The Ladies:

Carmen Mandeville: Carmen and Colleen were on the same soccer team in 3rd grade, and Carmen started at St. Bernadette’s school that next year. After they both fractured extremities in 5th grade, they bonded over being ‘fractured friends’. They remained best friends in high school, where Carmen, Tom and Colleen were all in the same Chemistry class. Carmen was the one that suggested Tom take Colleen to the winter formal junior year, where Tom and Colleen became best friends. She likes to remind Tom and Colleen that she is the reason they are getting married. Carmen’s hilarious and awesome son Matthew is the ringbearer. Carmen lives in Gainesville, VA and Colleen invites herself over alot to watch Harry Potter movies.

Fun “Fact”: Carmen has a tendency to write her name on envelopes addressed to others. Its happened enough times that it warrants being mentioned under her fun fact.

AnnMarie MacDonald Kelly:

Colleen and AnnMarie have been best friends since the age of 5 at St. Bernadette’s School.  They remained friends in high school at PVI and celebrated such athletic accomplishments such as getting cut from freshman volleyball, not making the lacrosse team that same year, and then finally making the lacrosse team as juniors and the oldest players on JV Lacrosse. AnnMarie currently lives in Reston, VA.

Fun “Fact”: AnnMarie is very persuasive. She once convinced the cashier at Home Depot at 10pm to give her a full refund on the dead hydrangea plants she was carrying in a garbage bag. This was the second time she had returned dead hydrangeas that week. Both times she got a full refund.

 

Liz McCarthy: Liz and Colleen became best friends in high school after bonding in Deacon Nick’s Desktop Publishing class in 2001.  Since then, they have basically been inseparable, even continuing into college at Villanova University.  They were married on Facebook for over 10 years (RIP) and even shared a a sweet apartment in Dupont for a brief 3 months last year.  Liz has been there through all the big moments, like trying creme brule for the first time, going to pool parties at 17, giving flip-flops to children in Dominican Republic, cutting Colleen’s bangs (also RIP), and watching every episode of Arrested Development together 50 times. Liz currently lives in Boston and is currently starring in her own production of the movie “Frozen”.

Fun Fact: Colleen and Liz lost to a couple in high school for “Most likely to be seen together”. That couple is no longer together.  We still are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dawn Reikowsky: Dawn and Colleen have been best friends since grade school at St. Bernadette’s.  They spend most of their time together laughing because everything is always funnier with Dawn – school, workcamp, sleepovers, the pool, amusement parks, even driving around their hometown of Springfield.  Although Dawn currently lives in Arizona, they stay in touch via phone – some phone calls lasting over 4 hours.

Fun Fact: Dawn has gone by many nicknames over the years, but Queen Latifah has been the only one that has stuck. Dawn just really likes Queen Latifah.

 

Maid of Honor / Matron of Honor:

Maureen Kiley/Eileen Kiley Curren: Maureen and Eileen are Colleen’s two older sisters. They have known Colleen her whole life. Although they often made fun of her short statue growing up, Colleen now reigns as the tallest Kiley sister. They enjoy such activities as shonding (shopping and bonding), watching the same 5 romantic comedies over and over, and jumping on each others’ beds to wake each other up in the morning. They make the best MOHs because they give the best honest opinions, have been very supportive over the years, and are Colleen’s two oldest best friends. Eileen lives close in Arlington, VA and Maureen lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Fun Fact: Both Eileen and Maureen (actually all Kiley women) have an amazing memory of every embarrassing moment you’ve ever had (and most likely hope to forget). And they don’t mind bringing it up all the time, because the good, the bad, and the ugly all make for an amazing story.

 

The Men:

Best Man: Ryan Donnelly: Ryan and Tom have known each other since middle school and went to Paul VI together. They played lacrosse together and spent summers either cruising around Vienna or hanging out at Ryan’s pool and demanding that Ryan’s mom make them popcorn. They were such good friends, in fact, that Tom frequently saw no problem hanging out at Ryan’s house even when Ryan wasn’t there. Ryan currently lives in San Francisco.

Fun “Fact”: Ryan has been to six different continents and tells stories about near-death experiences on at least four of them.

Groomsmen:

 

 Sean Milligan: According to historical records (i.e. Sean’s own wedding website), Sean and Tom met on the first day of high school at PVI. While Tom still doesn’t remember this, there is no dispute that they became fast friends. They spent a lot of time at the Oakton Friendly’s, Sean’s basement, and, of course, Ryan D’s house (see above). They also played lacrosse together until Tom had to quit in their junior year because he was failing math. Sean, like Colleen, also attended the beautiful Villanova University. Sean lives outside Philadelphia, somewhere near Tom’s cousins’ house.

Fun “Fact”: Sean won a student council election in high school based largely on the fact that he could pick his hair into a nearly 2-foot high afro.

Warren Waterman: Warren is from Long Island, which is one of the first things you learn upon meeting him. Tom and Warren were roommates in their third-year at the University of Virginia, living in the palatial setting of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity house. They share an undying love/frustration with UVA sports, although football brings out more frustration than love these days (luckily we still have basketball). Warren now lives in Arlington, VA.

Fun “Fact”: Warren’s nickname in college was “Master Splinter.” While some people might question the appropriateness of this nickname, those people have never seen Warren eat an entire block of cheese.

 

Brian Randolph: Brian (sorry, Randolph) and Tom also lived together at UVA, although Randolph probably wished they hadn’t every time he found a peanut butter-covered knife that Tom had forgotten to put away. Nevertheless, they have stayed friends since then. Tom and Randolph even lived around the corner from each other in Southwest DC, although Randolph moved across the city after a month. Maybe it was memories of the peanut butter-covered knives. Randolph lives in the District of Columbia.

Fun “Fact”: Brian was the third-leading tackler in South Carolina high school football his senior year, or so he says.

 

 

Yi Shen: Perhaps the highlight of Yi and Tom’s friendship was the invention of the ‘Jim’ game, in which players insert our friend Jim’s name into movie titles (it’s at least marginally better in person, trust me). There were also, of course, the trips to UVA’s dining hall on Saturday morning and the pseudo-intellectual conversations over a refreshing beer or two. Tom, Yi and Randolph also shared an apartment over one summer in Charlottesville when Tom was taking Russian classes and Yi and Randolph were finishing their second majors in Tiger Woods golf on Playstation. Yi lives in Gaithersburg, MD.

Fun “Fact”:  Tom has spent more time on road trips with Yi than anyone else other than his immediate family members (for proof, see ‘Jim’ game above)