Could anyone give me tips. I want to make this picture look painterly.

these were what I got so far... They are obviously slight variations.
I started by duping the BG; then I used the lasso tool to select the couple; then I inverted the selection and ran Impressionist on the background with default Watercolor: Damp Translucent Wash followed by Angled Strokes twice; then I followed Leah's instructions when she discovered how that photographer got the muted, hazy colors (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8634) by channel mixing; then stamped visible and ran a texturizer with sandstone. the second pic 's only difference is that in the first I duped the background of the BG, stacked it on top (removed the texture) and ran Smart Blur:Edge only , Inverted image followed by Diffuse:Anisotropic and set the layer to Overlay with a very low Opacity, and only then stamped visible and texturized it.
Hope that's understandable.

these were what I got so far... They are obviously slight variations.

* Duplicate BG
* Select the couple
* Invert selection
* Impressionist on the background with default Watercolor: Damp Translucent Wash
* Angled Strokes twice
* I followed Leah's instructions when she discovered how that photographer got the muted, hazy colors (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8634) by channel mixing
* Then stamped visible (merged layers)
* Ran Texturizer with sandstone.

The 1st pic difference: (corrected based on Glickster reply-djr)
* First I duped the BG
* Stacked it on top (removed the texture)
* Ran Smart Blur:Edge only
* Inverted image
* Stylize > Diffuse > Anisotropic
* Set the layer to Overlay with a very low Opacity
* Stamped visible (merged layers)
* Texturized

Hope that's understandable.

Glickster...
a) Very, very impressive results. The colors/textures are great.
b) Appreciate the how-to steps. I made them line-by-line to make it easier for me to follow. Hope I got it right. Let me know if I botched any of it and I'll be glad to fix.

My 2¢...
* For a pic like this I think the emphasis should be on the couple. To achieve that, I'd do some cropping.
* Even after cropping I found the numerous background objects / furniture / artwork to be a distraction. There are various ways to handle this, including painting or cloning and/or lowering saturation so the colors don't draw attention away from the primary subjects.

See my interpretation for an example of how I cropped and (hopefully) brought more attention to the handsome couple by painting over some of the background distractions.

Note: I'm including the how-to detail in case other folks are interested. I think your foreground (subjects) are fine the way they are.

In essence (layers top to bottom)
* Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, Saturation = -100, inverted. Selectively applied effect by airbrushing white onto mask in background to mute colors.
* Paint over remaining dark areas in background using a chalk brush using colors selected from lighter areas.
* Copy of BG with Dry Brush filter applied. Facial detail. Hide all layer mask. Airbrushed white to apply selectively.
* Copy of BG with Dry Brush filter applied x2. General detail. Hide all layer mask. Airbrushed white to apply selectively.
* Copy of layer below with Impressionist > Default > Charcoal. Background = Image.
* Copy of BG. Impressionist > Conte > Short choppy strokes. Breaks up image and adds some white specs to areas of solid color.

Hope this gives you some ideas to consider.

~Danny~

First of all, thank you for the response and the praise. Coming from you, and having seen your work, I take that as quite the compliment.
Secondly, you have transcribed my steps most faithfully with the only discrepancy being my fault. The "Second" pic is actually the first one attached.
Finally, thank you so much for your input! This is exactly why I spend more time on this forum than anywhere else on the internet. You people are superbly talented and amazingly happy to help. I will certainly take your comments into consideration and hopefully will be posting a revision soon.
Thank you again!

Agreeing w/ Danny on the background, I took the happy couple to a beautiful old bath house in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I had previously did a sort of pen and ink effect and given it a drop shadow, so all I had to do here was select, cut and paste them on top and then erase extra pixels and run PhotoShop cross hatch filter, then apply sandstone texture.
http://www.pbase.com/image/37786483

Thank you Raniday, Once again the members of this site amaze me. I hadn't even considered putting a new background in. And I love the out of bounds effect. You people definitely come through. Thank you again!

Cropped & straightened.
Curve adjust (to bring out some detail).
Adjusted contrast.
Virtual painter (watercolor).
Impressionist (pencil sketch).
Desaturated.
Typical cleanup.
Several masks and various brushes.

Here's a slightly raw rendition using a Trimoon Art History Brush preset.

Cheers
Dave