Eva Ruth & Nathan
Wedding Party
Hannah Pulliam
Maid of Honor
HOW WE MET: Hannah and I were shy, awkward, and scared hall mates during our freshman year. We probably would have remained strangers if not for the fateful night of October 21, 2016 which found us sprawled on my bed in my door room, watching the PBS documentary Hamilton's America and eating popcorn. We discovered that we could both eat an ungodly amount of popcorn and that we were obsessed with the musical. Fast-forward to sophomore year and we're roomies (with Meagan!). After we became friends we discovered that we both loved feminism -- this started the tradition of holding countless conversations related to this and ranting about the patriarchy. We haven't looked back since.
Trent Shell
Best Man
Trent was a fellow computer science major with me in college. I'm not sure if we were ever roommates with each other, but we might as well have been. We've been housemates, next-door roommates, coworkers, and fellow church members. We always sat next to each other (in the same seats) for all of our computer science classes. Whenever I'm feeling super-introverted, I know I can talk to Trent because I know he feels the same way. We have watched countless hours of TV together. He (but mostly Sophie) helped me work up the courage to ask Eva out on our first date. Trent and I are basically the same person (with a few minor differences).
Meagan Fernsler
Maid of Honor
HOW WE MET: If Hannah and I had vaguely uncomfortable interactions as freshmen, Meagan and I barely spoke two words to each other that year. I thought she was the cool, aloof transfer student that really liked anime and who didn't know I existed. In reality, we were both just really shy. Rooming together changed all of that and we discovered that we both loved Hamilton (this musical was religiously played in our room on repeat). She also made me fall in love with anime (during my sophomore year Hannah, Meagan, and I watched classics like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle and honestly it changed my life).
David Reed
Best Man
I met David during Scholarship Weekend for Covenant College where we were both competing for the computer science scholarship. I'm not sure if he remembers me from that, but I knew just by talking with him once that he knew more about computer programming than I did. Ever since our sophomore year of college we've been roommates, coworkers, and fellow church members. If there's one person that I argue with more than Eva, it's David. If you thought American politics was divisive, just ask us about statically- vs. dynamically-typed programming languages.
Johanna Christophel
Bridesmaid
HOW WE MET: We've known each other my whole life. Johanna, upon meeting me for the first time in the hospital room, held me and sang "Jesus Loves Me" while I cried. I have no memory of this experience but my family assures me that it happened. Despite this rocky start to our relationship, we gradually grew to like each other and were even known to play together on occasion. Johanna has been integral in introducing me to country music (one of my favorite genres). We also like watching Friends together whenever we can.
Christine Bierema
Groomswoman
Didn't expect to see a "groomswoman" in the lineup? Christine is here to defy and surpass any and all expectations. She has been a close friend to me my whole life and I couldn't ask for a better sister. She taught me how to run (and would wait up for me when I was slower than she was). As the oldest sibling, she dutifully wore my parents down enough so that I, as the youngest child, could do whatever I wanted to (as the youngest child should).
Cortney Smith
Bridesmaid
HOW WE MET: If feels like Cortney and I have known each other since the dawn of time. However, we probably first met when we were in elementary school; her grandma brought her and her sister to my family's church's VBS and then there was no going back after that. Some of our favorite pastimes to do together include exploring different historical sites, watching movies, shopping at Barnes and Noble, and going to Six Flags over Texas and riding the craziest rollercoasters.
Jeremy Bierema
Groomsman
Jeremy was my upper bunk-mate for almost my entire life. I spent most of my time trying to annoy him as much as possible, but it never seemed to phase him. The fact that it never phased him made me even more angry, and yet he never broke. Jeremy has been a huge influence in my life and taught me computer programming along with my dad. He's always been smarter than me, but I'm convinced that's just because he's two and a half years older than me. More than anything, I appreciate Jeremy for his love for the Lord and his honesty that permeates through everything he does.
Katie Ricks
Bridesmaid
HOW WE MET: Katie is probably the coolest person I know. We grew up playing kickball, hide-and-go-seek, and kick the can together with the rest of our cousins at our grandparents' farm in Illinois. She has done basically everything from working for AmeriCorps and Habitat for Humanity to now studying law at Tulane University in NOLA (when we visited her this past fall and Nathan proposed she was able to take pictures to document the event!).
Josh Humpherys
Groomsman
I don't think there's anyone I talked to more during college than Josh. We talked about everything including computer programming, running, Rubik's Cubes, and Christianity. And yet somehow despite all of the talking he was always able to get more homework done than I was (with more classes too). We were roommates together our sophomore and junior years and every Sunday night we would go to The Blink (Covenant's Late Night Cafe) and get buffalo chicken wraps (which was by far the best food on campus).
Sophie Shell
Bridesmaid
HOW WE MET: Being some of the only college-age girls attending Christ Reformed Baptist Church during our freshman year made it inevitable that our paths would cross. We took the same Intro to Literary Studies with one of our favorite English profs at Covenant and this started the tradition of us taking as many English classes together as possible. We also bonded during our freshman year by watching some of the Lord of the Rings movies (the extended edition, no less).
Charles Taylor
Groomsman
Charles and I ran cross country together during college and we became coworkers (and housemates) during the summer after my freshman year of college. During that summer we shared an office together. I'm not sure that we got any work done that summer because all I can remember is talking about programming (instead of actually doing the programming). Since I don't see him everyday anymore, life is not quite the same without the random outbursts of laughter that you can hear through three or four sets of closed doors (scientific experimentation has yet to be conducted on the exact number of doors).
Carmen Perez
Bridesmaid
HOW WE MET: If Katie is the coolest person I know, Carmen would have to be the second. We became close as fellow teammates while being part of our high school speech and debate club. We spent countless Saturdays together during our high school years participating at different debate tournaments. One of the events we both competed in was extemporaneous speaking and we bonded in our attempts to keep up with current events through obsessively reading The Economist.
Daniel Maienshein
Groomsman
Daniel was my best friend from Kindergarten through 12th grade. We did everything together. Our mutual hobbies included running, playing chess, solving Rubik's cubes, playing video games, running the school A/V, and playing piano. He was always a little bit smarter and (a lot) more studious than I was. He can also speak German a lot better than me.