It finally happened ! Christina + Leslie are now a married couple !
It’s been about 2 years since they booked me and over the years, we have grown closer and closer as friends. In the past two years, we’ve had 4 engagement sessions, meetings with vendors, and close to 500 emails back and forth. And countless hours on the phone just shooting the sh*t. I’d say, Christina and I talked on the phone at least 5 days a week in the last 2 months of the planning. And at one point she was in London for business and when she got back, she gave me a call right away to see how my family and I were doing. It was that kind of relationship that we’ve developed. We joked around about her having Joee withdrawal lol
This wedding is what Christina called, “Joee-fied !” She pretty much booked every vendor I recommended to her, which was awesome. Walking into this wedding, I knew all her vendors were going to execute their tasks flawlessly, so that really put her mind at ease.
My day started really early with the girls at the Hilton with the fabulous Karen Chen-Richardson and her team taking care of the hair and make-up. They got upgraded to the President’s Suite….NICE ! It was massive. I met her the night before and told her to keep it clean for me for photo ops
What else would I expect of a room after a slumber party the night before a wedding — but a disaster lol It’s all good. I’m pretty nimble, so I had no problem navigating through the mess.
There was so much to do that morning. Amy, the MOH, had the daunting task of steaming the wedding dress with some 20 year old steamer that Christina’s mom had packed. It was quite the ‘gadget’ I tell ya. But the important thing was that it worked.
The ceremony was held at The Country Club. It was held indoors in one of their conference rooms, so we didn’t really have to stress over the decision to bring the ceremony indoors or not. It was a beautiful ceremony underneath a simple chuppa, created by my talented friend and florist, Sylvia. Neither of them are Jewish, but Sylvia just doesn’t do ‘arches’. Those are just too tacky for our tastes
After the ceremony, we headed out for some relaxed portraits over nearby in Mississauga. It was funny because we expected to see a lot of wedding parties there because there are not too many choices for places for photographs when it’s wet out. No word of a lie, I saw a bunch of photographers waiting with their wedding parties IN LINE to use a certain corner of the grounds. Meanwhile, we had the rest of the grounds to do our thing for the entire 40 min or so we where there. As far as I’m concerned, these kind of decisions are what separate good photographers from great photographers.
We headed back up to Paramount Event Centre for their reception. As soon as I walked into the reception, Leena greeted me with a huge hug ! I haven’t sen her in almost a year, but we’ve been in touch so much and booking lots of weddings together this year. She’s just awesome and I was so happy to see her. She’s got a little baby bump now and I can’t wait to do some photos of her baby when s/he arrives. Once again, she did an amazing job, along with one of her helpers, Holly, executing the evening flawlessly.
Christina and Leslie gave me a heads up about their first dance. They’ve been taking formal dance lessons and really WOWed the guests ! It was just awesome and I’m so proud of them because I’ve known about this dance for quite some time. And it all came together.
There was lots of dancing that night.
Slow Dancing…
and even some break dancing by Christina’s younger brother, Brian ! That kid is crazy talented !
So that pretty much sums up the 18+ hours I was awake for this past Saturday. My Sunday was a complete write off. I slept probably for 12 hours that morning, so I sort of made up for the night before. It was a real fun wedding…I said bye probably 5 times…I just couldn’t leave !
I also wanted to give a quick Hello to Brandon’s fake mom, Karen, from the Leon’s commercial they did together, and to her husband, Frank. When I saw them walk into the ceremony, I stopped and said, “Hey, you look familiar !” We stood there for like a minute just wondering where we’ve seen each other…and Frank goes, “Commercial !”. What a small world. I’m waiting for their phone call for a session with their cutie pie daughter Call me guys !
And a big thanks again for my support team: Eugene and Kevin, who helped take care of business all day long and also while I set up a very stressful same day edit slideshow. Thanks so much guys !
Congratulations again to my awesome friends, Christina and Leslie, who are in Las Vegas for some R&R. I wish I was with you !
-Joee
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Vendors:
Make-Up+Hair: Karen Chen-Richardson
Wedding Consultant: Leena|Let’s Party Consultants
Ceremony Venue: The Country Club
Reception Venue: Paramount Event Centre
Florist: Sylvia|Fa The Flower Shop
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