Beauty & The Beast: fairytale love

This shoot was inspired by fairytale love. Here’s what the planners had to say about this romantic inspiration.

Our fine art editorial was inspired by the tale, La Belle et la Bête, written by French novelist Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. Our intent was to create a small garden within the library, painting a timeless scene that pays subtle homage to the Disney classic we all know and love. We accomplished this through pretty details versus outright correlation. Purposely avoiding colours commonly associated with the 1991 Beauty and the Beast depiction, we incorporated a modern palette that enhanced the Library at the Royal Canadian Military Institute. Our vendor team collaborated to curate memorable, simple and elegant pieces throughout the shoot that told a story that makes you feel nostalgic and wistful. Our objective was to make a re-creatable wedding inspiration. A portrait that, as a team, we could deliver to couples who see these images and feel we captured the vision inside their heads.

Nóbl loves to work with real couples in our editorial shoots when we can. I am happy to say the bride and groom featured are dear friends and a real-life couple who are engaged. They met while dancing for an American Ballet company, before travelling around America and Europe together, and finally settling in the groom’s home city, Toronto.

When we shot this in February 2019, we had no idea where the world would be a few short weeks later. Caroline and Evgeni at that point hadn’t had an engagement shoot, so when I asked them to participate we looked at this as a small celebratory gift, and as an engagement shoot of sorts. They have now, however, had to postpone their wedding due to the virus outbreak. When Caroline first saw the video she cried, which made us all cry as well. Their participation in the shoot has taken on a bittersweet, yet precious meaning.