Elaine & Mart
Wedding Party
Samantha Lin
Maid of Honor
Sami and Elaine have been friends for over 15 years. They first met as hostesses at P.F. Changs in Scottsdale, Arizona and later became college room mates. They are now both living their best lives in San Francisco! Sami was the obvious choice for maid of honor not only because of her close friendship with Elaine but because Sami is simply THE BEST planner and believe it or not, LOVES to do it! Sami and Elaine have been friends for many first milestones and Elaine is so thankful Sami can be by her side on her wedding day!
Charles Haitjema
Best Man
Starting out life as a near clone of his older brother, Charles soon outgrew to eclipse him in height, musical talent, and academic prowess, getting his PhD from Cornell and a post doc in Santa Barbara before settling into a biotech job in the Bay Area. Throughout life, the brothers have always had much in common and done a lot together including travel, where they have taken many trips over the years touring Europe and Australia and vacationing in Mexico and Puerto Rico. Regularly visiting each other while living far apart, they can hangout more easily now they are both in the Bay Area and Charles regularly joins in the ski and float trips and other activities Mart gets involved in whenever he can.
Sim Gueco
Bridesmaid
Elaine and Sim meet in 2015 while working at Old Navy. While they have only known each other for a few years they have grown so close they are basically sisters- well at least they sure fight like sisters. ;) They get the best and the worst of each other and that is what makes their friendship so amazing! Elaine knows Sim will always be there for her and she is so thankful Sim can be by her side on her wedding day!
Joe Janas
Groomsman
Joe and Mart have known each other since their days at Purdue where together with Ben Tebutt, Nick Martin, and Adam Katz, they formed a group that remain friends to this day, reuniting for each others wedding up through Joe's in 2019, leaving Mart the last one standing. While they dispersed after college, Joe and Ben moved to Chicago providing Mart a base from which to visit while in grad school in St. Louis. While Mart would eventually move to SF, Joe left his engineering job for a new career as a patent attorney, ultimately landing a job that regularly brings him to San Francisco allowing them to regularly reconnect.
Christina Chavira
Bridesmaid
Elaine and Christina first met in Arizona in 2011 through mutual friends. It was love at first sight- Elaine and Christina bonded over this little social networking service called Twitter. Clearly, Elaine was still living under a rock as she had never used it before. They spent all night creating Elaine's account and pondering on what would be Elaine's first tweet. Fast forward eight years, Elaine and Christina have remained close friends regardless of distance and Elaine is so happy Christina is standing by her side on her big day!
Todd Sproull
Groomsman
Mart and Todd know each other from St. Louis where they both did their PhD's in the same department at Wash U. While that naturally gave them a lot to relate, they found they had more in common and were up for more than simply talking shop. Seeking experiences that were not confined to the ordinary lifestyle of a gradaute engineering student, they had many adventures and much ridiculousness ensued even after Mart moved to San Francisco as Elaine can attest when Todd came to visit. While not often in each other's neck of the woods, they still enjoy catching up and swapping stories and keep in regular contact.
Ben Tebbutt
Groomsman
Originally starting life as an Englishman, Ben came to his sense and moved to the states where he became a proper `murican (see photo) and remains so to this day. Mart's roommate through most of college, they stayed close while Ben was in Chicago periodically meeting up in Chicago or St. Louis and even seeing each other after, making trips to Amsterdam and Barcelona during the period he was living in Germany with his wife Kristin. They now reside in Michigan, where he is living the life on the water, spending time with his 3 kids, and presumably also occasionally fishing. While this naturally means Mart and Ben see each other less, when they do they find they have that rare connection where they can instantly pick things up like no time has ever passed.