Become a Devine Bride

Say “yes” to more than the dress at Sayville Bridal, which will be commissioning local artist Erin Devine Natter with her business, Devine Brides, to create portraits for all shoppers who make a purchase during the month of November.

Alicia LaGala, owner of Sayville Bridal, on 40 Middle Road in Sayville, will be gifting bridal portraits to all of her brides. Devine Natter will then create a mini portrait based on photos of the brides in their dresses and mail them back.

“I love creating a unique, visual way to remember a wedding day,” Devine Natter said of her portraits. “Weddings bring out emotions in everyone, and I’ve always wanted my artwork to be impactful.  There’s a magic to creating a special memento from a wedding day that a photographer may have missed.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Erin Devine Natter, formerly from the corporate fashion industry, began drawing wedding dresses as a hobby in her free time until a friend shared her work on “The Brides of Long Island” Facebook group.

At that time, she started getting bombarded with requests, without a business name or email address. Within a week, she said, she set up her www.devinebrides.com website, and her hobby became a side hustle.

“I continued to work on Devine Brides while I was working full-time in the fashion industry. It was something I looked forward to building every night after a long commute,” she said. “A lot of the growth would come from word-of-mouth, where brides both near and far would tell other brides about me and my artwork.”

A few years ago, she also created a TikTok account and shared a post about her handcrafted wedding invitations. The post went viral, with 15 million views.

At that time, she left the fashion industry to pursue her artwork full-time. Her husband, Matthew Natter, an entrepreneur, is equally creative with his work in cars. Together, they live in Rockville Centre.

“He has been my No. 1 fan ever since I played around with the idea of even pursuing the business as a full-time adventure,” she said. “I was able to lean on him in the transition, since he already was quite familiar in building a business.”

She was then invited to be on “The Donna Drake Show” in May of this year.

While at “The Donna Drake Show,” she met the owner of Sayville Bridal, LaGala, who stayed in touch and commissioned Devine Natter to create her welcome sign for the grand opening of her neighboring Main Street business, The Sweetbay Society, a wedding attire store.

“Erin exudes light. Her talent is extensional of who she is,” said LaGala of the collaboration.

DEVINE BRIDE SERVICES

Additional Devine Bride services include live guest portraits, where she attends weddings and illustrates guests as a wedding favor; bridal portraits; and illustrations of the bride solo or with any members of the bridal party.

Devine Natter said she finds it special to incorporate loved ones who might have passed on and couldn’t physically make it to the event. Also, she said, generational portraits, drawing the bride, her sister and mother in their wedding dresses together, have become very popular.

“It’s super emotional and a perfect wedding morning present,” she said of the options.

For live guest portraits at events, Devine Natter has an assistant take photos of guests, and then she draws them during the reception. At the end of the night, they pick up their portrait. On average, each person takes about six minutes to draw. 

For more polished portraits, she uses reference photos provided. For those, she takes her time and often works with the customer to make several edits to perfect it before finalizing it. These take about two weeks to complete. 

For her designs, Devine Natter uses marker, colored pencils, and a heavyweight cardstock.

“I can create anything involving illustrations of people and places,” Devine Natter said of her passion. “A lot of my creations have started with a simple email from a new customer along the lines of, ‘Could you do... ?’ I’m consistently inspired by the new ideas and unique visions of my brides!”

Prices range from $100 to $2,000 for live events.

As for the future, Devine Natter said, she is looking forward to connecting with new brides and being able to bring their visions to life. She hopes through her contacts with Sayville Bridal, she will be able to connect with brides earlier in their wedding planning stages.

“A lot of the time, brides find me when the wedding is already pretty finalized, and they wish they could have incorporated my artwork in the other milestones along the way,” she said, noting engagement and bachelorette parties and bridal showers.” n

FOLLOW DEVINE BRIDES
www.devinebrides.com
Instagram @devine.brides 
TikTok @thedevinebride