Our Story

John Taranu and Emily Anderson met in February 2005 through a final-year group project at the University of Toronto. It was a course neither of them anticipated taking – it was John’s fifth year of a four year program, and Emily had signed up for it the night before it began, following a boozy 2-am breakthrough regarding the direction of her studies. They met for a few moments during the first day of class, and Emily readily identified John’s talents in cartography and technology. It was not yet meant to be, however, and John settled into a different group than Emily, who lead her team as project manager.

John’s project group dissolved a few weeks into the semester, and Emily did not let an opportunity to obtain John’s skills go to waste. Immediately upon hearing the news, she contacted him, offering him a management role if he would be willing to join her team. John accepted, and over the coming months they worked closely together on such exciting tasks as developing a project workflow and gathering data, and eventually spending a weekend together constructing an elaborate dataset of all bus routes in the city of Toronto, complete with the time taken to complete each segment of the route. When the dataset became corrupt the next week and Emily and John met the following weekend to fix it, both felt a sense of excitement at the chance to spend another weekend together in the computer lab. And when the class ended, both John and Emily were very sad that their time together was over – for a few weeks, at least. Never ones to fish in the group project pond, John and Emily started dating officially after their graduation in June 2005.

Many things changed in the five years that followed. Emily worked for a bit, went back to school and worked some more, and John moved to a nearby city to continue his studies before moving back to Toronto in 2007. They now live happily in North Toronto with their beloved Kitty. They’re an active couple and can often be found on their bikes—John is an especially avid cyclist—or on cross-country skis on the many trails near their home, snow permitting. They love exploring their city and the world around them and are fortunate to have had many opportunities to travel: trips with family to Ireland, Romania and Italy and time spent together in Arizona and Utah, Virginia and West Virginia, Mexico, Tobermory, New Hartford to visit Emily’s grandmother (and Daylight Donuts) every Easter, and many enjoyable day trips to Buffalo.

In fact, Emily and John have enjoyed their time in Buffalo so much that John selected this city to propose. After asking her father, John obtained the ring and organized a day trip to Buffalo for a garden tour. Emily was so excited about going for a garden tour on a nice sunny day that she didn’t realize that John had other plans on his mind. After touring the gardens for most of the day, they took a walk in one of their favourite places, Olmstead’s Delaware Park. Under a shady willow tree, John declared his love to Emily, who accepted his proposal of marriage. It was truly a perfect day.

Now, Emily and John invite you to another wonderful day: to celebrate their wedding in their adopted city of Toronto. Both immigrants, they have loved getting to know this vibrant “city of neighbourhoods” that they now call home. They are excited about welcoming their out of town guests to their city, and about welcoming all of their guests to their ceremony and reception on Sunday, September 4, 2011.