Artist is the amazing galoogamelady!

This blog is written by Adam.

Giving gifts is one of my greatest weaknesses. It is a very stressful ordeal for me since I want each gift I get someone to be meaningful and not something that is cast aside shortly thereafter.

This brings me to possibly the best gift I have ever given someone.

I listen constantly for when Mandi says there is something that she wants. It is tough because if we want something, we typically go ahead and just buy it for ourselves right away, making the pool of potential gifts quite small, in my opinion.

Our friends, Tiffany and Fernando, had gotten married and one of their friends had done a drawing of them as Mario Kart characters. I loved the animation style, so I asked to commission her. I had thought about getting a portrait of Mandi in Disney-style for a long time and this was my opportunity to get such a portrait.

Mandi walked down the aisle to I See the Light. Due to this fact, I had the artist draw us in the style of the main characters from Tangled, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, dancing during the lantern scene. There are many element of this photo which are special to Mandi and me.

The first, as I mentioned, is the Tangled link to our wedding. I had the artist pose us in the same way that we took one of our favorite wedding photos in.

I asked the artist paint Mandi with blue hair. Mandi had recently dyed her hair back to brown for Tiffany and Fernando’s wedding, and was about to dye it purple, which was going to be a lot more low maintenance. Even though it was a lot of work to maintain, blue was definitely her favorite hair phase.

Finally, I had the artist draw us in the lantern scene because one of my favorite pictures from our honeymoon happened to be in the Tangled section of fantasy land. We posed with a prop lantern from the movie. The colors are dark and moody. I just like the picture overall!

Mandi had no clue what this mystery gift was going to be. I worked with the artist to ensure every detail was perfect and I got the digital file about a week before her official birthday.

I was so excited to give this to her that I went to a print shop that night and got a high quality print right away! I got home while Mandi and our friend Dori were talking and I could not contain myself. I asked her if she wanted a gift early. I made her turn her back as I went to my car to collect the picture, then handed her the plain paper bag that held the picture.

She opened it and absolutely loved it!

The picture now hangs in our stairway to the basement where all the fun happens on a massive canvas print. This is the most effort I have ever put into a gift. Mandi is 100% worth it and I want to maker her happy for the rest of our hopefully long lives! I love her so much.

-Adam