Heather & Ryan
Wedding Party
Heather Freddoso
Bride
It's the bride. She saves children's lives when she goes to work so Ryan thinks she's basically a superhero. She likes to read, travel, shop, and generally be sociable with her many friends. She jokes about it, but might have internalized a belief that the Bills started losing because she was born. Ryan still believes her middle name is spelled Nicoleeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. She'll be the one in white. When she comes in everyone will stand up and music will play and Ryan will be all misty-eyed.
Ryan Lenzmeier
Groom
It's the groom. He likes to play hockey, play drums, learn languages, and talk about history. Long on opinions, short in general. Consistently unable to remember where he placed his keys, but absolutely able to tell you the historiographic intervention from a book he read freshman year of college (ask him about the Marvelous Hairy Girls: The Gonzales Sisters and Their Worlds by Merry Wiesner-Hanks). He'll be the one at the front of the chapel, tearing up when Heather walks in.
Caitlin Freddoso
Maid of Honor
Heather's sister. Very self-explanatory. Do I need to explain how siblings work? I do? Okay so when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much they go to the children store and point and say "That one please!" and then a stork, which is now an AMAZON PRIME tm Stork, comes and drops the baby off in the middle of the night. Anyway, that happened but Caitlin was the second trip to the baby store and Heather was the first. Since those trips, Heather and Caitlin have developed into confidantes, best friends, and each other's most ardent supporter. Heather is ecstatic that Caitlin is her younger sister and maid of honor.
Trevor Lenzmeier
Best Man
Ryan's brother. Also extremely self-explanatory. Not going to explain in detail again. Ryan once hit Trevor in the head with a golf club. It was absolutely an accident but still, it definitely still hurt really bad. God decided that, in punishment, Ryan would forever be the shorter of the two brothers even though he is technically the elder. Ryan is eternally grateful that he got to play hockey with Trevor growing up, make sweet music together as part of Dreamers Never Sleep, and are best friends now.
Emma Dollhopf
Bridesmaid
Interesting fact, Emma and Heather are damn near close to being the same person (notably marked by a dry sense of humor and exacting senses of order) . Perhaps that's why they are so close. On a day-to-day level, that means the two share an incredibly close relationship. They met while attending UNC Nursing school where they both learned to take care of tiny sick people. 10/10 person, highly recommend.
Andrew Pete
Groomsman
Andrew Pete was the guitarist in Dreamers Never Sleep and if you were to write a history of the friendship between Ryan and Andrew one relevant story might be that of when they put band-aids on their nipples at the beach and pretended to have gotten piercings. Perhaps predictably, this action was met with various shades of skepticism and confusion from beachgoers that fine sunny day. Through all of the adversity that they have brought upon themselves, Andrew and Ryan have remained steadfast friends.
Emily Denmeade
Bridesmaid
Emily works at the PICU at UNC. Now, some of you may be telling yourselves, "say, Mr. anonymous narrator man, isn't that where the bride works?" If you did tell yourself this, congratulations! You have successfully deduced the location of Emily and Heather's first encounter. Emily was, and is, a steadfast friend for Heather as evidenced by the amount of time they spend together.
Luis Gimenez
Groomsman
Ryan and Luis met each other through the hockey team at NC State. The fact that Luis is on Ryan's side of this list and not Heather's is a fact borne of tradition rather than a true reflection of the relationship between the couple and Luis. Very often, Ryan says that Luis and Heather are essentially the same person so when they all hang out it's like Ryan is talking to one very tall and masculine version of Heather and then the normal version of Heather or, conversely, a very short and feminine version of Luis and then the Spanish hockey star Luith Gimeneth Madill.
Megan Lenzmeier
Bridesmaid
Megan has played a vital role in the relationship between Heather and Ryan because early on in the relationship Ryan forgot to get a card for Heather's birthday and Megan made one real quick in the car. She's saved Ryan's behind plenty of times.
Thomas Freddoso
Groomsman
When Ryan and Thomas first met, Thomas was 7. Ryan immediately ingratiated himself by shooting Thomas right in the throat with a nerf gun. Thankfully, their relationship has improved from such uncertain beginnings.
Kaitlyn King
Bridesmaid
Kaitlin and Heather also met through their shared occupation of healing tiny sick humans. As a consequence, they have been through quite a lot together! Unrelated: Ask Kaitlin what a "sugar bowl" is and/or where one might find such an item; the answer will almost certainly surprise you.
Anthony Freddoso
Groomsman
Anthony has forgotten more about football than Ryan will ever know. Despite this fact, Ryan boasts a perfect 1-0 record against Anthony in Madden because Anthony took too long to get a field goal off in the dying seconds of the game. As such, Ryan categorically refuses to play any more matches in order to preserve his perfect record.
Ashley Brinkman
Bridesmaid
Guess where Ashley and Heather met! I'll give you a hint, it rhymes with Lick You and is involved with healing people. Anyway, Heather and Ashley share a mutual love of El Rodeo, reality TV, and generally hanging out with each other.
Michael Turak
Groomsman
Ryan and Michael met in high school where they used to talk about music, life, and sports. They are now firmly out of high school but still talk about music, life, and sports. During one particularly dreary study hall, Michael taught Ryan the game Crossed/Uncrossed which then took Ryan three years to actually understand. Decidedly not Ryan's proudest moment.
Melanie Bailie
Mother of the Bride
It's Mel B! You would be forgiven if you thought it was the Spice Girl; it's not but she's equally SPICY!
Linda Lenzmeier
Mother of the Groom
Fifty feet of love in a five foot frame; Linda likes damn near everyone and she isn't afraid to show it.
Joe Freddoso
Father of the Bride
This should be pretty self-explanatory. Father of the Bride. Probably misty-eyed, almost certainly bears a passing resemblance to the bride. Handed down an undying love of the Bills and an aggressively Italian last name.
John Lenzmeier
Father of the Groom
This one is self-explanatory too right? It's the Father of the Groom. Him and Ryan kind of look similar. They also share 2/3 names. Handed down a love of hockey and an unassailable belief that 10 hours of driving is close enough for a weekend trip.