Creekside Community Centre Wedding

Vivian prepared quietly for the day ahead of her at her parent’s home, with her family and three bridesmaids. Vivian’s hair and makeup was done to perfection by All Dolled Up and the atmosphere of the house was excited, but calm as could be. Vivian helped her bridesmaids into their dresses before putting on her own traditional red dress for the tea ceremony. However, before her groom, Howard would have the privilege of seeing her, he needed to get past the bridesmaids. I love the Chinese tradition of “door games” and it’s always a blast to photograph all of the chaos! Howard and his men approach Vivian’s parent’s house and the bridesmaids demanded money and a few tasks before he could enter.

The girls giggled as they watched Howard and the boys down McDonalds hash browns soaked in hot sauce and lemon juice (Turns out the boys loved it? They didn’t have much time to eat that morning and kept exclaiming “We love hot sauce!“) and a McDonalds egg burrito also hot sauce laden. Next, it was fifteen push-ups each and a hilarious exercise involving a plunger and four rolls of toilet paper. Howard completed the challenge and the soon-to-be married couple were re-united.

Vivian and Howard’s ceremony was so sweet. Vivian and her Dad both cried as they walked down the aisle and after Howard received Vivian’s hand, they stood on stage and worshipped God. Their vows were personally written to one another and my favourite moment was when Howard started to rap his vows – for a sentence – giving Vivian a major shock, followed by major relief he was actually speaking them as planned – not rapping. (Side tidbit from their questionnaires to me earlier, Howard loves rap and hip hop, Vivian definitely does not. Haha!)

The spring rain alternated between lightly sprinkling and heavily sprinkling for most of our photos at Queen Elizabeth Park, until… no longer. It poured. Thankfully, we managed to get all the photos we need and we called it a wrap for the day. Howard and Vivian chose to have an intimate reception with close family and friends on Saturday night and leave the true “party” reception until the next evening. It was fun to return on Sunday evening and see all of their family and bridal party again. A weird feeling, though! I’m used to leaving a wedding party and maybe randomly running into them at another wedding or walking down a city street – but 24 hours later, here we were again! Howard and Vivian dressed up once more and celebrated the night away with dancing, speeches and lots of time to talk to their guests.

H and V, thank you so much for having me! It was a pleasure creating these Creekside Community Centre Wedding photos with you!