Ida + Les - Amanda Lachapelle

November 26, 2009

Back in college when I took social work – (before I had decided to pursue photography as a career), I was working at a Niagara Falls youth shelter for my work placement. There were parts of my placement I loved and parts that I disliked but I definitely liked the challenge no matter how terrifying some of the things I saw were. My supervisor, short on staff, asked me to help fill a void on the midnight shift and I remember being a little scared but definitely eager to try my hand at it. Nighttime seemed to be when the most things went down and although I wouldn’t be completely alone my over active imagination did create a few scenarios for me. Thankfully though one of the people sharing part of the shift with me was Ida – I hadn’t had a chance really to work with her before then but Ida was in the same program as me but a year ahead. I remember sitting in Shelly’s office and chatting a good portion of the time with Ida about the most random things and I loved how down to earth and real Ida was. She didn’t have any problems being honest and was pretty sarcastic too!

Fast forward after graduation and through my decision to start my business and colour me happy when I get a facebook message from Ida regarding her wedding. I knew that I’d have fun and although I’d never met her fiancé I knew I would probably like him – so Ida and I met and she brought along her adorable mother. I have a special place in my heart for Mrs. Astorino – her and her chocolate peanut butter squares (don’t ask 🙂 – she looked through my albums and was very complimentary and just had this great aura about her. So they were all signed up to have me shoot their wedding and on we go to the engagement session. Some of you who have read my blog for awhile might remember these two. I knew that Ida’s fiancé was probably someone really nice and easy to get along with but nothing prepared me for Les. After the engagement session where Les pretended to be a moose for the benefit of some Niagara Falls tourists I knew the wedding day was going to be spent trying to shoot through tears of laughter.

Needless to say that the photos on the limo bus (that had a stripper pole) will never make the blog but will definitely be a memory for the books. Les’s contribution to entertaining the tourists this time around involved removal of clothing near downtown Niagara Falls! Sam and I were in stitches most of the day – it was a day of two best friends laughing their way down the aisle and into a marriage that will be full of laughter and good times. Check out a few of the G rated images from the day!

Les and his groomsmen walking down the road by his parents house