Chelsea & Matthew
Wedding Party
Michelle Isom
Maid of Honor
Michelle and Chelsea have a friendship that is now old enough to drink! After meeting in second grade these two have stayed best friends through a host of moves (Chelsea's fault) and two children (Michelle's fault). Together, they have graced the world with an extremely low production value talk show, truly inedible baked goods, and some of the most aggressive Color Wars costumes summer camp has ever seen. Michelle is essentially Chelsea's personal flotation device: she is always up for an adventure, she lifts her up, and she often looks silly. She should probably be writing this section herself as her skill at captioning is unparalleled, and she could avoid a clunky metaphor. She, unfortunately, does not come with an ability to whisper.
Michael Harris
Bridesman
Mikey is Chelsea's younger brother, and is known for producing family classics like claiming that he's the "smart one" and Chelsea is the "try-hard one." He has also accurately summarized Chelsea's sportsmanship with his famous quip: "I don't know what's worse, when she's winning or when she's losing." As is evidenced in this photo, Mikey has been training to be a Bridesman since an early age, and was very disappointed by the lack of poofy sleeved options for the wedding party. Although his copying (from drawing style to refusing to go to daycare unless his hair was also in a bun) was a major source of angst in Chelsea's childhood, he has since far surpassed her in taste and fashion and was a great source of help in wedding planning.
Kevin McNerny
Bridesman
Kevin and Chelsea met fortuitously when they were housed in the same apartment while completing an away rotation in medical school. Although their friendship initially got off to a rocky start because Kevin insisted on doing activities that Chelsea either hated (running) or was inexplicably terrible at (frisby), the Maine lobster, craft beer, and ERAS anxiety was ultimately enough to make them fast friends. Kevin has contributed disastrously to Chelsea's ego by being easily the best audience for her jokes she has ever encountered. He and his fiance Jinny have proved to be wonderful travel companions, joining Matt and Chelsea in Shenandoah and the Poconos, and we hope that they will one day triumph over their inability to locate Baltimore.
Jessica Felton
Bridesmaid
Jessica has been Chelsea's rock throughout residency, with a friendship forged in the fire of the transplant service intern year. She has been a sounding board, study buddy, co-host, and the best looking Valentine's Day Dance Date a girl could ask for (sorry, not sorry, Matt). Jess is the organized friend everyone should be lucky to have, who always remembers the birthday, makes the reservation and actually knows where the restaurant is. In fact, she has miraculously never experienced life with 3-4 empty seltzer cans rolling around the backseat of her car. She and Chelsea have shared many a post-call boozy brunch date, and after making her first Virmilgrimage, she was successfully indoctrinated into the cult of the maple creemee.
Lauren Yagiela
Bridesmaid
Lauren and Chelsea met while getting their Master's Degree at the University of Michigan. Their friendship started as members of Team Sunshine: the select few who chose to sit with their backs to the whiteboard (where all the instruction was occuring) to face toward the window instead. Despite working intensely as a pediatric critical care fellow and training for triathaolons, Lauren always brought the fun. Despite her comically low alcohol tolerance, she was always up for group happy hour, she is a superb camping buddy, and she is willing to go to fancy high team even when soaked from biking in the rain all day. Most importantly, despite being effervescent, she still recognizes that sometimes you just have to drive through Wisconsin silently listening to NPR.
Michael Brown
Best Man
Michael is Matt's younger, much smarter brother, and doggie dad to a Toby monster. Michael affectionately referred to Matt as "Bubba" growing up, until his late teenage years. We still don't know if he can say the word "brother". Brothers Brown enjoyed watching movies together as kids, frequently partaking in cult classics: "Gremlins 2", "Edward Scissorhands", and "The Goonies". As seen in this photo, Michael has been dealing with his older brother picking on him his whole life. In this case, one would assume he was just jealous he couldn't pull off such an awesome acid washed jean jacket. All kidding aside, Matt and Michael grew close spending a year together at Virginia Tech and have enjoyed many Hokies tailgates, concerts, and other adventures visiting each other since.
Corey Wilson
Groomsman
Corey is Matt's cousin, fellow engineer, longtime concert buddy, and former college roommate at Virginia Tech. The enforcer, grill master, and brains behind the well-oiled apartment 1421G operation, Corey emerged as a natural leader. Born a week apart, Matt and Corey grew up like brothers and have always shared a passion for live music, having attended over 60 concerts together. Whether it be a long weekend at Jazz Fest in New Orleans or a blues band at Cat's Eye Pub in Baltimore, they always know where to find the crunchy tunes.
Shannon Gomez
Groomswoman
Shannon and Matt have been great friends and concert buddies for 13+ years since they both moved to Baltimore. She is slowly catching up to Corey for the total number of concerts attended together (a much sought after achievement, obvi). Historically a little late to most events, it's usually a good idea to add 15-20 minutes of Shannon buffer time to any activity; a lesson Matt has learned well in their years of adventuring together. That being said, Shannon is always a dependable and fun loving friend who doesn't mind that she sets herself up for "that's what she said" jokes on the regular.
Geoff Sanders
Groomsman
Geoff is Matt's cousin (of the fake variety) and former college roommate at Virginia Tech. If you need to know how to survive on Pokey Stix as a meal multiple times per week, Geoff is your guy. Known to many by his street name, Jaws McCool, he is a die hard Hokies and Mets fan, but we won't hold that last part against him. Matt and Geoff enjoy watching the Sopranos and several other TV series together. They will forever quote their favorite lines loudly in public, among many other childish things that leave Geoff's wife Rachel shaking her head. Forget about it! Go Braves! EH!
Ernie Sawyer
Groomsman
Ernie is one of Matt's best friends since middle school, and is yet another former college roommate at Virginia Tech (because it's the best). The "mature" one from 1421G, he has come a long way since his days of eating Hungry-Man TV dinners and having to be trained on how to load the dishwasher. Ernie is an avid wrestling fan and invited Matt over to watch every pay-per-view growing up (ohh yeahhh brother!!). Ernie is also a lifetime Baltimore sports fan and has gone on many adventures visiting Matt to catch a Ravens or Orioles game (60!!).