Kennedy News and MediaA bride and groom toasted their wedding vows by having a ‘first toke’ as husband and wife, using matching Mr and Mrs bongs.
Coral Reefer and her husband Mio decided to combine their love of cannabis and each other by commissioning personalised bongs for their wedding last month.
Their photographer Rachel Artime said the couple’s passion for weed, which is legal in California, made their wedding one of the most unconventional she’s ever been to.
Rachel captured unique pictures of Coral in her wedding dress and veil with her groom Mio by her side, with both simultaneously puffing on their bongs.
Kennedy News and MediaThe couple blow clouds of smoke in wisps around them, before Coral smiles directly at the camera.
Other photos taken later in the day show Coral puffing on her bong alone, before exhaling the smoke towards the camera, in probably the most unusual wedding photos you’ll ever see.
Rachel, 24, had created similar engagement photos for Coral and Mio featuring them smoking blunts, and Coral even had hemp included in her wedding bouquet.
The photographer, from Los Angeles, said:
I’m really happy with the pictures. I love the smoke. It makes them look haunting and romantic in a weird way.
I’ve never had to photograph anything like this before. This is the most unconventional and non-traditional thing to happen at a wedding [I’ve been to].
Every wedding I’ve done is the most normal thing ever, so this is quite the experience to be photographing people literally smoking a blunt at their wedding. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before.
Kennedy News and MediaRachel continued:
People all over my Instagram were so into it. People were saying they had never seen this. I have never seen a bong at a wedding.
I take wedding photos all the time but to see a photo with weed go viral is so fascinating.
With the positive feedback on a drug that was illegal and is now legal, it’s just fascinating to see how people are supportive and love the photos.
It was all mine and Coral’s vision and their passion.
Kennedy News and MediaThe 24-year-old added that ‘it’s cool to see a bride and groom’s passion in all they plan for their wedding, and to be so supported [globally]. It’s their story.’
She continued:
Coral is wonderful – she knows what she wants. She told me she wanted this photo with the smoke and we had engagement photos done in the same way.
They were really excited about their matching Mr and Mrs bongs, which were handmade and very cool.
Being in Santa Cruz in a redwood forest, and in her white dress, the contrast was just so pretty with the white smoke. It’s not a conventional wedding photo at all.
It was so fun because I do a wedding a weekend, so it was like a creative challenge to have new things to work with.
Coral shared a selection of her wedding images online with the caption ‘to have and to toke, forever and ever’.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.