Real Weddings: Jacob and Kimberly

Kimberly Bruce, a 26-year-old account manager, first met Jacob Kadar Penner, the owner of a construction management company, in 2017, when he was shopping for a winter jacket at Holt Renfrew. The two began dating a few months later, and in February 2020, Penner proposed while the pair was on vacation in Mexico. Their Oscars-after-party-themed wedding took place in November 2023 in Yorkville’s Sofia restaurant, with 125 guests. Here’s how it all came together.

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Jacob: We first met in the fall of 2017. I was in Holt Renfrew, trying on winter jackets. I had no idea which one to buy.

Kim: At the time, I was studying political science and communications at Laurier, in Waterloo. But I’m from North York and was back home visiting my family. I had popped into Holt Renfrew to browse and saw Jacob looking super flustered, surrounded by jackets. I walked past him, pointed at the jacket he had on and said, “That’s the one.” Then I went on my way.

Jacob: I thought Kim was gorgeous, so it felt like an opportunity to be seized. I bought the jacket Kim picked, then I went to go find her in the store.

Kim: I thought Jacob was cute, but I didn’t think much of the initial interaction. I’m a chatty person, so I thought it’d be a nice opportunity to give someone a little confidence boost. I was excited when he came to find me later, though. He thanked me for my help, and we exchanged numbers.

Jacob: Kim and I texted for a bit after that. We tried to meet up, but Kim was heading back to Waterloo soon for school. I was living in downtown Toronto at the time, on Queens Quay, and had just started my own construction company.

Kim: A few months later, in February 2018, I was moving condos in Waterloo and I pocket-dialled Jacob without realizing it. A few minutes later, I noticed I had a missed call. The contact card said Jacob. I thought, Jacob who? I called him back and was like, “Who is this?”

Jacob: It was kind of awkward at first, but Kim quickly made the connection, and we smoothed things over. We started talking.

Kim: After that first pocket-dial, we’d call each other and chat on the phone for three or four hours at a time. It felt really easy to talk to Jacob.

Jacob: At the time, my job had me in a truck, driving around for most of the day. I had a lot of time to talk. Our conversations covered a bit of everything—work, what I was building, what Kim was studying in school, her next steps. We talked about our families too. I grew up in Bloor West Village, and my family is Jewish and Eastern European.

Kim: I grew up in North York. My mom is Filipina and my dad is from Ghana. In March, after a couple of weeks of chatting, Jacob told me he was going to be passing through Waterloo. He asked me out to dinner.

Jacob: I wasn’t really passing through Waterloo. I was driving back from Niagara, but I just wanted an excuse to see Kim.

Kim: Jacob was going to pick me up, then we’d go out to a restaurant in downtown Waterloo.

Jacob: I kissed Kim for the first time right after I picked her up. We’d been so close and chatting for so long. It just felt right.

Kim: It’s funny that that was our first actual date despite having known each other for a couple of months. I was always so attracted to him.

Jacob: Over dinner, I remember we were talking a lot about her plans for the future.

Kim: I had a lot of big questions about coming out of university.

Jacob: I tried to help her navigate it without being too self-interested, because obviously I wanted her to move to Toronto. I was happy when she eventually did decide to come back to the city.

Kim: I moved to Toronto for work in May and started seeing Jacob more often. We were still on the phone a lot, and we’d go on dates. We tried new restaurants, went for walks down by the lake and had picnics in the summer.

Jacob: Sometimes, Kim sat with me in my truck while I drove around. We’d talk about design stuff, and she met my crew. She developed a really close friendship with my lead hand, Tony, who is a close friend of mine as well. Kim and I started to become inseparable.

Kim: Jacob and I moved in together in August 2019, into a condo loft on Queen West. It’s a really nice open-concept place with 19-foot ceilings.

Jacob: One day, when Kim was at work, I surprised her by building a little wood makeup station. There were vanity lights and a mirror, plus LED lights that spelled out her initials. I knew Kim needed this space, and I wanted to do something nice for her. Afterward, Kim said a friend had told her, “If he does something like this for you, he must really love you.” At that moment, I thought, Damn, I really do love her.

Kim: Ever since our first date, I really liked how confident Jacob was in me and my capabilities. The guys I used to date were obsessed with themselves, but Jacob is really selfless. I’ve never felt like I have to prove myself to him. Even before we moved in together, I’d been casually showing him pictures of rings.

Jacob: I was stealthily taking notes and saving photos. I knew she wanted a cushion-cut diamond ring in white gold with a thin band of diamonds. By January 2020, I had the ring ready. We had a trip booked to Mexico in February, so I figured it’d be the perfect time to propose.

Kim: My friends were all texting me, telling me Jacob was definitely going to propose on that trip. I didn’t agree. When we got to the hotel and Jacob was in the shower, I searched through all of his bags. I remember texting my friends and being like, “I told you! There’s no ring. It’s not happening. Maybe in the summertime.”

Jacob: I knew Kim would be trying to look for it, so I kept it on me the whole time. I was very nervous and wanted to plan something meaningful but not corny. I decided to get the hotel manager in on it. Early in the trip, one of our dinner reservations got cancelled, so I got the manager to say that he was gifting us a special dinner package on the beach to make up for it.

Kim: I had no idea it was planned. It was the perfect night for it. There were lights in the sand guiding us down to the beach and a full moon in the sky.

Jacob: I had written out what I was going to say, but I couldn’t figure out the right time to do it. Right after we finished our appetizers, the waiters came to take our plates away, and Kim said, “You know, this would have been the perfect place for a proposal.” I was like, Well, that’s the sign I needed. So I got down on one knee and proposed. I don’t remember everything I said. It definitely wasn’t the speech I had prepared, because I was so emotional. But I remember it ended with both of us crying and holding each other.

Kim: We started planning our wedding when we got home, which was just as the pandemic hit. We originally wanted to do a big traditional wedding with 200 guests. We booked a hall downtown, the Rosewater, for November 2021. But then the venue went bankrupt and we had to start over again.

Jacob: Everything was getting cancelled. Our bachelor and bachelorette parties got cancelled twice. So we decided to put things on hold.

Kim: In January 2023, we had dinner at Sofia, an Italian restaurant in Yorkville. It was our first time there, and I loved it. I said to Jacob, “This would be a super cool place to host a birthday party.” Then, on the way home, we realized it would be a great place to have our wedding.

Jacob: We’d have to make some compromises. For example, it’s smaller, so we couldn’t have as many guests. But our friend group had become smaller over the years anyhow. And we liked the idea of having a more intimate event instead of a big spectacle.

Kim: We loved the vibe at Sofia. It’s very loud, with red furniture and big white chandeliers. It was bright enough that we didn’t need to do much to it, so no crazy floral arrangements. We booked a date in November 2023 for 125 guests. We went with an Oscars-after-party theme.

Jacob: For my outfit, I went with a classic black tux from Armani. It had a Mad Men vibe to it, with big lapels.

Kim: I didn’t want a traditional wedding dress. I ended up finding mine on Instagram. I follow a page that profiles the latest royal fashion looks. I had seen a few outfits worn by Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton that I was drawn to. They weren’t bridal dresses, but I looked up the designer, Safiyaa, and found out that they had a wedding-inspired line. You can order online and they’ll use your custom measurements. The one I chose was really beautiful. It’s cape-style with a beaded mesh top. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Jacob: The morning of the wedding, my party got ready at my parents’ home in High Park. It was a pretty relaxed morning. It didn’t feel too rushed.

Kim: My parents booked me a suite at the Hazelton for my bridal party. My glam squad of hair and makeup artists got started at 4 a.m. I was oddly relaxed throughout the whole process, though. I wasn’t your conventional bridezilla freaking out about everything. I felt very calm.

Jacob: Both our ceremony and reception happened inside the restaurant. It was a bit unconventional. Instead of a traditional aisle down the middle, Kim and her father walked in together and around the restaurant to get to the front, where I was waiting. We also wanted to incorporate both of our backgrounds, so we had a rabbi who does interfaith marriages, which isn’t common.

Kim: My mother is Catholic, and she’s pretty religious, so it made her feel good to have him speak to the Catholic faith.

Jacob: Kim and I stood under a chuppah for the ceremony. Then we did a traditional breaking of the glass.

Kim: After the ceremony, Jacob changed into a traditional Ghanaian men’s wedding outfit, called an agbada. My dad wore one too. He got them made for him and Jacob when he was back in Ghana a few months before the wedding.

Jacob: For dinner, we selected some items from Sofia’s menu as options for our guests to choose from, as if they were dining at the restaurant. It was all made to order, which we liked. The offerings included carpaccio, branzino and tiramisu.

Kim: After dinner, the dance floor opened up, and it turned into a bit of a party. Around 2 a.m., when the DJ had to leave, the staff at Sofia gave us the mics and we got hooked up to the sound system for makeshift karaoke.

Jacob: We stayed at Sofia until about 3:30 a.m., then about 20 of our friends came back to the Hazelton with us for an after-party.

Kim: We stayed up all night and rolled into One Restaurant for breakfast the next day.

Jacob: I felt sad that our wedding day was over. I wish it could have lasted longer—it was the best day ever. I always thought that having a wedding would be stressful or difficult, but it was such a fun night.

Kim: We were happy that everything came together the way it did. There were no regrets.

Jacob: Being married to Kim doesn’t feel any different in terms of our relationship. We’ve always been strong.

Kim: Right now, we’re trying to figure out whether to rent or buy our next place. We want to start a family and have kids together. But, before that, we’re planning our honeymoon.

Jacob: We’re deciding between a big Europe trip or a tropical getaway like Bora Bora or the Maldives. Regardless of where we go, we’ll need a lot of time and no responsibilities. We’re hoping that comes to fruition later this year.

Cheat Sheet

Date: November 19, 2023
Venue: Sofia Restaurant
Photography: 515 Photo Co.
Officiant: Brother Jeremy
Florist: Pistil Flowers
Catering: Sofia Restaurant
Cake: Velvet Lane Cakes
DJ: A.B Live Custom Entertainment
Bride’s hair and makeup: Kevin Kodra, Christina Smith and Malina Hem
Bride’s main dress: Safiyaa (dress), Amina Muaddi (shoes)
Bride’s reception dress: Nadine Merabi
Groom’s main outfit: Giorgio Armani (tuxedo), Christian Louboutin (shoes)
Groom’s reception outfit: Giorgio Armani