Bridesmaids
Marcella Pearl
Maid of Honor
Marcella and Christa met on the first day of school sophomore year in High School at Egg Harbor (aka: the best breakfast restaurant in Hinsdale if you are looking for great breakfast while in Chicago/Hinsdale for the wedding). Since then, they have remained great friends. Marcella has been the best and most supportive of friends – from prom dress shopping, to wedding dress shopping advising, and from AP US History study guide making to offering advice about IRAs and retirement funds. And that just skims the surface. She’s the best!
Christa is so incredibly grateful and thankful to have Marcella as her Maid of Honor. She has been extraordinarily kind, considerate, and supportive, and Christa couldn’t imagine planning a wedding without her! Or life without her for that matter! Marcella is currently working at EY in Chicago and very much enjoying life in her favorite of cities.
Cristy Vega
Cristy is Christa’s ‘big’ in DG and was actually the first person she met in all of Delta Gamma! Little did Christa know on that long, long, dreaded day of recruitment that she was going to meet one of her best friends, biggest confidants, and role model! Cristy exudes warmth, passion, and love within simple seconds of being in her presence, and her smile and beautiful personality always brighten the dullest of days.
Christa has the fondest of memories of her time with Cristy – whether that be studying away on a Friday night at the library, dancing the night away at Harrys, or trudging through six inches of snow in the middle of March to go to a Macklemore concert (Ellie can attest to this one too). Christa looks up to Cristy as a friend and role model for her maturity, grace, passion, kindness, loving heart, and so so much more. Cristy currently lives in her favorite city, Washington DC, and works for Accenture!
Elizabeth Natoli
Elizabeth (i.e. Ellie) and Christa lived in the same apartment building when Christa was a junior at WashU and Ellie was a senior. Ellie was the best, most perfect apartment buddy Christa could have ever asked for. Ellie and Christa spent the best of times together – from curling up in a blanket and chit-chatting for the evening and watching ‘Friends’, to venturing to Winslows for a lazy Saturday brunch, to getting ready for a good old Harry’s evening, Ellie was the best friend Christa could have asked for.
Aside from all of their adventures, Ellie was always the most caring, inspiring, kind friend, and was one of Christa’s biggest supporters and confidants. Christa thinks so fondly of their year together on good old Forsyth. Ellie also always made sure Christa was appropriately dressed for the weather that day J Elizabeth is currently living in New York City and working at Micheal Kors!
Madeline Rossman
Christa remembers the first time she met Madeline – at a Delta Gamma ‘speed dating’ event and very distinctly remembers their conversation being the most interesting, entertaining, witty, and enjoyable of the evening. An instant connection, if you will. Since that evening, Madeline and Christa have remained great friends and Christa couldn’t imagine her college years without Madeline. Christa fondly referred to Madeline as her “surrogate big” in Delta Gamma.
Madeline is kind, caring, witty, mature, and full of wisdom, all combinations that make her the best of friends and role models. Talking and spending time with Madeline always leaves the greatest of smiles on Christa’s face. Christa is truly blessed to have a friend as wonderful, kind, and considerate as Madeline. Madeline is currently living in Washington DC and working at Capital One!
Mary Leamy
Mary Leamy is simply the best. Mary and Christa actually grew up quite close to each other, Mary – Riverside, Christa – Hinsdale (on the same train line into the city for all you out-of-towners). Mary went to Fenwick and Christa went to Hinsdale Central (neighboring high schools, once again for all you out-of-towners), and they both swam in high school! Leading them to believe they had probably somehow crossed paths prior to their college days. Mary and Christa met in DG, and Christa has the best of memories of her time with Mary, such as their epic banana brunch at First Watch, and their car rides to and from STL and Chicago (with ‘thin crust’ Dominoes pizza), just to name a few.
Mary is one of the kindest, warmest, positive, supportive people you will ever meet, and Christa is blessed to consider her such a close friend. Mary currently lives in Chicago and works at Nielsen! Which means Christa has the ultimate pleasure of seeing Mary whenever she comes home for breaks and holidays.
Ally Brabant
Ally is Christa’s ‘grand little’ from Delta Gamma, which makes Christa the ‘grand big’. Christa likes to think Ally keeps her young. Christa is so thankful and blessed to have had Ally in St. Louis with her post graduation. They have enjoyed frequent dinner dates together (which always include dessert), and a few climbing adventures too! Ally has been one of the most kind, caring, and supportive of friends. She truly has a heart of gold.
Ally is graduating from Washington University in St. Louis in mid-May, so make sure to wish her congratulations (and good luck on her finals!) at the wedding when you see her!! She is excited to be entering ‘the real world’ (as college students/recent college graduates so affectionately call it) upon graduation, working at Graphiq in Santa Barbara, which is just a few short driving hours away from San Diego :)
Danielle Pigeon
Danielle is Christa’s soon-to-be younger sister-in-law. Danielle is finishing up her sophomore year in high school, and Christa is SO excited to be living in the same city as Danielle come May. Christa is looking forward to playing endless games of ‘Contact’ with Danielle in the car (and hopefully Christa get’s a little better than she currently is!), and boogie boarding at the beach together (as long as Danielle coaxes Christa into the initially cold water!), and so so much more. Christa can’t wait to watch Danielle truly excel in her last few years of high school, and is looking forward to going to cross country meets, water polo games, and much more! Danielle is bubbly and kind and has the warmest of hearts – she is truly wonderful and Christa is beyond excited to call her a sister.
Faith Pigeon
Faith is Christa’s soon-to-be oldest sister-in-law. Christa is SO excited to have Faith in her wedding party and so excited for their years to come as sisters. Christa has been blessed to spend the Easter, Labor Day weekend, and Christmas with Faith and has very much welcomed having a sister around – and one so wonderful, special, and kind-hearted at that! Christa is also excited to have another buddy that doesn’t like playing cold car.
Faith is incredibly warm, compassionate, poised, mature, caring, and Christa is so excited to see what the future has in store for Faith as she heads off to college next year. Watching her sister succeed and flourish will truly be a blessing!
Margo Sultenfuss
Margo is Christa’s ‘grand big’ in Delta Gamma – the matriarch of the pledge family lineage here at the wedding, or more specifically, bridal party. Christa remembers meeting Margo right after learning Cristy was her big, and being slightly intimidated of meeting/knowing a junior – and one as poised and mature as Margo! Those feelings were quickly dispelled. Christa looks up to Margo on so many different levels – as a kind, caring, sweet, and loving friend, and a poised, mature, strong, and levelheaded role model.
Margo currently lives in Boston and works for HubSpot. Christa interned in Boston the Summer of 2014, and Margo was the best friend, familiar face, and Boston tour guide that Christa could have asked for!
Groomsmen
Travis Morioka
Best Man
Travis and Dylan have known each other since 8th grade Social Studies but truly became friends in high school and throughout their college years. They would make a trip or two each semester to Berkeley or San Luis Obispo to “goof off” and partake in shenanigans. They’ve grown up a lot since those days, and post graduation found themselves at Masters programs in Boston and DC; living that East Coast lifestyle. Travis married the lovely Christine in 2014, for which Dylan was his best man.
ENS Morioka (soon to be Lieutenant) is currently finishing his fourth year of medical school at The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and will be heading to Camp Lejeune to start his residency in Family Medicine. They look forward to many exciting adventures in their shared profession as Naval officers and physicians.
Guy Ricciardulli
Guy is Dylan’s cousin, but more accurately his brother. They grew up together, playing cowboys and indians (Native Americans), Ninja Turtles, Army, Navy, and all matter of young boy creative playtime activities. They enjoyed years of Pop Warner football (when Dylan was the same size as everyone else) and little league baseball. Guy even convinced Dylan to sleep in their football gear the night before games during countless sleepovers.
Guy continued his athletic pursuits to play football at Humboldt State University. Currently he is living in San Diego and working as a college recruiter and “crushing it”.
John Stathopoulos
John is soon to be Dylan's brother, for which Dylan is quite thrilled! John is an old soul at heart. He shreds on the cello and enjoys going to the symphony, bringing his music score to follow along. John is currently in his last year at Boston College as a premed student. John, at Dylan’s suggestion, worked at the Painted Turtle this previous summer and had a blast! They didn’t get to work together over the summer but they were able to hang out on intercessions, and Dylan joined John on his second ever experience camping.
One day, Dylan hopes to convince John to try slacklining.
Marc Nelson
Marc and Dylan also ran Cross Country and Track and Field together at Westview High School. When they weren’t running they were listening to music, burning each other CDs or going to concerts. Marc went to UCSB for college, only a short 5 hour drive from Berkeley. Marc came to many a game days at Berkeley, and Dylan ventured to many a Halloweens in SB. They have spent almost every New Years since 2005 together.
Marc currently lives in Stockholm Sweden, with his girlfriend Hanna. His love of maps has lead him to pursuing a Masters in Geography (or something like that).
Thiago Desouza
Thiago is a fellow medical student at SLU and claims that Dylan met him 3 to 4 times before he actually remembering him. It wasn’t until they played soccer together and talked about rock climbing that they became great friends. The solidifying moment in Dylan’s brain of Thiago being “one cool dude” is after a day of soccer, Thiago hopped on his 600cc Honda motorcycle and rode off into the sunset.
Since that fateful day, Thiago and Dylan have gone on countless adventures, including but not limited to rock climbing in Kentucky, Illinois, Arkansas, Nevada, California, Washington, and British Columbia. Thiago is one of the most generous souls you will ever meet, he claims it is his “Brazilian upbringing” but we all know better. He is pursuing a career in Emergency Medicine, which is a perfect fit for his adventurous spirit and caring nature.
Greg Adamson
Greg actually first met Dylan’s mom outside the dorms of Unit 3 at Berkeley before he met Dylan. Greg and Dylan became fast friends and ended up rushing/joining Phi Kappa Tau together. They shared the same major of Integrative Biology and had loads of the same classes, including Ornithology (the study of birds) which was arguably the hardest class they both took. Dylan serendipitously followed Greg to The Painted Turtle camp and then to St. Louis University School of Medicine where they lived together for 2 years.
Greg is currently a Resident Physician in Pediatrics at UCSF, and enjoys hiking, etch-a-sketching, and continually reminding Dylan that he hasn’t run a half marathon.
Jake Ainsworth
Jake and Dylan ran Cross Country and Track and Field together back in their skinnier days at Westview High School. Jake was “the fastest kid alive” and continued his running career for Northern Arizona University and Cal State University Long Beach.
Jake and Dylan were roommates for a glorious year in 2009 in Long Beach, where they began their foray into the complex art of homebrewing. Jake was hooked, and has followed his passion to a position as a brewer at Smog City, the best microbrewery in the Greater Los Angeles area.
Kyle Johnson
Kyle and Dylan have been friends since their days of AP Government at Westview High School. They parted ways as Kyle went to UCSB to be a Gaucho and study finance. Kyle currently lives in San Diego, and Dylan surfs and eats burritos with Kyle every time he is in town. Kyle is one of the most generous and loyal individuals Dylan has ever met.
Kyle is currently doing something with finance/money/economics that is quite beyond Dylan’s comprehension. Dylan is looking forward to being Kyle’s neighbor next year as Christa and Dylan are moving to north county San Diego!
Nick Stathopoulos
Nick is also soon to Dylan’s new brother. They haven’t made too many memories together as of yet, but the times they have spent together have been inspiring! They share a common love of cycling, climbing, triathlons, and craft beer. Unfortunately, Nick is a cat person, so it appears they disagree on a some things.
Nick is currently living in New Orleans with his cats, Calvin and Hobbes. He is earning his MBA from Tulane while working a thousand jobs (I think currently the count is down to 2).