Emily & Josh
Some love stories begin with fireworks. Others begin with an Arkells concert, a mutual friend’s living room, and impeccable timing. Emily Naddaf and Josh Lerner first crossed paths in the summer of 2017 at a pre-concert gathering before an Arkells show. Emily was in a relationship at the time, so any sparks were politely filed away for later. Still, something lingered. They laughed. They talked. They became friends.
““He was hilarious,” Emily recalls. “Josh had this infectious energy that filled the room. He could make anyone laugh — deep, belly laughter. And he had that rare mix of confidence and charm you don’t forget.”
Josh remembers his first impression of Emily just as clearly. “She was joyful,” he says. “The life of the party — buzzing around, talking to everyone, incredibly smart. Emily can hold her own in any conversation.” By December, timing finally caught up with chemistry. Both newly single, Emily and Josh began lingering over lunches, staying out late, and texting just enough to keep things interesting.
Eventually — after what Josh might call strategic persistence — Emily agreed it was time to officially move him out of the friend zone.
Despite overlapping social circles and countless group hangouts, their first proper date didn’t happen until six months after they met. Dinner was at Noce, an Italian restaurant in Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood. They laughed, learned more about each other, and then, in classic Emily-and-Josh fashion, left dinner to attend a mutual friend’s birthday party.
As their relationship deepened, life got busy. Josh practiced law at Lerners LLP, while Emily, a Director at the Wealthsimple Foundation, poured her energy into work and community-building. Whether hosting dinners, organizing fundraisers, or planning their now-legendary annual Chrismukkah party, community has always been Emily’s north star.
For Emily, knowing Josh was her person wasn’t a lightning-bolt moment. Instead, it arrived as a quiet accumulation of certainty. “There was just a growing sense of ease,” she says. “Everything fit — our friends, our families, our lives. About five months in, I told a friend I thought we’d get married. It sounded wild at the time… but here we are.”
Josh’s realization came during the quieter stretches of the pandemic. In 2020, the couple isolated together in rural Nova Scotia at Emily’s family home, and later at Josh’s family cottage in Grand Bend. “We’re both incredibly social,” he says. “So when it was just us — and it still felt great — I knew.”
