TO LOVE AND HONOUR … THE LEAFS

Toronto Star, Canada
Sept 4 2006

ACC employees, hockey fans have dream wedding

Everything was blue and white, even the ring

NASREEN GULAMHUSEIN STAFF REPORTER

Years before she met her husband, Sandi Joseph knew her wedding would
be blue and white. Blue and white for the Toronto Maple Leafs, that is.

Yesterday at centre ice (without the ice, although Joseph would have
preferred it to be there), her dream came true. She married Kevin
Kandaharian at the Air Canada Centre, where the couple met five years
ago and still work part-time.

"I worked as an usher of a section and he worked the ice-cream stand
outside my section," Joseph, 31, said.

"We are both diehard Maple Leaf fans, so we hit it off right away."

One year later, Kandaharian went on a hockey road trip through western
Canada, following the Maple Leafs from Calgary to Edmonton, and on
to Vancouver.

"Sandi was the only one crazy enough to do it with me," Kandaharian,
25, said.

"We went as friends and came back as more."

The wedding ceremony was simple: Blue-and-white bows adorned the
fold-out chairs, and a blue carpet stood in for the church aisle.

The priest, Kandaharian’s grandfather, married the happy couple as
they stood on a large carpet bearing the Maple Leafs logo, flanked
by a wedding party decked out in blue and white.

"There has never been a wedding of this magnitude held at the ACC
before," Joseph said of the 250 people in attendance.

Poetic vows were exchanged in English and a prayer read in Armenian,
Kandaharian’s first language.

Family members – some wearing Leaf jerseys, others in blue-and-white
evening gowns and ties – held hands and wiped tear-filled eyes.

"The groom may kiss the bride," the priest announced at the end of
the ceremony, and the crowd erupted into applause.

More than half the guests raised Maple Leaf flags and towels into
the air and waved them, as though they were at a hockey game. A lone
voice yelled "Go Leafs Go!" as a young boy loudly sounded a horn.

As the grinning couple walked down the aisle, the blue-and-white
crystals in Joseph’s dress shimmered, as did the blue-and-white
wedding ring on her hand.

"I told Kevin I had to have sapphires," she said, laughing. "The
sapphires were more important to me than the diamonds."

Kandaharian proposed to Joseph at the Hockey Hall of Fame last year
and surprised her with a ring tucked in one of the display cases
among hockey memorabilia.

"I saw the ring…. It didn’t click, so I walked away. Only when he
dropped onto one knee did I clue in – that was my ring."

The newly married couple’s blue-and-white wedding reception included
a Maple Leaf-shaped cake topped with a bride and groom wearing Leaf
jerseys, and blue-and-white centrepieces and place cards.

"By getting married at the ACC," the bride said, "hopefully we brought
the team some luck this year."