Elle King Marries Dan Tooker in Intimate Forest Wedding Ceremony

Elle King has one more ex to add to the list — except this time, it’s a very different kind of story. The singer who built a career on singing about the ones who got away just married the one who stayed.

King, 37, revealed on Sunday (October 4) that she tied the knot with her longtime partner Dan Tooker the day before in an intimate forest ceremony. The announcement arrived the way most good news does these days: a carousel of photos on Instagram and a caption so short it barely needed a second line.

“Husband and wife. Best day of my life,” she wrote.

That was it. No long paragraph. No staged press release. Just the two of them, the trees, and a whole lot of happiness.

The Big Reveal

King shared a series of photos from the big day, and the couple looked every bit the part. She wore a strapless gown with a dramatic flared skirt, a long train, and a sheer veil — a proper princess moment for a woman whose aesthetic usually leans more whiskey-and-tattoos than fairy tale. Her bouquet was a relaxed mix of pampas grass and flowers, which honestly suited the forest setting perfectly.

Tooker cleaned up nicely himself, going with a double-breasted grey suit and a black shirt. One of the clips shared from the day showed him kissing his new bride at the altar, and in another, King playfully smeared wedding cake into her husband’s face — because of course she did.

The comments section did what comments sections do best: it lit up. Pop star Meghan Trainor liked the post, and congratulations poured in from fellow musicians and famous friends. Comedian Chelsea Handler called King a “beautiful babe,” country singer Kassi Ashton cheered her on, and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards joined the chorus of well-wishers. Director Adria Petty left a string of heart emojis, which is the internet’s version of a standing ovation.

Both King and Tooker also took to their Instagram stories to repost videos and photos from friends who were in attendance, giving followers little glimpses of the day without turning the whole thing into a reality show. It was intimate without being secretive — the sweet spot.

A Love Story Seven Years in the Making

If you don’t know how these two met, it’s the kind of origin story that sounds made up until you remember who Elle King is. Back in 2019, she walked into a tattoo shop to get some new ink. The tattoo artist behind the counter was Dan Tooker. They hit it off right away, and the rest, as they say, is history.

King has told the story herself, and it’s a good one: “There was this electric thing that I’ve never felt before. We hung out, laughed, then he tattooed me, and I posted a picture and said, ‘Getting tattooed by my next ex-husband.’ We’ve been in love ever since.”

It’s funny — the woman who sang “Ex’s & Oh’s” jokingly called him her future ex-husband at the start, and now he’s her actual husband. Life has a sense of humor like that.

The couple got engaged in October 2020, a little more than a year after they met. Things moved fast, and for a while, everything looked picture-perfect. Then, in April 2023, King revealed they were taking some time apart. She didn’t say much more than that, and fans braced themselves for the worst.

But this is one of those rare Hollywood stories with a happy middle, not just a happy ending. In September 2024, King announced they were “back together” after taking time “to grow.” Whatever needed fixing got fixed. Whatever needed saying got said. And now, two years later, they’re married.

Parents First, Newlyweds Second

One of the more charming details of this whole romance is that King and Tooker were already a family long before anyone signed a marriage license. Several months after they got engaged, the couple revealed they were expecting their first child in March 2021.

Their son, Lucky Levi Tooker, arrived in September 2021. Three years later, King announced she was pregnant again, and in February 2025, they welcomed their second son, Royal.

So the wedding wasn’t the start of a family — it was the cherry on top of one that was already thriving. There’s something quietly lovely about that. They didn’t rush down the aisle. They had two kids, worked through a rough patch, found their way back to each other, and then made it official. The ceremony felt less like a beginning and more like a victory lap.

From “Ex’s & Oh’s” to the Altar

It’s worth taking a second to appreciate how far King has come since she crashed into pop culture a decade ago. Born Tanner Elle Schneider in 1989, she’s the daughter of actor and comedian Rob Schneider and former model London King — but she’s spent her entire career making sure nobody mistakes her for a nepo baby with a guitar. She took her mother’s surname precisely so she could build her own identity, and boy, did she ever.

She signed with RCA Records and dropped her debut EP, The Elle King EP, in 2012. One of its tracks, “Playing for Keeps,” became the theme song for VH1’s Mob Wives Chicago — a fun little footnote in an otherwise heavy-hitting career. Her debut studio album, Love Stuff, landed in 2015 and came armed with “Ex’s & Oh’s,” the rollicking, tattoo-parlor kiss-off that cracked the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 and earned her two Grammy nominations.

Four Grammy nominations total, to be exact — two in rock categories and two in country, which tells you just about everything you need to know about how hard her sound is to pin down. It’s blues. It’s rock. It’s country. It’s whatever she feels like that day, and it works.

She followed up with Shake the Spirit in 2018 and then pivoted hard toward her country roots with Come Get Your Wife in 2023, an album that leaned into themes of motherhood, nostalgia, and growing up. The duet “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)” with Miranda Lambert became a fan favorite and cracked the top 40, and the two of them picked up ACM Awards hardware together along the way. She’d already won a CMA Award for Musical Event of the Year back in 2016 for “Different for Girls,” her duet with Dierks Bentley.

The point is: this is not someone who coasted on a famous last name. King toured with everybody from Of Monsters and Men to Train to Joan Jett, played every stage that would have her, and turned a raspy voice and a banjo into a genuine career. Getting married at 37, two kids deep, with four Grammy nods and a shelf of awards behind her — that’s a woman who did things on her own timeline.

What Comes Next

King hasn’t said much about what’s next musically, and honestly, she doesn’t owe anybody an update right now. She just got married. Let her enjoy the honeymoon phase.

But if her track record is anything to go by, the next chapter will be interesting. Her last album was all about motherhood and settling into herself; a post-wedding record from a woman this honest with a pen could be something special. Or she might just take some time off, hang out in the woods with her husband and two boys, and show up when she’s ready. Either way works.

For now, the story is simple: seven years, one tattoo-shop meeting, an engagement, a split, a reunion, two babies, and finally, a wedding in the forest. “Husband and wife. Best day of my life.”

After a career spent writing about the ones who left, Elle King finally got to write a different kind of ending. Congratulations to the happy couple — here’s hoping the “I do” lasts a whole lot longer than any of those exes.

Source: Just Jared