Wedding Party
Sammi
Ring Bearer
Everyone’s favorite chocolate companion, Sammi has been adventuring around Colorado with Abbi and her family for 13 (!) years! Now retired in Eldorado Springs with her Dad, Sammi enjoys slow and easy sunrise and sunset walks, napping in the sun, and patiently receiving BBQ bison burger bites. Before retirement, Sammi frequented the Boulder foothills, completed the Aspen Four Pass Loop (27 miles in 3 days!), and road-tripped to Wisconsin and California to visit her sisters.
Coconut
Flower Girl
After being plucked from a coconut tree in Riverside, Coco spent her first 9 months in Malibu, where she frequented the Pepperdine University pool and baseball field to cheer on her D1 athlete parents (Ali and Matt). However not a huge fan on the ocean, Coco decided to mix things up and move to the mountains. Since living in Colorado, Coco has summited four 14ers, tried camping (not a fan), hiked passed a rattlesnake, and become an older sister to two cats.
Ali North
Maid of Honor
Abbi’s little sister, only 21.5 months apart. Ali takes whatever adventure/athletic bar the family has set and doubles it. Her hobbies over the past 10 years have included: competitive gymnastics, competitive diving, pole vaulting, track, competitive bouldering, rock climbing, soccer, surfing, horse-back riding, running, Kung-Fu… oh but also: rock collecting, magic shows, cake design, Perry the Platypus and Curious George obsessions, sewing, and most recently - anatomy. But her most important activity of all: being mom to Coconut the corgi and Kalamata and Macadamia the cats. (She has more than just hobbies, she's currently a clinical trial research coordinator at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus!)
Ian Reinicke
Best Man
Nate met Ian at a soccer game for their older siblings and Ian was also playing with Power Rangers, the mighty morphing sort, when they were just wee lads. It started a lifelong friendship around sports, politics, life, and good times. Ian graduated with Nate from Craig High school in 2015 and went on to study political science at Columbia University in New York and was a long jump and triple jump all star for the track and field team. He’s currently at Brooklyn Law School. Even though he supports Chelsea F.C., Nate still considers him acceptable to be his best man.
Eliza Abendroth
Bridesmaid
Eliza is Abbi's cousin and twin and thus her oldest Bridesmaid connection (yes, even before Ali ;)! Eliza and Abbi became instantly joined at the hip as soon as they could speak, spending each Thanksgiving at a dude ranch in Tucson doing photoshoots, prank-calling guests, asking random boys to be their boyfriends, performing musical numbers for their extended family (including on horseback), and sampling every single dessert at the buffet, to name a few activities. Eliza has always been like a twin flame to Abbi and though they never achieved their goal of both attending Claremont McKenna and adopting a hedgehog for a pet, they've remain close nonetheless! Eliza currently works as a social researcher in Washington D.C. with her boyfriend Jack, who lovingly wears matching socks with Nate on special occasions
JP Merz
Groomsman
Big Brother is watching. Nate’s big brother John Paul aptly known as JP or JPizzle has always been someone that Nate looked up to. He helped Nate get more into music and had a few jam sessions in the basement which I’m sure the Merz parents loved. We went to the same school for college and even though we didn’t overlap, we were both able to find our own passions and circles there that we carry with us to this day. Even though he’s always been into the abstract and weird music, at least he’s found his calling.
Maddie Leh
Bridesmaid/Officiant/Invite designer!
Maddie and Abbi met 10+ years ago doing school and community theatre and have been best friends ever since, with numerous hut trips, 14ers, and trips to Busaba under our belt. Maddie is from Louisville, CO and currently lives in Truckee, CA (Lake Tahoe) where she works in non-profit outdoor education and, surprising to no one, continues to demonstrate her passion to changing and improving people's lives every day. Maddie is also an avid adventurer - running, climbing, backpacking, skiing - with every spare second she has - evidenced by her truly incredible Instagram page (@maddie_leh) :)
Peter Zillmer
Groomsman
Peter, Nates political muse. is another close childhood friend of Nates. He grew up in the same area as Ian and Nate and they went through each grade together, played halo, built legos (Nate was always jealous of his collection), and shared a love of music. He graduated from UW Stevens Point with an English degree and went to the University of Montana for his Masters. He’s currently getting his teaching licensee in Wisconsin. He helped introduce Nate to some abstract music and shares a great sense of humor.
Lily Atkinson
Bridesmaid
Abbi and Lily met in their sorority in college but became friends when Lily made the (best? crazy?) decision to let Abbi lead her and a group of Lawrentians on a Colorado back-country ski hut-trip. They knew they'd be friends for life when they found themselves scream singing Hamilton while walking down a ski run at Copper on the way back. Lily is from San Francisco and currently lives in Chicago, working as a vet tech and mom to Goldie and Olive. As far as Abbi understands she quadtruple majored in every type of science and is the perfect laid-back, creative Enneagram 5 to Abbi's type A Enneagram 2 ;)
Christina Camacho
Bridesmaid
Christina and Abbi met in Delhi, India in 2016 and have since made memories (eaten brunch) in NYC, Boulder, Haiti, London, and Budapest. Christina and her boyfriend Mark live in Nyack, NY and work as nurses in NYC. Christina worked as an ER nurse during COVID and is one of the most resilient and hard-working people we know <3 In her spare time Christina is a spin instructor, drives her jeep top-down, and rock-climbs with Mark - they even climbed with Abbi's Dad in Eldorado Springs!! (Fun fact: Christina and Coconut share a birthday!)
Carrie Douglass
Bridesmaid
Carrie and Abbi met circa 2010 in - you guessed it - community theater as wee little Broadway dreamers singing 'Interplanet Janet' in Abbi's basement and then 'Cholera girls' (yes, girls who died of Cholera) in Secret Garden where their soon to be best friend Aida was cast in the starring role. Carrie lives and works in Chicago in education, and graduated from Northwestern University, and to Abbi's tremendous excitement will be moving back to Colorado soon. Despite being a few years younger, Carrie has always been Abbi's voice of reason and inspired her to find more ways to be grounded <3
Aida Neitenbach
Bridesmaid
Abbi and Aida met in community theater in circa 2011 where they briefly both took part in the Secret Garden musical before Aida was swept off to Broadway to play Jane Banks in Mary Poppins! A few years later Abbi and Aida played Liesl von Trapp in Sound of Music as opposites, and then a trio in a not to be mentioned musical with Carrie where the three of us became best friends. Aida lives in Helsinki, Finland (!) where she was born, works in education, and inspires Abbi and Carrie on the monthly with her Euro adventures.
Caitlin Wood
Bridesmaid
Caitlin and Abbi met in London while getting their Masters at The London School of Economics. When they weren't studying, they spent time making their British roomie try American things (kombucha, the Enneagram), cheering on Tottenham Hotspur, finding every cute coffee shop with wifi in central London, and spending city breaks in Barcelona and France. Caitlin maaay be the one person in Abbi's life that will consistently out-gift/thank you card her ;) Caitlin lives and works out of North Carolina doing government emergency funding & grant distribution, is a spin and OTF queen, and as of Abbi's wedding will be recently married to her fiancée, Kevin!!
Grace Gibson
Bridesmaid
Grace and Abbi met while getting their Masters in London when Grace made the crazy decision to live with two Americans she had never met!! (Grace is British). When not answering every possible cultural, political, logistical question of Abbi's of how to live in London, Grace and Abbi did yoga and boxing in the beautiful London parks, bought too many bubble teas, crash coursed in UK comedy (Fleabag!), and had many a gin train outing. Grace welcomed Caitlin and Abbi into her entire British family (immediate and friends!) and we couldn't have been more grateful xx <3 Grace works as a social researcher for the UK government and spends her free time hiking and skiing in the French Alps.
Annie Harincar
Groomswoman
Nate and Annie became friends around the end of their Junior year at Lawrence through Nate's roommate Kieran and got along playing video games, hanging out down by the river, and watching horror movies. Annie is currently living in Minneapolis and started her own Dungeons and Dragons campaign for her partner and his friends. She also plays as Princess Rose in Nate's D&D group and is very different from who she is in real life....kind of.
Matt Kanfer
Groomsman
Matt is Abbi's sister's boyfriend, and Nate has become good friends with Matt through eachothers mutual experience dating the North girls. He's a work from home/stay at home dad for three babies aka Coconut the corgi, Kali and Dude, the cats. Nate and Matt often have deep discussions around the human condition and how messed up the world is but at least they always have fun while talking about it.