots

Per my client’s request I also added the names of her grandparents to the tree roots.  The names of the couple’s ancestors on the tree roots gives a family tree the look of being grounded or ‘rooted’ in the past.  Having that connection to family history is a nice detail I love including in my family tree art.

I believe it’s important to honor the people who came before you.  Not to mention that adding all the names (the couple’s descendants, as well as their ancestors) into the painting makes it more of a historic record that’ll be more likely to remain in the family for generations.

If you would like to order a family tree painting for your parents’ or grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary please contact the artist or go directly to the Shop section.