Wedding Party
Throughout their lives, both together and apart, Laura and Josh have amassed a collection of incredible friends and family. They cannot imagine this day without them, and are pleased to introduce them to you now:
Maya Varthi
Maid of Honor
Maya and Laura met freshman year at Penn and Maya has been lending Laura clothes and accessories ever since. After countless fan appearances at a cappella shows and rugby games, impromptu cocktail hours, and adventures through Philly, Maya and Laura now live in different cities and have weekly discussions about why this is bad for them. After spending the fall of their junior year withholding judgment, Maya decided Josh was good enough for Laura after all and five years later, helped Josh pick out the ring! Maya is a third year medical student at Tufts and has recently discovered that she is now capable of getting up at 4am.
Ben Dodson
Best Man
Josh and Ben met freshman year at Penn and instantly bonded over Nintendo and punk rock music. They were roommates throughout college, and Ben was instrumental in helping Josh build up the confidence to ask Laura on their first date. Josh has tried to be a good friend, but knows he can never repay Ben for that kindness. Ben is currently finishing his masters in Computer Science at Stanford University. He is pictured here looking dapper at a wedding in 2008.
Jena Gordon
Bridesmaid (Groom's sister)
When Josh got his driver’s license and was forced to drive Jena to school every morning, he realized that life would be a lot better if he stopped thinking about her as his annoying younger sister and started thinking of her as his friend. Since then, they’ve had about as great a relationship as siblings can ask for. Despite being younger, Jena always seemed to be the smarter and more insightful of the Gordon children, and Josh can’t believe how lucky he is to be able to talk to her and get advice about anything at all. Jena is currently working at a consulting firm in Boston, and is pictured here with her future sister-in-law, plus two crazy costumed Disney characters (Lilo and Stitch, to be precise) during a 2009 trip to Disney World.
David Freeman
Groomsman (Bride's brother)
Laura spent her childhood desperately trying to be cooler than her brother. This worked out well when he managed to be the smartest person to ever graduate from their high school and in the meantime dominated the quiz bowl, knowledge bowl, math league, and science olympiad teams, as well as all other forms of academic competition known to Minnesota. When he left for college, however, Laura discovered that her brother was pretty awesome and they promptly became friends. Although he still thinks “Freemans hate secrets,” he managed to help Josh keep his proposal a surprise for seven months (with key help from his wife Torrey). David (or Dave, as everyone but his family is allowed to call him) is pictured here with Laura and Josh in Amsterdam, where he lived for a year with his wife and two furry cats until they all migrated back to Palo Alto in December 2009.
Alex Bellos
Groomsman
Alex has truly been a guiding light of maturity and clear-headedness in Josh’s life. One of Josh’s longest-tenured college roommates, he, along with Ted, once flew across the country just to have dinner with Josh and Craig. Granted, it was at Per Se, but still, it was a nice gesture. Alex just moved to New York City to hang out with Josh more. Here, he poses with Josh while they wear very chic pink ties.
Craig Cohen
Groomsman
Sports fan and trivia master extraordinaire. The number of hours Josh and Craig have spent watching football together border on the uncountable. Their culinary adventures in and around New York range from bagels to ramen to foie gras, but Josh would never go to the grocery store without Craig. Craig currently trades the Yen in New York City (but no one really knows what that means) and is pictured here with Josh holding the fruit (singular) of their fishing labors.
Ariane Dweck
Bridesmaid
Ariane and Laura bonded junior year at Penn when most of their friends went abroad and left them to cuddle in Ariane’s bed. Having crossed paths in multiple cities since graduating, Laura is lobbying for Ariane and her husband to join her in New York next year so that they can change their phone dates into in-person cheese-eating dates and continue where they left off senior year. Ariane is a second year student at Harvard Business School and has been Laura’s go-to guide in all things wedding related, including Laura’s bridal shower in Boston during which Ariane and Laura are pictured here.
Lauren Frank
Bridesmaid
Lauren is Laura’s oldest friend, dating back to kindergarten and the days of naps, coloring, and the occasional juicebox. After bonding in elementary school over their shared love of cats and coining a joint nickname (the Laurfr’s), Laura and Lauren have progressed to Caribou coffee coolers and a puppy apiece. Lauren is a lawyer in Minneapolis, making her Laura’s first grown-up friend and chairwoman of the “move Laura back to Minnesota” campaign. Lauren and Laura are pictured here in Lauren’s beautiful new house (see, grown-up!!) in Minnetonka.
Eric Lee
Groomsman
A fellow history buff, so long as that history is limited to World War Two. While everyone was wasting their time at college getting a bachelor’s degree, Eric somehow managed to get a master’s simultaneously. And waste lots of time, like everyone else, playing Madden. Probably the smartest person Josh knows. Eric is getting his MD/PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Here, he and Josh are posing at a wedding in 2009.
Jennifer Pavane
Bridesmaid
Jenn and Laura became friends at the end of their sophomore year at Penn and never looked back. Jenn was one of the few people to stay in Philly after graduation, and as one of Laura’s roommates they gracefully made the transition from overcommitted college students with lime green and bright yellow walls to overcommitted post-college students with a clean, functioning, “normal” apartment. Jenn is a third year law student at Yale, so these days Jenn and Laura find themselves spending many of their working hours in long-winded gchat discussions. Jenn and Laura are pictured here at the Pirate Museum in the Bahamas, enjoying their mutual love of nerdy history lore during spring break 2006.
Ted Ross
Groomsman
The consummate climber, outdoorsman, and culinary critic. Ted can talk for hours about sports, food, motorcycles or action movies starring or inspired by Governor Schwarzenegger. Ted also goaded Josh into participating in – and besting – the spicy wing challenge at University Chicken in California. Ted works in health care management in San Francisco, and moonlights as a porkblogger. This is a picture of him teaching Josh how to fish during a 2009 camping trip. Too bad they didn’t catch anything.
Garrett Young
Groomsman
Garrett shares Josh’s love of politics and New England sports franchises, and also holds the prize for person Josh looks shortest next to in pictures. While living in D.C. together, Josh and Garrett spent many nights on the roof arguing passionately about things they didn’t care about at all. Today, Garrett still lives in D.C. and is a technology management consultant. This picture is from one of the many dinner parties that Garrett and Josh hosted in "The District."
