P.W. + S.I. ~ The Knot Is Tied!

This com­ing Sun­day, my fam­i­ly and I will be going to the 21st Annu­al But­ter­fly Release and Fam­i­ly Pic­nic put on by the Preg­nan­cy and Infant Loss Net­work (P.A.I.L.) Net­work. At this event, real but­ter­flies are released in com­mem­o­ra­tion to the infants that have been lost: whether through mis­car­riage, still-birth, or ear­ly moments after birth. Since we’ve lost our first born, back in 2010, we’ve made it a fam­i­ly tra­di­tion and it sure­ly is encour­ag­ing to get the sup­port from oth­er fam­i­lies who have expe­ri­enced this same cir­cum­stance.

Through this unique expe­ri­ence, we received a real­ly great sup­port from all the doc­tors and nurs­es at North York Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. All of them were stel­lar, said the right things, did the right things. As all of them were true bless­ings to us, God was speak­ing through the con­nec­tions we start­ed mak­ing with them. With one nurse (Karen), we found out that her moth­er (who was also a nurse) had worked with my moth­er-in-law (also a nurse) “back in the day”! And with anoth­er nurse, Pat­ty, we found out that her moth­er lived in the same com­mu­ni­ty as my par­ents!! What a small world indeed, yet to share and feel the love of each one of them as we got through that dif­fi­cult moment.

Fast-for­ward to “now”, Pat­ty and I had recon­nect­ed a cou­ple of years back and lo’-and-behold, she was on her way down the aisle to mar­ry the man of her dreams, Shawn. It was only my hon­our to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to “give back” to the won­der­ful sup­port she pro­vid­ed for my wife and I.

It was a late-Decem­ber day and it start­ed off with … you guessed it … a flur­ry of snow. Yet, it was ear­ly enough that the sun­shine came out mid-morn­ing and pro­vid­ed a won­der­ful atmos­phere for a wed­ding. I start­ed off with Pat­ty and her sis­ter, Melanie, get­ting their hair-dos at Civ­el­lo and she had already set the tone being cool-and-col­lect­ed. There­after, I got to cap­ture just the same essence with Shawn, as it was just him with his best man — with his par­ents to fol­low short­ly after.

Back at the Shangri-La Hotel, Pat­ty was receiv­ing the final touch­es as she got ready and slipped into an ele­gant wed­ding dress. All this, to only enjoy a “first-look” with all her mates wait­ing for her in the lob­by. Their reac­tions were price­less! The cel­e­bra­tion con­tin­ued on at the Arca­di­an Loft. Boy, was it ever a pho­tog­ra­pher’s dream. The per­son­al­ized sig­nage whom Shawn got his graph­ic design­er friends to pro­duce was orig­i­nal, cre­ative and on-point! With the sweet sounds of Shawn Brady & the North­ern Sons, emo­tion­al and heart-felt speech­es, a beau­ti­ful view of ice-skaters at city hall and an exquis­ite meal, this was cer­tain­ly a wed­ding to end off the year with.

Pat­ty & Shawn, thank you for your con­stant sup­port and friend­ship which we only hope to rec­i­p­ro­cate lov­ing­ly in the many years to come!

Tags: Arcadian Loft, bride, ceremony, Civello, Classic Chrome, couple, DT Print Solutions, Fujifilm X-T10, Fujinon 18mm, Fujinon 23mm, Fujinon 35mm, Fujinon 56mm, Fujinon 90mm, groom, husband, love, mddphotography, North York General Hospital, nurse, PAIL Network, photography, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Network, reception, Shangri La Hotel Toronto, Shawn Brady & the Northern Sons, Toronto, VSCO, VSCO Film, wedding, wife