Wedding Party
Tyler Cain
Co-Best Man
Tyler is Brian’s younger brother (I bet you can’t see the resemblance). Tyler is the most loyal and caring brother anyone could ask for. Tyler’s sentimentality is one of my favorite things about him; he loves deeply and isn’t afraid to express himself. When I was 16 and Tyler 13, we decided to surprise our family and buy the Christmas tree together. Tyler, with full sincerity, called it “brother bonding time”…I nearly turned the car around from cringing. Despite my protests, Tyler has called every instance we’ve been alone together “brother bonding time,” and over the years it has grown on me, mainly because I love being with him. In recent years, brother bonding time has occasionally included Ricardo, like last January when Tyler spent the weekend with us in NYC, and we had so much fun. Ricardo and I are so grateful to have him in our wedding and lives.
Allie DeCandia
Co-Maid of Honor
Allie and Ricardo met through the Facebook group for admitted students at Columbia University in the summer of 2011. We chatted throughout the summer and met up on campus on their first day of orientation. I spent my first year visiting Allie and friends on the 9th floor of John Jay, and we have been friends ever since, including living together our sophomore year in a suite. From our friendship came the “Adventure Squad” (us, Brian, Ed, and Maya) which has traveled every year to a new location in the US: Acadia, the Poconos, the Berkshires, Washington DC, New Orleans, Pacific NW, and counting! Brian and I are so grateful for your kindness and love for everyone in your life.
Frederick G. Bashara IV
Co-Best Man
Freddy is Brian’s cousin. We were born ten days apart and grew up side by side. We were always close, but our friendship reached new depths on our month-long road trip in the summer of 2016. We visited 6 cities, 10 national parks, and became lifelong travel partners. Since then, we’ve traveled together in Denmark, Morocco, and Canada. Even when we are not traveling together, we often find time to for fun adventures, a nice restaurant, or a riveting conversation over a good drink. Freddy is effectively my second brother, and I couldn’t imagine not having both brothers as my Best Men.
Claire Willeck
Co-Maid Of Honor
Ricardo first saw Claire showing up to her first day at work at Cornerstone Research about two weeks after my own first day on the job. I knew right away I wanted to be her friend and by the end of the first week, had luckily made it happen. We were inseparable at work (to Claire’s chagrin while she was busy) and outside of it, and lived together our second year on the job. We have continued to lead parallel lives through our respective PhD programs, working in science in the tech industry, and living across the street from each other on the Upper West Side. I am so lucky to be able to spend so much time with you and know we’ll always have each other’s backs.
Brian “BD” Donohoe
Groomsman
BD and Brian Cain (“BCain” to differentiate “the Brians”) are friends from college. We actually met at accepted students day, and hit it off immediately. BD invited me to live with him in his freshman dorm room…I am still teased for saying “thanks, but I think I’d like to trust the lottery,” assuming that the school used an advanced algorithm to pair students with compatible living habits (what an idiot). “The Brians” didn’t talk again until move-in day, when I discovered that my next-door neighbor was BD! The greater irony is that we went on to live together for the next 5 years at both Providence College and even Boston to work together at EY. Today we both live in Manhattan and get together almost weekly. We have been through so much together and I know I will always be able to depend on BD for the rest of my life. BD is my forever roommate and forever friend.
Andrea Wieland
Bridesmaid
Andrea is Ricardo's older sister, so she met Ricardo when their parents brought him home from the hospital a few days after being born. Andrea was my first English teacher, taking home everything she learned in pre-school and elementary school to teach back to me. She served as editor and publisher for the several novels I wrote as a child (she literally bound them and made covers for them), and in return I performed in all her shows and concerts to our parents. We were lucky enough to overlap in New York City for a few years, where we became even closer. She has made me a proud uncle of three beautiful babies.
Kyle Sarafian
Groomsman
Shortly after reconnecting with BD who lived next door, I looked further for my next college friends: directly across the hall. Three of my closest friends all lived together, including Kyle, Nick, and Matt, with the final member of the PC guys crew, Mark, living one more door down. Kyle is dependable and frequently referred to as the dad of the crew. It is this dependability and level-headedness that led me to trust Kyle with the most important sentence I ever uttered aloud, late on a summer night at my family’s Camp while everyone else was asleep: “I think I might be gay.” Kyle was ceaselessly supportive and kept my secret for over a year until I found the courage to come out to my whole family. I can never repay Kyle for being there when I needed him most.
Mary Cain Flippin
Bridesmaid
Mary (and her husband Mike) were the first of Brian’s family that Ricardo met, while we all lived in Cambridge, MA. This ended up being lucky since I got first approval from the person in Brian’s family with the highest bar for a partner and most sway in the family’s final judgment (being the oldest, most fabulous child after all). Since then we have enjoyed sharing Stoli Dolis, judging people, and falling asleep to a movie at 8pm. Mary was always a champion for Ricardo and he credits this wedding (finally) happening mainly to her.
Nick Komsa
Groomsman
Nick is confident, honest, and a great conversationalist. Nick laughs genuinely and whole-heartedly at everyone’s jokes, putting an air of joy in every conversation. Nick and I have drunk our way through Spain and Portugal, spent two weeks together in Ghana on a class trip, and lived together for almost a year leading up to the pandemic in Boston (with BD, my forever roommate, of course). Nick and his now-wife Jenna (also an amazing friend of mine from PC) were the first two friends to meet Ricardo, and took our first couple photo at Tavern in the Square (TITS). Every experience with Nick is exciting, entertaining, and filled with laughter.
Cecilia Wen
Bridesmaid
Ricardo and Cecilia met at work at Cornerstone Research in 2015. We quickly became friends as she lent a listening ear to my early adulthood dramas, and somehow arranged entrance to many of New York’s hottest clubs on a weekend. We have traveled together to Eastern Europe (Prague, Vienna, Budapest) and to my home in Puerto Rico. Even after ten years, we take the chance to visit each other any chance we get when we are in New York City or San Francisco, respectively. Cecilia is one of those friends I can just dive right in with, no matter the time apart.
Michael Flippin
Groomsman
Mike is Brian’s brother-in-law and has become a true friend over the 7+ years we’ve known each other. Mike is one of the Big 7 who lived in my childhood home for four months at the beginning of the pandemic, which provided no space but plenty of time to get closer. I could always tell that Mike is one of the most fun and genuine people I had ever met. At Mike’s bachelor party in 2022, I got to see just how many people feel the same way about Mike. That weekend featured nearly 30 of Mike’s closest friends, people he actually keeps in touch with in such an honest and loving way that they are truly his close friends. He is an amazing father, husband, in-law, and friend. Ricardo and I are thrilled to have him and Mary in the wedding and our lives.
Maya Anjur-Dietrich
Bridesmaid
Ricardo met Maya through Allie during college. It wasn’t until 2019 when we took their first trip together as a mini-family to Acadia National Park, when Maya led the gang through a 2am sunrise hike up Cadillac Mountain. While there wasn’t any sun when we got to the top and I feared all the frogs we heard on the way up, this experience was the start of many wonderful annual trips with the Adventure Squad. We even decided to let Brian join the squad starting in 2020. Maya’s calm demeanor, assured leadership style, and ability to do anything successfully makes her an amazing travel partner and great friend!