On Sunday, Sept. 7, the marquee at the Eglinton Grand theatre lit up for a one-night-only performance: the wedding of Abigail Whitney and Alex Norris, two years to the day after they met — in line at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The couple tied the knot in a ceremony styled like a film premiere, complete with red carpet, popcorn, a short film about their relationship, and an Oscars-style reception. The theme: “Fall in love at the movies,” a nod to the day it all began.
From rush line at TIFF to the altar
On Sept. 7, 2023, Whitney was standing in a TIFF rush line, hoping to get into a screening of that year’s short film selection. As she glanced at her phone, she noticed someone was looking at her.
“It was a stare unlike any other,” says Whitney, a Toronto-based theatre and film director. “He looked at me, then looked away, and then he looked back again.”
That person was Alex Norris, standing one spot ahead of her. A longtime TIFF attendee and former volunteer, Norris hadn’t even planned to attend that screening. But something made him change his mind.
“She was stunning, out-of-my-league,” says Norris. So captivated, he made sure to sit in front of her so he wouldn’t be distracted during the film.
Whitney, curious but confused by his choice to sit in front of her after such obvious interest, happened to glance at his phone and noticed his background image: the Haitian flag.
Whitney’s mother is Haitian. The coincidence, paired with the lingering stare, felt like a sign.
“I remembered my dad telling me that you only meet your soulmate once in a lifetime,” she says. As they left the theatre, she approached him and asked him if he was from Haiti.
“As a matter of fact, I am,” Norris told her. His mother is also Haitian — and, like Whitney’s, had immigrated first to Montreal before settling in Toronto. That moment sparked something between them.
He asked for her number, and invited her to see “American Fiction” the following day. Their first selfie was taken at that screening.
He proposed at the Banff Film Festival the following year.
A cinematic wedding
On Sept. 7, 2025, they were married in a venue that matched their story: the nearly-90-year-old Eglinton Grand, a restored Art Deco-era movie theatre in Toronto.
The date was non-negotiable. Even after Whitney’s father died unexpectedly earlier this year, followed by her honorary godfather, they didn’t change it.
“I wasn’t sure if we were going to move forward with the wedding or not,” says Whitney. But Norris reminded her the next Sunday Sept. 7 wouldn’t come around for six more years. “We knew for certain that we wanted it to be on the day we met,” she says. “We were two shooting stars, and then Sept. 7 was the Big Bang, the day that we merged.”
The wedding was theatrical in every detail. Invitations resembled TIFF tickets. The dress code was red (for red carpet), silver (for the silver screen), and gold (for Hollywood glamour). Guests arrived to see a vintage-style marquee that read, “Alex and Abigail — For One Night Only.” A red carpet, faux paparazzi, and a “reporter” doing guest interviews completed the scene.
Before the ceremony, the couple screened a short film they created using archival footage and interviews to tell their love story.
Norris wore a red-accented Gatsby-style three-piece suit and walked down the aisle with his mother. Whitney, ever the director, staged her entrance with theatrical flair: red curtains parted like a stage show as Hans Zimmer’s “Time” played. She walked down the aisle with her mother.
“Everything else that was happening was shut out, and I was just focusing on her,” says Norris of that moment. “When she was given away, and I gave her mom a kiss, that’s the moment I will always remember.”
For Whitney, everything was “dreamlike.”
The reception unfolded like a Hollywood-style awards show, complete with an Oscars-style host — Louco St. Fleur, an actor Whitney directed in a recent production of “The Noose” — who pointed out guests in an opening monologue.
“I wanted him to do what they do to celebrities, like call out Timothee Chalamet or Leonardo DiCaprio in the audience,” she says. Instead, he pointed out family members and long-time friends — like a teen Whitney used to babysit — and shared playful anecdotes.
They handed out custom awards: Lifetime Achievement for Whitney’s mother, Champion Award for Norris’ mom, and Above and Beyond for Whitney’s eldest sister. Each recipient gave a speech, and just like at the Oscars, music played if they ran long.
“It was perfect,” says Whitney.
Guests signed the guestbook — a 2023 TIFF program — and received a movie poster featuring the couple surrounded by the people who helped shape their story. The poster even had credits.
“We said, ‘The story was written by God.’ It’s PG-13, and it’s presented to you in Panavision.”
And even amid wedding prep, the couple still managed to catch a few TIFF screenings this year.
“I wanted to be in the mindset that I was in when I met Abigail,” says Norris. “It was the mindset of possibility.”
