Wedding Party

Michaela Hoover

Matron of Honor

My first week in Seattle, and somehow I found her, or maybe she found me. We were both nannies, and Kayla took me—a brand new girl in a brand new city under her wing like it was the most natural thing in the world. We made a habit of dinner dates where I would talk the entire time while she ate patiently, and when her plate was nearly empty she would simply point to mine and say "you should eat." We tried rollerblading once and learned together, in real time, that adults do not bounce when they fall. She is the heart of our little chosen family — the one who understands how my brain works without needing it explained, who loves me anyway, and who has graciously accepted that my 3pm party will always start at 6pm. I'm watching the clock very carefully now that you have a little one of your own, Kayla. *wink wink*

Kenyon Hoover

Best Man

When Kayla introduced Kenyon to our friend group, we loved him instantly, and when they married on Pi Day 2025, welcoming him as part of our Seattle found-family was the easiest decision we’ve ever made. Kenyon is the kind of person who shows up quietly and consistently. He’s at every birthday party for our kiddos, at every random Saturday errand (hauling antique furniture from Facebook Marketplace with Daniel like it was always the plan). He makes a steak that will ruin you, and yes, he brews his own beer from scratch. Now a new dad himself, we couldn’t be prouder to have him stand next to Daniel on this special day.

Jasmine Harper

Maid of Honor

There’s no clean origin story for Jasmine. She’s simply the friend who feels like she’s always existed. Our conversations? Sometimes they start and stop at “girl… girrl… giiiirrrlll?!?!” — and everything that needed to be said has been said. We can have an entire exchange in a single look and walk away completely understood. She is outgoing, playful, the life of every party that didn’t know it was a party until she arrived: a yang to my yin in the best possible way. We lost touch after my cross-country move from Michigan and the beautiful chaos of two kids . Then, there she was. In Washington. Some things are just fate.

TJ Hudson

Groomsman

Aya Ovezova

Bridesmaid

What started as a chance meeting at the neighborhood park turned into one of the quietest, most unexpected friendships I've ever found. Aya is calm and soft-spoken — but get her one on one and she slowly unfolds into someone even better. She has the most genuinely caring heart of anyone I know. The kind of person who worries she's a burden when she's actually a gift. We try to make weekly dinners a ritual — kids playing, both of us cooking, figuring it out as we go. Once we made a chili that was done in ten minutes flat and tasted incredible. We spent the next ten minutes side-eyeing the recipe trying to figure out if we'd actually followed all the steps. We had. She's that kind of easy. Nobody could dislike Aya. I don't think it's possible.

Micheal Jordan

Groomsman

Austin McDonald

Groomsman

I left for college when Austin was eight. The next time I truly met him, he was nineteen. He had already developed a taste for fine wine, coded video games from scratch, and commissioned prom shoes that lit up with every step. That is Austin. Quietly brilliant, effortlessly stylish, bilingual after two years in Spain, and the holder of a double major in electrical engineering and computer engineering. He is also, without apology, a Swiftie who knows every word and will sing them without restraint. I didn't watch him grow up fully, but the brother I finally got to know? I couldn't have asked for a better one.

Trebecca McDonald

Bridesmaid

Seventeen months apart and a lifetime of shared history. Trebecca is the older sibling that makes sure we're all using the correct tax filing software, who sends the family chat a message every time she's tried a new recipe worth eating, and who reminds everyone to update the emergency contact document the moment someone moves. She is the family's quiet infrastructure — always making sure the people she loves are taken care of, even when they don't think to ask. Family is everything to her, and at the end of the day, that is something we have always had in common. We are extremely grateful to have her here for this chapter.

William McDonald

Groomsman

If you want to know who I am, look to William Justin. Similar face, alike mind, same tendency to think in ways that make everyone else pause and catch up. Justin is me in male form, except his gift lives in music and culinary the way mine lives in words, and somehow that makes us even more alike. He is one of the most deeply creative people I have ever known, and I have had the privilege of knowing him his whole life. He has walked harder paths with a kind of quiet resilience that I will never stop being in awe of. He still calls me Kayla. I still call him Justin. He is thought of constantly and loved without condition. Always.