Wedding Party
Katie McCarty
Maid of Honor
Katie and Jade met in the exact same class where Houston and Jade met! They hit it off immediately and can’t even remember when they became friends. They were even suite-mates their last year in college! She was a cheerleader and supporter throughout all of Houston and Jade’s relationship, and Jade is so happy to include her (and have excuses to talk to her everyday)!
Kyle Galerston
Best Man
Kyle and Houston met in the 5th grade under mysterious circumstances. The details of their first encounter are lost to history, but their first shared memory is Houston spilling Kyle's box of Mike And Ikes on a Boy Scout campout. This was apparently a good move, as they've been best friends ever since. After enduring the trials and tribulations of middle school and high school together, they both set sail for Trinity University. They lived together (or at least next door) for all four years, causing all sorts of trouble and maybe even learning a thing or two along the way. In the words of Kyle: "I'm calling the police... and they're bringing Sting with them."
Mollie Stringer
Bridesmaid
Mollie and Jade met in 2nd grade and have been inseparable ever since! After 15 years of friendship, they’ve only gotten closer, and Jade is so excited to have her standing next to her on the big day! Although, she is under strict orders not to cry on the wedding day or she’ll make Jade cry too, amd they’ll both be a mess!
Tessa Demings
Bridesmaid
Tessa and Jade met on Jade’s first day of school in 2nd grade. Tessa was so sweet and talked to Jade all day, and at the end of the day when Jade accidentally got off on the wrong bus stop, she waited at Tessa’s house until her mom could pick her up. Tessa introduced her to Mollie, and the three were an unstoppable force of friendship for 15 years. Thank goodness Tessa reached out to Jade that day. Where would she be without Tessa?!
Octavia Ramos
Bridesmaid
Jade and Octavia got close in their last year of college, but little did Jade know they had actually met their freshman year! They sat in the same mythology class, and their teacher encouraged them to sit near each other because they contributed more during class if they were near each other. Later, when Octavia started dating Houston’s best man Kyle, they “re-met” and of course were instant friends.
Kelsey Greening
Bridesmaid
Kelsey is Jade’s cousin! They grew really close when Jade’s family flew to Canada for their grandmother’s 80th birthday. They both love movies, late nights with friends, red hair, and each other! Jade is so grateful that she’s coming such a long way to stand next to her on the big day, and laugh their same laugh all night long!
Grace Gehring
Junior Bridesmaid
Grace is Jade’s cousin! She and Jade have been close ever since Grace was little, and Jade is so excited to include her! She was so helpful during wedding dress shopping, and has so many ideas about the big day, Jade can’t wait to have her help and enthusiasm at her and Houston’s wedding!
Kate Jones-Waddell
Bridesmaid
Kate and Jade met through Jade’s Maid of Honor, and they clicked right away! They bonded over hot tea, old school music jams, and their (hilarious) sense of humor. She was Jade’s suite-mate senior year, and living with Kate and Katie (Jade’s Maid of Honor) was a nonstop series of laughter and fun! Jade can’t wait to have Kate next to her when she gets married!
Pearce Perlinger
Bridesman
Pearce and Jade met in high school their senior year, and they’ve been fast friends ever since! Pearce even became friends with Katie, Jade’s Maid of Honor, and their road trips to visit each other were some of Jade’s favorite road trips ever! Five years after they first met, Jade would love Pearce to stand next her when she and Houston get married!
Sam Rolof
Bridesman
Sam is Jade’s brother! They are 4 years apart, and they’ve always been close. When she was building her wedding party, she asked her brother if he wanted to be a part of it. He said he “didn’t care,” so she made the executive decision to include him. Besides! She thinks he’ll look great in a bridesmaid dress (Haha!).
Chase Jaminet
Groomsman
Against all odds, Chase and Houston didn't become friends until the 8th grade. But after years of both being friends with JP while having never met each other, they wound up in the same Spanish class and recognized one another as "that guy JP said was really cool." Very little Spanish was learned after that, but many thousands of hours of goofing off after school on the weekdays made it all worthwhile. Legend tells that Pop Tarts are still in business thanks to how many were eaten by two high-schoolers in the early 2010s.
Dylan Wolford
Groomswoman
Dylan and Houston met on a school trip to Spain. And then on a school trip to Italy. And then again on a school trip to Switzerland. By this time it was clear that they were destined to become best friends, and so they did. Many years have since been filled with adventures of all kinds, to concerts and faraway lands and many things in between. Houston estimates he has probably spent more time on airplanes with Dylan than just about anyone else, including and especially the time that they jumped out of one together.
Gus Hodges
Groomsman
Gus and Houston met in kindergarten, where they arguably peaked. Elementary school separated them for years until middle school brought them back together, and they've been trying to be as cool as they were at the age of 5 ever since (it hasn't happened yet). In the meantime, there's been a decade's worth of wilderness adventures, video game shenanigans, and all manner of tomfoolery. And there's surely much more to come.
Josh Wood
Groomsman
Buckle your seatbelt, because this is the most cripplingly Gen-Z story on this website. Josh and Houston met on Minecraft (yes, the game with all the blocks) in 2013 as part of a much larger group of several dozen online friends who played together. As that group moved on and lost touch, Josh and Houston stayed good friends and continued to keep up with each other. It all became "real" in 2015, when Houston and Jacqueline drove up to Oklahoma City to visit Josh in person. This kicked off a tradition of (at least) yearly visits to one city or another that included Houston attending Josh's high school graduation and Josh attending Houston's college graduation. They don't play Minecraft so much anymore, but it was never really about that.
Jacqueline Kolling
Groomswoman
Jacqueline and Houston met on the first day of high school in a biology class that Gus also happened to be in. The three of them sat next to each other, and eventually Jacqueline realized that Houston and Gus were definitely a couple of nerds and she'd fit right in. As fate would have it, she and Houston were assigned the same lunch period all four years of high school (including and especially at the infamous sophomore year lunch table). They were also unfortunate enough to be in the same Forensics class senior year - an experience that would make lifelong friends of anyone who could survive it. Life put a great distance between them after high school, but sure enough, they both ended up back in Dallas after all.
John Stephenson
Groomsman
John and Houston don't remember how they met. Some say they've been friends since the dawn of time. But what we know for sure is that one of their earliest experiences together was performing in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat," a musical just as weird as it sounds, in the 8th grade. Through middle and high school, they found themselves in one wacky theatrical production after another, and in between those they could always be found in a class together causing trouble. The most devastating experience they've shared together was the closing of Qdoba on Lovers Lane.
JP Perreault
Groomsman
JP and Houston met in fourth grade and stuck close together during the terrifying time that was middle school. JP lived only a short walk away from school, so the two could be found at his house most days after class eating snacks, playing Halo 3, and being the annoying 12-year-olds on Xbox Live that we all know so well. During high school, the infamous sophomore-year lunch table was home to some of their greatest mischief. And though college was busier than ever, a reunion was only ever a trip to Whataburger away.
Matthew Anderson
Officiant
Matt and Houston became fast friends after a particularly successful random roommate matchup for their freshman year at Trinity. They liked staying up late, eating fast food, and playing video games - and really, that's all you need. It was only a few weeks later that Houston was (optimistically!) introducing Jade to his friends, and she and Matt clicked right away. As the first, last, and only roommate to the groom (groommate?), Matt has been there since the very beginning. So, who better to make this whole thing official?