It was June 2020, and the high-rise condominium that Melissa Pearl Cormier had just moved into in Toronto was still being built. She needed help setting up new appliances, so she asked the concierge desk if one of the construction workers could assist.
Soon after, Devon Mistry knocked on her door.
As Mr. Mistry, who was the construction site superintendent and not typically making house calls, set up each appliance, the two chatted about shared hobbies like rock climbing, hiking and snowboarding.
Four days later, Ms. Cormier needed a few framed photographs of mountains hung, so she asked the concierge if he could maybe send the same man again. Within two minutes, Ms. Cormier said, Mr. Mistry was at her door. He confessed to forgetting her name and apologized, which Ms. Cormier found endearing.
“He really sweetly kind of talked himself through that,” she said. “I was like, ‘My God this guy is such a nice guy.’”
Ms. Cormier, 35, holds a Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology from the University of New Brunswick. She works as a personal fitness trainer and an owner of the Studio YKV in Toronto.
Mr. Mistry, 28, holds an advanced diploma in civil engineering technology from George Brown College in Toronto. He is a construction site superintendent with the Minto Group’s Toronto office, part of the Ottawa-based real estate company.
While he was hanging the photos, Ms. Cormier mentioned she was going to the Rocky Mountains for about five days with friends. While she was away, Mr. Mistry found himself wondering when he’d see her next.
“She just seemed so strong and independent,” Mr. Mistry said. He said his employer had a policy against dating residents, so he left their next meeting to chance.
When Ms. Cormier returned from her trip, the photos Mr. Mistry had hung had fallen. By this point, Ms. Cormier had developed a friendship with Mario, the concierge, and gave him a call.
“‘Hey, this sounds really terrible, but can you send that guy back a third time?’” Ms. Cormier recalled saying. (She also added in an interview that she might have purchased the wrong hooks.)
Later, Ms. Cormier learned that Mr. Mistry was “the big boss guy,” as she put it, and that her calls had been pulling him away from his main job. She wanted to thank him so she found a card with a construction crane on it and “thanks a ton” on the front. She included a gift card to a liquor store and her phone number.
Deciding to forgo work rules, Mr. Mistry texted Ms. Cormier the same day. They planned a date to Toronto Island Park, where they discovered similarities in their upbringings. Mr. Mistry, who was born in Maryland and moved to Brampton, a city outside Toronto, with his mother in 2006, said he does not have a close relationship with his father. Ms. Cormier, who is from New Brunswick, grew up with divorced parents.
They also learned they both turned to martial arts as children to build community and learn structure. “There’s a lot of instilling values, like honesty, integrity, taking responsibility,” said Ms. Cormier, who now has a third-degree black belt in taekwondo and another black belt in hapkido. Mr. Mistry has a first-degree black belt in karate.
“I could sense that this was a really good human being,” she said.
A relationship ensued, which they kept secret for about six months (Mr. Mistry eventually told his manager, who he said was OK with it).
The past five years, they said, have put those values learned in martial arts to good use: from navigating a three-hour detour caused by an avalanche on their first trip to the mountains together to living together in Ms. Cormier’s 470-square-foot apartment to opening Ms. Cormier’s workout studio.
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When Mr. Mistry proposed on his birthday in May 2024, Ms. Cormier said it was an easy yes.
On Nov. 10, as a nod to the fallen photos of mountains that brought them together and to their first trip, the couple said they wanted their ceremony to be just the two of them in the mountains. With Ms. Cormier in her wedding dress and heeled boots, the couple trekked 30 minutes to the upper trail lookout point at Peyto Lake in Alberta’s Banff National Park. Cole Hofstra, an Alberta government-appointed officiant, performed the ceremony.
Two weeks later, the couple had another ceremony and a 22-person reception at the lodges in Emerald Lake, where they went on their first trip.
While they were going up the mountain together in Banff National Park, Mr. Mistry carried Ms. Cormier’s long white winter coat. He was living up to the nickname Ms. Cormier had given him at the start of their relationship — “Mr. Fix,” she said.
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