Ayesha and Leonard are HITCHED !  Sorry everyone, this hawt Teacher and Doctor are officially off the market.  Man, come to think of it, I’ve had quite a few Teacher/Doctor combinations lately haha I’m starting to wonder if this is a trend or something.

The week of the wedding was brutally insane. Leonard has been away at Med school at MacMaster, so planning an engagement session was a little difficult. We agreed to have the session the Monday before the wedding. Unbeknownst to me, he went down to Vegas for his stag and was slated to come back Monday morning, just in time for the session. As luck would have it, he missed his connecting flight and was stranded until that evening. The session didn’t happen. At this point I didn’t have time for a make-up session as my week was rammed, but I knew it was super important for them to have some images for their reception, so I shuffled things around like crazy to have the session done and edited and delivered within 24 hrs ! On top of the items to check off the wedding day ‘to-do’ list, Leonard had just graduated from Med School the night before the wedding. Needless to say, after convocation, they drove back home and didn’t get much sleep, since the wedding day was an early start. Congrats bud ! All the hard work has finally paid off !

That weekend turned out to be a 40 hour weekend of coverage for me with Sumbul+Sanjay (their blog post will be coming soon), Ayesha+Leonard, and Dina+Jeffrey’s weddings. Never again will I attempt to do this. Ayesha and Leonard’s wedding took the take for the longest wedding this year….17 hours of unadulterated FUN ! And I made it through the weekend with NO gatorade ! I don’t know how I did it haha

Therese and I started the morning with Ayesha and the girls. There were tons of laughs…and tons of tears. Some good tears, some bad tears (i.e. slideshow disater recovery). Ayesha’s mom ROCKED ! I totally see where Ayesha get’s her spunkiness from haha Her mom was working it for the camera…like allll the time haha. Ayesha her siblings definitely must have had an awesome childhood. Her parents are super cool. I also had an opportunity to work with Colin and his team from Blu Pearl Media Film + Video and that was fun. They pulled off an awesome SDE that evening too, which I missed as I was in the washroom haha

Eugene started off with Leonard and the boys. As Leonard was still getting ready, Ayesha’s sister, Tricia, delivered his present from Ayesha. Leonard gladly accepted it in nothing but his skimmies. It was a box, with an apple in it. It took Leonard a few minutes to catch on because there was more. Below the tissue paper was a brand new Macbook Pro ! Now, that’s what I call a gift !

They rented possibly the biggest stretch limo I have ever seen.  It was called the “Hummer Killer” and you can get it from our friends over at LA Limos.  No doubt it was a Hummer killer.  This thing was a beast !

Big thank you to Eugene and Therese for helping out with the coverage.  Below are some of my favorite images that day:

Leonard surprised Ayesha with a live performance by an awesome duo.  On the ivories was my good friend Joshua Tamayo.  Recently, he decided to make the leap from the corporate world to becoming a full fledge musician. It was awesome to see him perform at the church and again for Ayesha and Leonard’s first dance.Here’s Jordan a.k.a. DJ Tilt doing his thing. Awesome working with him again. He was throwing down the jams all night and keeping everyone on the dance floor.  Don’t forget to download his podcasts and mixtapes !  It’s his music that gets me through my editing in the early mornings
Ayesha and Leonard…records are made to be broken.  And your wedding, being the longest ever, kept me smiling the longest ever, too  It was an honor to be part of your special day and I’m so thankful Karina and Jeremy referred you to me.  Your smiles and laughs are infectious !  What a blessing it is to become friends with you  !

Bring on the babies !

-Joee

Providers:

Venue: The Venetian
Make-Up Artist: Kimberley Van Bebber
Hair Stylist: Sydone
Florist: Doreen Quach
DJ: DJ Tilt
Cinematographer: Colin | Blu Pearl Media Film + Video
Decorator: Designs by Anita
Pianist/Singer: Joshua Tamayo (contact me for his info)
Invitations: Laser Hot Stamping Ltd.

Jeanette and I headed downtown this afternoon for her 5 mth check up and were greeted with a very cute and cooperative baby.  I swear this kid knew we were coming to see him.  Awesome profile, great butt shot and I swear he was doing a fist pump !  Awesome !

Anyways, we just wanted to share the news with everyone.  We’re very excited to start planning for his arrival near the end of November.  I’m actually kinda nervous because I’m flying out to Turks and Caicos for Michelle and Jon’s gorgeous wedding in mid-November and, you know, these kids are on their own agenda — He can come anytime !

More updates soon

-Joee

-Joee

Jeanette and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this past weekend and we brought the kids to Niagara Falls.  It was a little get away for all of us to celebrate as a family.  One of the things we were also trying to do this weekend was get Ethan super excited for school !  I think it worked…he was totally ready to go.  Monday morning, he woke up smiling…I got him dressed and made breakfast for him and we were on our way.  Bed head and all, he was ready to rock and roll !

I strapped him into the car seat and headed over to the school.  9AM rolls around and it was time for the moment of truth — will he or won’t he let me leave.  I stayed with him for a bit, showed him where the washrooms were in case he had to go pee and got him familiar with the arts and crafts stations and such.  So far so good.  Then the rest of the kids and their parents were arriving and I think he noticed that the parents were leaving the kids there.  Then he started to cry.  I hate seeing my boys cry.  It’s my weakness.  After about 10 minutes of crying and jumping up and down, I gave him a kiss and a big hug and told him I’d be back at lunch to get him.  It was then that one of the coordinators there picked him up from me and tried to console him.  I said my goodbyes and started to walk away.  Of course, I just had to turn around again just to see him and all I saw was tears running down his face, hand extended out towards me crying, “Papa, come back ! Papa, nooooo !!!! “.  That was heartbreaking.

I went over the Starbucks to hang out until his program was done.  I had my phone on the table anticipating a phone call to come get him in case he was not calming down.  As every minute passed, I was getting more and more excited to see him.  He must be doing ok, I thought.  11:58AM and no call…NICE !  I started to head back to pick him up.  I arrived and opened the door in hopes to see him playing and laughing…only to see him crying again.  I happened to be one of the last parents to pick up their child, so he apparently started crying when he saw the other parents come and get their kids…and daddy wasn’t there.  Those were the longest 3 hours of my life.  But, I’m so proud of him.  It was a huge milestone for all of us and I hope it gets better from here.

Ethan’s 2nd day at school starts in about 8 hours, so I best be getting to bed.  Thanks for everyone’s words of encouragement.  Honestly, I’m not sure who needed more consoling that day…Ethan or ME.

-Joee

On a side note: I gained 6 lbs last week as a result of all the eating

-Joee

This past weekend we were at a party to celebrate my cousin’s newborn girl. It was a gorgeous day and I just had to take a few snaps of the family before heading out.  My goodness, look how much my boys have grown !

This week, I am photographing Pam and Dal’s week long Sikh wedding so I’ve been quite consumed with all the events this week.  I had to blog this though because I think it’s the cutest.  Tonight, Jeanette posted something on my Facebook wall while I was photographing Dal’s Mayian.  This totally made my day:

How awesome is that ?!  Ethan obviously knows how much fun I have at my weddings.  I tell him all about my weddings the following morning so it doesn’t surprise me to hear this

You know, sometimes I lay awake at night trying to come up with some amazing idea/formula to keep my boys from growing up. Well, the idea/formula hasn’t really come to me yet, so until I can freeze the maturation of Ethan and Brandon, I’ll just have to keep photographing them

If you have any kids, go grab them as soon as you see them, shower them with kisses, and tell them how much you love them.  My day starts off like this everyday and I love it !  I figured, I better sneak these in before they get older and think it’s weird.  I’m reminded every day how blessed I am to be able to spend so much time with them and taking care of them all day — no daycare or nanny for us.  I absolutely cherish every second with them and I’m thankful for such an awesome work/life balance.

Lots more blogging to come in the next few weeks, I swear !  I will try to blog more about the family too.

-Joee

Anyways, we finally got together last week to catch up and take a few photos around my neck of the woods.  I had a blast with these two and I can’t wait to share some photos of their wedding next month.  This is going to be another gorgeous Miller Lash House, Fuscia Designs and JW wedding !

Check back at the end of July for a peek at their wedding.

-Joee

Enjoy your honeymoon in Thailand guys ! See you when you get back !

-Joee

Here’s a peek at their wedding:

-Joee

In a previous post, I mentioned that their wedding was going to be the most majestic wedding ever hosted at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club.  I’ll just say that it totally lived up to the hype !  But to hear some very high profile people at the RCYC call this wedding “The Wedding of the Century”…wow, that is just an honor !  I don’t even know how to reply to this !

Again, this wedding was not possible without the collaborative efforts put forth by all the amazing providers, who all worked tirelessly to provide the best experience possible to Jane and Andrew.

Wedding Stylist: Cindy Johnson | Platinum Events Group
Photographer: Joee+Team (Kevin + Therese) | JW Photography Inc.
Floral Design and Decor: Tamara and Kevin | Fuscia Designs
Cake Designer: Lori Hutchinson | The Caketress
Invitation Designer: Corina Van Sluytman | Bella Invites
Hair and Make Up: Jackie Gideon | Judy Inc.
DJ: Michael Coombs | Prodigy Entertainment
Guitarist: Dunstan Morey

At this time, I can’t even put up any teasers, due to exclusivity, but I will definitely share their day with you once I get the go ahead.

Check back often

-Joee