When a lawyer told newlyweds Fraser Landry and Laura Papsin, “You’ll never forget this day,” they thought it was kind, if not a little obvious. Of course they wouldn’t forget. It was their wedding day. They married in a courtroom at Osgoode Hall on Aug. 14, 2003. Not long after, at 4:11 p.m., a swath of the Northeastern U.S. and Ontario, including Toronto was abandoned by the power grid. The couple didn’t know any of that, with no social media updates buzzing in the pockets of their guests. Their photographer was excited to be taking pictures inside the famed building, and so instead of sounding ominous, the advice strangers were doling out sounded strange, like: “I hope your photographer has enough light to take pictures.”“I said yeah, he’s a professional photographer,” Landry recalled.When they walked outside, a friend first told them about a “horrible power failure,” but it was really on the 40 minute drive to their reception at a nearby restaurant when the reality of the situation sunk in. Office towers had emptied to the streets. It was evening rush hour with no transit options, save for the odd bus, no traffic lights, and streets and sidewalks flooded with people coming up from the subways and down from the office towers. That’s when the reporter found them, looking a little crestfallen but “remarkably composed” on the sidewalk in front of the Rosewater Supper Club on Toronto St. Papsin was clutching her rose bouquet, wearing an off white Lowon-Pope gown, Landry was in his black suit. Both were telling their guests they’d reschedule. All they had was cake and alcohol.“It was funny, the guy from the Star — he was a fashion reporter, and I guess when this thing hit, they kicked him out and told him to go and find the story. So he found us,’” Landry said. (The Star story on Lanry and Papsin from the next day is uncredited, so we don’t ...
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