Wedding Party

Arianna Paletta

Bride

Zachary Johnson

Groom

Hali Kempf

Matron of Honor

Best Friend of the Bride since 2005. The Bride met Hali in elementary school; being in the same class. The Bride enjoyed the hilarious original artwork in Hali’s locker. The inseparable pair’s humor has remained just as demented to this day. The Groom is an enthusiastic fan, often helping bring their jokes to fruition via photoshop.

Morgan Tullos-Blanco

Bridesmaid

Best Friend of the Bride since 2002. Thing 1 and Thing 2, Lucy and Ethel…there are many ways to describe this duo; causing trouble since they met in their class in the second grade. The two quickly bonded over their short stature and left-handedness. Ever since that sisterly bond, they have been two tornados of trouble to the Mother of the Bride, who secretly enjoyed their shenanigans, from destroying the “Bed 4 Life” and spilling “Blue Juice” all over the white guest bedroom. “THAT’S IT”! “MORGAN’S GOING HOME”!

Hope Jeffery

Bridesmaid

Longtime Confidante of the Bride. The Bride met Hope at their community college around 2013 in Algebra; discussing Harry Potter, and calling someone at their table a Hufflepuff. The Bride was always quite envious of the vibrant purses that Hope had, which would of course make Hope and her laugh. Nowadays, Hope is who the Bride calls when she is “too scared” to live a little and needs a friend to shove her off the ledge of uneventfulness.

Elizabeth Moody

Bridesmaid

Longtime Friend of the Bride since 2006 The Bride and Elizabeth met in 6th grade within their mutual friend group (which also included Hali Kempf and Artemis Young). Elizabeth and The Bride spent a lot of time together, with their extracurricular interests in concert band, marching band, symphony orchestra, solo and ensemble, and odyssey of the mind. The two also greatly reveled in having the same home-room teacher in middle-school, frequently being devious and disruptive in class with the teacher, also playing Mancala during down-time. We all had that favorite teacher that we liked to mess with. “PaRk IT, yOu TWo”!

Jessica Lettsome

Bridesmaid

Longtime Friend of the Groom, and Mutual Friend of the Bride and Groom - Significant Other of the Best Man: Julian Faraci

Zoe Johnson

Bridesmaid

Sister of the Groom Arianna: As future sister of Zoe, I don’t know too much about her yet to reminisce, but who wouldn’t be excited to have a sister to laugh at your husband/brother with. Although we don’t agree on whether or not cats or dogs make better pets, at least we both dislike our…[checks notes] …arms? Maybe we can bond buying some sweatshirts, eh?

Julian Faraci

Best Man

Zach: Oh, Julian. The only person I've ever known to perfectly drop a whisky soda on the ground upside down. You gotta ask the groom for the photo. Julian was the smartassed, wise-beyond-his-years bartender at Pietro's when the groom met him. Almost instantly, the two got on like a house on fire. Go figure. Often, the groom would be waiting for a previous suitor to end her waitressing shift and end up sitting on one of his barstools. Topics of conversation would be a whirlwind of politics, pre-renaissance history, art, movies, television, and, of significantly less interest to the groom, the Miami Dolphins. The groom became a frequent guest in Julian's home - made significantly more homelike through the efforts of his longtime partner Jessica. It's suspected there was a secret hatch in their old apartment that led to a near-infinite stash of Chardonnay and gourmet food. As two key members of the "Brat Pack" that attended local watering hole Logan's Alley nearly every Friday night, "The Jays" or "Mr. & Mrs. Jay" are woven permanently into the tapestry of the groom's life. It's our honor to have them stand up there with us as we take this next step.

Kyle Williamson

Groomsman

The groomsman with the most "street cred" in the party, as we met in the very building where the reception is being held. Back then, it was still an elementary school. All the groom really remembers are plenty of laughing and skinned knees at recess as they ran wind sprints across the playground with their toy Podracers. Kyle's family moved away a few years later, only to reappear at the same high school attended by the groom. They've been fast friends ever since, even when vast distances get in the way. Brewery tours all over Michigan, camping and hiking trips, backyard cookouts, you name it - Kyle was usually there.

Joseph (Lucca) Paletta

Groomsman

Dubbed the Bride his “c(o)uster” - a portmanteau of “cousin” and “sister”, at the ripe-old-age of 6 years old. Lucca and the Bride grew up together as only children, sharing a home with their Parents and their late “Nonie” for 7 years. Throughout those years, many games and characters were made: pretending the lawn-mower men and the window-washers were trying to infiltrate the house, hiding in the toy-closet from Nonie’s cooking concoctions, trying to booby-trap the toy-closet from their friends, and trying to ‘cheat the system’ by getting overly warm in their winter coats in the grocery store, to be able to reap those benefits outside in the snow afterwards, only to be told they couldn’t go outside that day. “Power-outage Xmas” deserves a shout-out too. Time to fire-up “ol’ Willy”! (the crank powered flashlight we used to go down to the terrifying basement right after seeing I Am Legend) *shudder*

Artemis Young

Groomsman

Close friend of the Bride since 2004, and one of the first people the Bride had met after moving to Michigan. Being new in a classroom with a raging inability to stay focused, Arianna couldn’t help but wonder what was going on at the desk behind her. A student making little figurines at their desk seemingly out of office supplies. “Whatcha doin”? “Making voodoo dolls”. Artemis replied with pride. “Cooool”!! Thus creating one of many friendships starting with a strange art piece. Clearly the Bride favors creativity and artistic feats; frankly, anything to avoid the mundane.

Jaime Bouldrey

Groomsman

Former College Roomate/Suitemate and longtime friend of the Bride since 2015. Ol’ Jaime Bouldrey. What an unexpected friendship. The Bride had just transferred colleges at the last second, and needed to pick a random dorm and random roommate. Think of all the things that could have gone wrong and yet, it was the start of a hilarious companionship of two awkward bumbling college students just trying to make it through adulthood. Passing each-other in the hall of the counselors office, not knowing the other one went there, was iconic. Jaime even stole pasta salad (complete with the bowl and fork)! for the Bride when she was too lazy to go to the dining hall. “Rumor has it, if you graduate with a 4.0, you’ll turn into one of the seagulls at the dining hall”. “There’s ol’ Josh”. Jaime continues to be a good friend of the Bride and Groom as well, as he is nerdy enough to enjoy the Groom’s hobbies that the Bride is less-enthused about. Bride: “I once asked Jaime, while wistfully looking off into the distance and pondering, if he ever wondered what it would be like to be ‘normal’ (aka neurotypical); just for one day”. “What could we have accomplished differently in college if we were”?… … … [no answer] “I looked back to my left where he was standing, to see why there was no answer. He was too busy trying to get his very recently-stuck finger out of his bottle of beer”.

Kurt Kruger

Groomsman

Probably our wedding party's strangest case of "Dutch Bingo," Kurt worked at a local card and board game store frequently attended by the groom and fellow groomsman Kyle. Many years later, when comingling our friend groups, there was a "hey wait a minute..." moment when Hope brought him over for dinner. Kurt and the groom's overlap in hobbies keeps them busy and talking for hours when the bride and Kurt's partner Hope dominate the living room.