Katherine & Peter
Wedding Party
Morgan Johnson
Maid of Honor
Mary Morgan dropped “Mary” from her name when she went off to Brown and never looked back, leaving Kat as the only Johnson kid using her original first name. She works at a law firm in DC but has the sense to avoid law school in favor of doing something interesting. Morgan perhaps got her creativity through their experience putting on the Nutcracker with beanie babies in the ingeniously named “Beancracker” show (Katherine may have still been putting on the Beancracker in 8th grade). In all honesty, by age 3, Morgan created her own fictional radio station whose best show was called “Nancy’s Brain.” The plot of the show involved aliens stealing Morgan’s mom's brain and shipping it to Mars via rocket ship—a bizarre yet insightful premise, particularly for one that a three-year old devised.
Danielle Pierson
Bridesmaid
Danielle and Katherine met freshman year at Davidson College through concert choir. The two, along with an innocent third party, shared a single dorm room junior year that was subsequently converted to a swine flu quarantine bunkroom after they moved out. As Danielle’s roommate, Katherine observed firsthand her ability to randomly perform operatic renditions of Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” and to quote entire seasons of Gilmore Girls. Danielle lives in Tampa, Florida with her conveniently-named husband, Dan, and is a doctor completing her residency in combined internal medicine and pediatrics.
Natasha O'Brown
Bridesmaid
Natasha and Katherine also met freshman year through Davidson’s concert choir. Continuing the trend of Katherine’s Davidson friends being much better at science than her, Natasha works as an evolutionary biologist and lives in Boston with her husband, Zach—also a scientist—and their incredibly photogenic son Alistair Jack. When Natasha and Zach aren’t with Alistair, they spend a lot of time with Zebra fish. Natasha’s other talents include bestowing flattering nicknames on her loved ones. Ask Natasha about hers for Katherine, “Skanky Skunk” (it’s not what you think)!
Jane Wagner
Bridesmaid
Jane and Katherine also met at Davidson, but not through concert choir and not until sophomore year. Jane lives in New York and works as a television producer and documentary filmmaker. Katherine got a taste of Jane’s cinematic talents during junior year, when Jane took her on a documentary film shoot in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. Somehow, Jane obtained permission to film at the Creation Museum, and the two escaped unscathed. While the documentary never materialized, the b-roll of biblical characters riding animatronic dinosaurs is still out there…
Emily Prince
Bridesmaid
Emily & Katherine met at Paideia School in Atlanta, where Emily still lives. While writing this bio, Katherine reached an epiphany: Katherine has accidentally been copying Emily for the last decade! Emily went to Paideia, then Katherine went to Paideia. Emily moved to Washington, D.C., and then Katherine did. Emily got a job working for a US Senator, and soon after, Katherine followed. Emily left DC for law school and then Katherine did. Emily started working at a law firm, and now Katherine works at a law firm too. Finally, Emily started dating a man with rural sensibilities and a love of cars, and then Katherine did too (2 different men, for the record). Katherine would like to remind Emily that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and tell her not to watch All About Eve.
Lauren Rea
Bridesmaid
Lauren, too, should be flattered, as she and her husband Jason beat Emily and Katherine to law school by several years. After clerking for several years in Atlanta, Lauren has opened her own law practice specializing in adoption and is herself a mom to baby Bella, who, like Alistair, is unfairly photogenic. Lauren is as skilled in the kitchen as she is in the law and was even asked to audition for the Next Food Network Star. Katherine has been mooching off of her cooking during all of her Atlanta visits for the last several years, and has no intention of ever stopping, so long as she is allowed.
Ian McDonald
Best Man
Peter has no siblings, and it is only because of his terrific cousins that he does not have acute only child syndrome. As Peter’s godfather, Ian frequently transcended the role of older cousin and kept young, impressionable Peter on track. Few people in the world could introduce you to jazz and teach you how to make your own bow and arrow in the woods by cutting down saplings and whittling them down with a pocket knife. Ian is one of those people. Over the years Peter has had the benefit of not only Ian’s unusual breadth of knowledge and hip musical tastes, but also his encouragement, and patience (27 years of dealing with Peter is a lot). Ian runs his own stonemasonry business in Connecticut's "quiet corner," where he lives with his wife Kiku and their kids Rupert and Ambrose.
Dan LaTourette
Groomsman
Dan is a breakdancer, film maker, singer, and washboard player. You may wonder how somebody so interesting came to be friends with someone as square as Peter. It was through a blues band at the University of Rochester. The band, 88 Elephants (AKA the Blues Abstract/NJR Blues Ensemble), brought its repertoire of Muddy Waters and B.B. King songs to an improbable array of gigs. Indeed, Peter & Dan were part of an unverified superlative: the first performance of “Got My Mojo Working” at the intermission of a bellydancing show. Dan lives in Rochester, NY where he is an adjunct professor at the school of film and animation at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His favorite band is JJ Grey & Mofro and he would be the first to tell you to listen to them now. Right now. Seriously.
Zach Perron
Groomsman
Peter met Zach in the gym of a notorious Durham, NC apartment complex where they were both residents. They became friends through their shared love of music, baseball and New England (Zach is from Vermont). Plus, Peter and Zach bonded through commiserating over the odd happenings of their apartment complex, which included, among other things: serial thefts of catalytic converters from the parking lot, a building burning down, and a bat in Peter’s apartment. Zach and Peter were frequent tennis opponents throughout law school, and Zach and his wife Julie have survived a number of double dates with Peter and Katherine. Zach is a lawyer in New York City.
Anderson Phillips
Groomsman
Anderson has a gift for humor, which Peter has admired since a legendary cold call in their first semester at law school (never had a civil procedure case enjoyed such a dramatic recital of the underlying facts). It is only fitting, then, that Anderson and Peter became close friends through Tricky Dick—Duke Law’s annual sketch comedy show. Their early collaborations included a Twilight Zone inspired sketch about a hapless law student who finds himself in a never ending job interview with two unhinged lawyers and a puppet. In their third year of law school, the duo directed Tricky Dick—forcing Anderson to endure a score of Peter’s odd ideas, and quite a few of his CDs. Anderson is a lawyer in North Carolina where he lives with his wife Trini.
Brandon Springer
Groomsman
Early in their first year of law school, happenstance found Brandon and Peter on a road trip to Bethesda for a career fair. Behind schedule, and woefully unprepared for the barrage of informal job interviews ahead (especially Peter who was wearing black sneakers and his senior prom suit), the pair did the only reasonable thing… stop for pizza and show up EVEN later. Similar logic has fueled many adventures since then, including hikes in the mountains of North Carolina, two memorable spring break trips, a poker game that ended with the loser having to drink a pineapple-cappuccino flavored Cookout shake, and the formation of an instrumental "barbershop" quartet called Boys 2 Mens Rea. Brandon is a lawyer in Charlotte, NC.
Lee Staley
Groomsman
According to legend, Lee and Peter first met in 1932 on a dusty train platform. Oh wait, sorry, that’s the fictitious story behind their musical alter-egos the Nixon Brothers, who have racked up at least a dozen listens on Sound Cloud. In reality, Peter met Lee and his fiancée Rosie through an incredibly attenuated link of mutual acquaintances in Durham, NC. The trio's first outing was for dinner at an Indian restaurant in the basement of an Allstate Insurance Office. It was the first of many outings that Lee and Rosie let Peter third wheel in those dark pre-Katherine days. Peter will be a groomsman in Lee and Rosie’s wedding in April (once a third wheel, always a third wheel). Lee and Rosie live in Boston, where Lee will be starting work as a lawyer after completing an MPH.
Royce Johnson
Groomsman
Royce is KJ's brother, & while Royce is a professional actor, his best work was @ the amateur level, terrorizing KJ as a kid. Her 1st memory of Royce’s work involves her being locked in a closet while Royce "fought" an alien race called “Smashers” in the outside room. Smashers disguised themselves as Home Depot wood lifters & exploded in purple blood when they were killed (unbeknownst 2 KJ, their mom used purple-colored shampoo, making it easy for Royce to dupe a dolt of a girl into thinking that he had vanquished a flock of machine-aliens as she hid). Royce’s creativity hasn’t waned since, which is why many of KJs “fun facts” involve Royce or being distantly connected 2 people he knows/things he's done. Peter would like 2 thank Royce for giving him his 1st record made after the year 2000