Wedding Party
Sue Jie Oh
Bride
I really debated putting a photo of myself wearing my wedding dress on this site because I can't stand the idea of people only seeing me in that dress only ONE day, but I'll refrain until after the wedding. All that's important is - I look great in my dress! Hi - my name is SueJie, but you can call me Sue, Sooj, Ms. Oh, Jie, or The OG. As a little girl, I never expected to fall in love and want to get married. I didn't have a Pinterest board or dream of trying on wedding dresses. At some point, I was pretty sure God was calling me to a life of celibacy. Cut to - 8 years later, here I am in my dining room designing a website to invite the most important people in my life to celebrate a love I never thought I'd get to experience. Thank you for being a part of this surreal moment, and thank you for taking the time to read this!
Ian Michael Kunze
Groom
We know Ian is the groom, and this is his wedding too, but let's just say - if this were a movie, he'd be "Best Supporting Actor." He tells SueJie all the time that from their first date, he knew she was someone special. His favorite phrase is, "SueJie is smart. SueJie is right. If I listen to SueJie, I will be happy."
Min Egidio
Matron of Honor
If you have an older sibling, you might know the feeling of looking up to them as your built-in role model - the coolest person you know. Growing up,SueJie always felt like her sister’s life was a preview of her own, five years into the future. Min played violin in elementary school, so SueJie wanted to play violin in elementary school. Min was good at school, so SueJie tried to be good at school. Even as their interests began to differ, SueJie assumed the big milestones in life (college, career, buying a home) would still be spaced five years apart. That theory came to an abrupt end when Min met her husband in college, got married at 24, and had her first child at 26. Even at 18, SueJie knew she wouldn’t be getting married at 24. And now, at 30, as SueJie gets ready to say “I do,” she can see that although her timeline looks different, she wouldn’t be here without her unni (big sister) paving the way. SueJie can only hope to follow in Min's footsteps once again and be even a fraction of the incredible wife and mother Min is!
Colin Kunze
Best Man
The middle Kunze brother, Colin is on top of Ian’s list of people to share his big life updates with. He’s one of the first people Ian called once we got engaged and also after meeting Sue Jie’s family. Both Ian & Colin went to USC for undergrad, which led to some funny mix ups with friends who didn’t know there was an RA who looked a lot like Colin or were surprised to see Ian at a football game the year he decided not to get season tickets. Colin also got engaged recently and lives in Boston with his fiancee, Belle. Colin and Belle met at a Boston University biomedical engineering research lab, where they graduated this past summer with their PhDs! The lab has since moved to Harvard, which gives Colin at least 200% more college affiliations than Ian. If you're wondering who the smartest person in the room is, Colin's probably a pretty good bet.
Amit Tsanhani
Bridesmaid
SueJie and Amit first met in sixth grade (2006!), and while they didn’t hit it off right away, they found their way back to each other years later through mutual friends in eleventh grade. Once they started talking, their friendship grew quickly - and one of SueJie’s greatest middle-school regrets is not getting closer to Amit sooner. One reason their friendship has remained so drama-free is likely the fact that their Venn diagram of men they find attractive consists of two completely separate circles. Having been in each other’s lives for more than half their lifetimes, SueJie truly can’t imagine her life without Amit. She is one of the first people SueJie reaches out to when something big happens, and someone whose advice she deeply values. While SueJie is one of the most risk-averse people on the planet, Amit is a true free spirit - fearlessly chasing her passions, whether that means moving to Yellowstone for a few months, throwing herself into swing dancing, or simply being the first to see the goodness in people and situations. Her adventurous, openhearted approach to life inspires Sue every day, and as cheesy as this may sound, SueJie really does consider Amit a "BFF!!"
Eric Ochoa
Groomsman
Eric is Ian's first college friend, having met by complete chance at orientation (so, technically pre-college?). SueJie jokes that he's "Ian in a different font". At orientation, Ian and Eric sat next to each other during lunch & when another freshman's mom started telling them a story about how Columbia University is "way too liberal to even consider" allowing her daughter to apply, a shared side-eye kicked off what would end up as one of Ian's most enduring friendships. For the next four years (and the 11 after that), Eric & Ian's lives crisscrossed through majors (Engineering), two main friend groups, and even cities when Eric moved to New York as Ian remained a NY transplant in LA. It's not too hard to start a conversation with Eric about many of the same things you'd find yourself discussing with Ian - coffee, travel, drinking, airplanes, local politics, or the most efficient way to do something completely silly.
Lauren Ramirez
Bridesmaid
Funny story — Lauren and SueJie were actually set up by their boss, Peter, while they were students at Pepperdine. During SueJie’s freshman year, she accidentally entered a competition called Waves of Innovation (Pepperdine’s version of Shark Tank) and somehow won a grant to start her own nonprofit. At the time, she didn’t realize the grand prize was $150,000. In true SueJie fashion, she found out about the competition the day it was due, started the application an hour before the deadline, and clicked “Submit” at 11:58 p.m. A few years into the program, SueJie was looking for a co-leader, and Peter introduced her to Lauren — a match that turned out to be far more than professional. SueJie often says she has “no words” to describe her friendship with Lauren, which may be because they can hold entire conversations with just a look. Somehow, despite having completely different personalities and interests, the way they think is almost identical. Lauren has always felt like a pea in the same pod, and many of SueJie’s favorite college memories were made with her. And if you ever look up the academic paper SueJie published - chances are, you'll find Lauren's name right next to hers.
Sam Oliver
Groomsman
Remember those Dos Equis commercials with “The Most Interesting Man in the World”? They got the wrong guy. It should have been Sam. Sam is a visual artist with a BFA from U. Mich who now works a day job in crypto because he felt that running the tech company he started was a bit exhausting and didn't give him enough time for his art. Ian's pretty sure that Sam has spent more time in the studio than his apartment. That creativity combined with Ian's chaotic energy led to lots of hijinks growing up - like a time they made custom stickers & competed to put them on coats and bags of unsuspecting tourists in Times Square. Ian has known Sam since the 3rd grade when they had to do an animal report, and both of them selected penguins. Upon giving their respective presentations, the two of them had their first fight over the existence of "the little blue penguin" and "the fairy penguin". Turns out, those are two names for the same species of penguin, and they'd just read different encyclopedias; thus blossomed a new friendship.
Chloe & Madison Egidio
Junior Bridesmaids
By the time the wedding rolls around, Chloe will be a whopping 10 years old! After teaching third grade for a year, Sue learned that she and kids… don’t always mesh — until Chloe came along. Chloe is smart, beautiful, and clearly inherited her competitive streak from the Oh side of the family, along with an impressive talent for math and logic that’s earned her the nickname “tiny strategist.” Madison goes by many names - Maddie, Madz, Mad Dawg, just to name a few. She may only be 8 years old, but she has the charm of someone much older (and a talent for getting what she wants). While she may not be as “Type A” as her big sister, Madison more than makes up for it with her big personality, confidence, and love of fun. If there’s a campfire nearby, you can count on Madison to be the one asking for s’mores. These two girls are beautiful reflections of the love their parents share, and watching them grow up has been an incredible influence on SueJie & Ian’s excitement about having kids one day!
Aidan Kunze
Groomsman
The youngest of the 3 Kunze brothers, Aidan rounds out the trio with the funniest story telling, the tallest stature, and often the coolest hair. His height advantage and love of weightlifting may make it easy to think that Aidan doesn't share similarly nerdy interests as Ian and Colin, but that'd be a mistake. On many evenings when Aidan doesn't have work, you'll often catch him at the local games store playing Magic: The Gathering or at home watching crunchyroll. Together, the brothers love playing cards, Mario Cart, and talking Pokémon. When SueJie first met Aidan, she told Ian that having a younger brother was a dream come true and something she'd wished for a ton growing up. SueJie quickly found out that when together, the three brothers' fondness of absurdist humor combined with their chaotic energy led to them "sharing one brain cell", which of course was hilarious to them. Even with the chaos and only 33% of a brain cell, Ian feels deeply lucky to have Aidan as his brother and couldn’t imagine this day without him there.