Wedding Party
Lindsey Shoales
Maid of Honor
Lindsey is my one and only sister who is near and dear to my heart. The best friend I have for life! The one who holds all my secrets! Even though in our younger years we may not have thought of each other in this way I am so lucky to have her. One of the most vivid memories I have include chasing her around the house, jumping on and off the beds, only to break my foot! We tried to hide this from our Dad, but it didn't last long.. I was in trouble! Always in trouble! I wish I had her closer to me now, but I know she is always there the second I call her! Love you sis!
Jessica Carsten
Bridesmaid
Jessica is Matthews sister- a bonus sister to me! She is nothing but kind and has given us the sweetest gift of her baby girl, Jianna. We enjoy spending time together at the family camp in the summer. Where we often are building moats and catching little fish with our other little munchkin James! We are so glad she lives close as she has graciously helped me care for our fur baby Zoey when Matt is away. I can't thank her enough for all she offers to help with!
Becca Kegl
Bridesmaid
My Tennessee girl! Becca and I met in our first years of college. From what they say- those you meet in college are the friends you'll have for life even if you don't see or talk to them for months or more at a time. I know neither of us would have thought this in the first few months of living together back then, but I do believe this now. While she was still in the Syracuse area, we spent a lot of time going on all sorts of adventures that we look back on now and think.. how did we even end up in that situation! Lots of laughs, maybe a few too many cocktails at times, but memories for sure!
Kim Huffman
Bridesmaid
I met Kim only a couple years ago when I transferred jobs into Interventional Radiology. I was warned when accepting the job that "these are a different breed of people". I felt otherwise, she was so welcoming and accepting, which made the transition so easy. We soon found out that we only lived a short distance away from one another which led to us hanging out, outside of work quite often. Whether it included going to the brewery in our hometown, letting Zoey run wild in her back yard, still inviting me to IR work dinners, or attending Yoga classes. Needless to say I am glad I can call her my friend- work friends become the best of friends!
Jason Lenchert
Best Man
Jason is my best man as he always has been as long as we’ve been friends. I remember summers in high school a small group of us spending every day together with no worries. When football practice started in early August we’d have practice the entire day and then we’d all go hang out the rest of the day at the NYS State Fair or whatever else high schoolers do. Those were the good old days which carried onto college breaks when we were all home for the summer. We transitioned to spending a lot of time up at Sandy Pond where our normal routine was to go to the beach, drink beers, and cook a lot of good food (BBB as we called it - Beach, Beers, BBQ). Now he lives the good life down in St. Augustine where we still hang out often.
David Siembida
Groomsman
Dave and I first met in college up in Potsdam, NY. We both transferred from other schools in order to join Air Force ROTC in hopes of becoming pilots. Even though we both attended different schools up north we became very close through ROTC. We caused some ruckus along the way, especially where a bunch of us Air Force guys lived at Craig House (which was shortly thereafter condemned, not that we had anything to do with that…). After college we went to pilot training in different parts of the country but he eventually moved back to the east coast flying KC-10s. We continued to be close and spent a lot of time up on Lake Ontario with a lot of our other pilot buddies. Now he lives on the Texas-Mexico border instructing green Air Force pilots how to not fly into Mexico airspace but we still remain close getting down there to see him as often as we can.
Chris Colwell
Groomsman
Chris is your classic definition of a Nu Yorka and as such we became great friends when we were at pilot training in the deep south of Mississippi. We eventually ended up living together in a house with our other good friend TJ (who had the patience to put up with us). We contributed our share of trouble running around from Atlanta, Nashville, all the gulf shore beaches, and the streets of New Orleans but somehow we eventually both survived and graduated. Now both of us have the typical pilot lifestyle flying for both the NY Air National Guard and the airlines. Considering he “accidentally” shaved one of his eyebrows off for a pilot graduation let’s hope (for Courtney’s pictures sake) that he shows up in December with both eyebrows in tact.
Jamie Carsten
Groomsman
I’m lucky that my sister found her husband Jamie who is the closest thing I have to a brother. Like most of us in our family, we spend most of our time together up at Sandy Pond most of the year including the winter. When we’re not up there, we’re usually at their house Camillus spending time with family. Jamie is a great father to my first nephew James and our family’s newest addition, Jianna. I'm not only lucky to have him as a groomsman but more importantly as part of my family.