Maria + Theo

So this is going to be an interesting post. 

Maria + Theo's wedding was amazing... but we'll get to that in a second.

Whenever I meet people and they find out I photograph weddings one of the first things they always say is 'Oh, you must have some great stories and seen some crazy stuff!' and I always have to disappoint them.   For whatever reason, and I'm so happy it's like this, I don't have any good stories... all my couples, and their weddings, are very relaxed and stress free.

That all changed on September 20th this year with Maria + Theo's wedding.  My first hint that something was up was hearing from Theo's brother that when they went to drop something off at the reception venue that all the power was off.   Since we were in the middle of pictures at the Art Gallery of Ontario, I didn't have time to worry about it and assumed all would be well by the time we got there.

It wasn't.

It tuned out that they had had an electrical fire and wouldn't be open in time for the reception.

I've worked with a lot of wedding planners over the years.... some good, some bad.  But none of them has ever worked as hard as Jodi Gagner from Simply Perfect.  She made the call to wait until after the pictures and ceremony were over to break the horrible news to Maria & Theo to let them enjoy as much of the day as possible.

By an amazing stroke of luck the church, Orthodox Cathedral Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, where the ceremony was held offered the use of their community room in the back for the reception.  From there it was all hands on deck as guests, staff, priests and even a photographer lent a hand unloading the trucks and setting the reception up.

From there, it was a great reception featuring some great speeches, a Columbian dance troop to help open the dance floor and a great wedding DJ to keep everyone dancing.

Check out some of my favourite wedding photographs above as well as the full wedding slideshow below.