If I had to piece together the most multifarious urban, city, downtown, vintage, indie, Toronto inspired wedding, I still probably wouldn't come up with anything as authentically beautiful and honest as Zoe & Kipling's downtown Toronto, modern-vintage wedding.
After meeting Zoe & Kip, we discovered that Kipling is an old schoolmate or Ruby, who’s wedding we shot last January, a cool coincidence!
They mentioned to us in our initial meeting that their wedding was going to be held at Allen’s bar, a historic irish pub on The Danforth in Toronto, was going to have hints of their favourite movie franchise, Star Wars, custom designed invitations and coasters themed after their favourite beer (Guinness of course) and that the wedding menu was going to be a series of their all-time favourite pub food from Allen’s. If I had to invite myself to a wedding, it would be one that featured all those incredible things.
Of course, this would be too easy wouldn’t it? I was of course booked for another event that same day, and was only going to get back into the city sometime in the early evening. Luckily, Ryanne was available and willing to step-in and handle the wedding. We felt like old-friends when meeting Zoe & Kipling for the first time so they were really excited that either of us was available at all. I made sure to get back downtown as quickly as I could and managed to make it to the reception portion of the wedding. Photographing those two dancing to live Irish Folk music, belly-dancing, Irish jigs and so on, was both funny, poignant and sentimental all at the same time.
I was quite jealous of Ryanne for being able to hangout with these two for an entire day, and capture some their honest presence throughout the wedding. Since she had the front row seat for this one, I asked her to share her POV from the wedding :
"Kip and Zoe are two wonderful and unique people; they had their wedding in a bar, drank Guinness instead of champagne, and had burgers as their main course. To honour Kip's Irish roots they held a traditional ribbon tying ceremony right in front of the bar (I don't think it gets more Irish than that) and had Kip's mom hosted the traditional Irish dancing at the end of the night.
Zoe made the wedding cake herself and had her belly dancing friends accompany them for their grand entrance into the reception. I have never seen a grandmother belly dance before, but Zoe's grandma was killing it.
On top of all this there were custom coaster designed by their friend, a storm troopers helmet, and a Holga at the guestbook table. It was eclectic and it was beautiful, but most importantly it was so them.
Even after mentioning all these special moments from their day, I haven't even touched on my favourite part, the first look. It was all Kipling's idea, from him riding his bike to having Zoe wait for him at the mural that they love. It's hard to put into words, but seeing their love and connection in those first few moments was so real and emotional. I am grateful that Zoe and Kip brought me along for the ride, and I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I do."
Ryanne’s photo of Zoe & Kip biting into their main-course meal burgers is without a doubt, one of my favourite wedding photos of all-time. Not to mention, it got featured in the “Love Actually” photo exhibition held at the Gladstone Hotel on King Street, Toronto, throughout the month of February. A well-deserved honoured, couldn’t be more proud of her. It was a special moment for us to attend the opening with Zoe & Kipling themselves, seeing that image printed and hung on display was a unique opportunity for us to share in a collective moment of happiness directly with the couple we worked with. We owe them a huge thank you for trusting us and letting us capture their authentic vintage vibe on their most special day.
This wedding has to be seen to be believed.
Album of the day - The Cranberries- Everyone Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?
- 3B
