Maid of Honour
Irene Trierweiler
In 2019 Asia saved Irene. She saved her from becoming a Northern Michigan Wildcat. With only weeks to spare before the start of freshman year Asia convinced high school friend Irene to look into Michigan Tech for college even though she had committed to Northern. Irene was away working at a summer camp with no internet, so Asia took Irene's Michigan Tech log in, filled out paperwork, and crunched the numbers. Tech was $1,000 cheaper. So Irene made the switch and joined the Michigan Tech Huskies at the last second (best decision ever). The girls knew better than to be roommates so they did not request be to together, however Asia's dorm (504) was the only one in the hall with an open female spot so Irene was randomly placed in Asia's dorm, and they stayed roommates through all of collage. During Covid they moved into a campus apartment (1909A). 1909 became the place to be (where else could you go during covid) and the girls hosted many events and parties. Including a fateful "Sunday Family Dinner". Irene had decided to play matchmaker. Her boyfriend (now Fiancé) Brandon had a friend that Irene thought was a perfect match for Asia. Irene suggested he be invited over for one of the Family Dinners and Asia agreed. Irene spent the next few weeks talking up Brandon's friend, and then Brandon brought Zane to Family Dinner. And well you can really thank Irene for this wedding if you think about it. Irene, Brandon, Asia, and Zane spent the rest of college together, and they all graduated from Michigan Tech. While Irene and Brandon live in the UP and Asia and Zane are in Illinois they remain best friends. Irene and Brandon were the photographers for Asia and Zane's double proposal in April 2024 in Eagle River, MI. Two months later Asia and Zane photographed Brandon's proposal to Irene on Mackinaw Island. While all four are leading busy lives Asia and Irene always make sure to make time to call about wedding planning, homeownership, decorating for the next holiday (their favorite hobby), and their adorable kitties!
Best Man
Ryan Briggs
Ryan and Zane first met when they were both placed in Misnomer Hall in the Douglas Houghton Hall (DHH) dorm in their freshman year, but since Ryan was down the hall and around the corner, they didn’t hang out that much in the dorm at first. A few months into the semester though, Ryan asked Zane to join a band that he was starting up with Sean Hanson, and just in time too. See, Ryan had walked down to Zane’s dorm room to ask, but Zane had his bags packed, waiting to get picked up to go out of town for the weekend for a roller hockey tournament. 5 minutes later and Zane would have been gone, but luckily Ryan got there in time and Zane became the first member to join what would become the Playtesters (VGM Jazz Ensemble at Michigan Tech), a band that exclusively plays jazz arrangements of video game music, mostly arranged by students in the band. From there, outside of a brief hiatus due to COVID, Ryan and Zane were playing together in bands for the rest of college between the VGM band and both playing in the R&D Jazz Band then moving up to the top jazz band, Lab band, by their senior year. While music may have played a key part in starting their friendship, Ryan and Zane hung out quite a bit outside of music, doing things like playing Smash in the dorms, dominating in a Euchre tournament for the DHH hall cup, winning an award in a Lego competition despite leaving halfway through for VGM rehearsal, or playing broomball together on The Blues Brothers. Despite now living between 3-5 states away from each other, depending on where Ryan is for work at the time, they still hang out every week and play D&D with their friends over Discord.
Bridesmaid
Tailyn Klepsa-Orrey
Tailyn is part of the original MTU girls night squad (Tailyn, Julia, Irene, and Asia), in fact she might be considered the founder and starter of some of the most sacred girls night traditions. Girls nights would be held on a rotating basis, half at Tailyn and Julia's apartment, and half at Asia and Irene's, but no matter where they were held it had to include a giant bowl of tater tots and several games of Smartass. Tailyn is the group's party girl/wild child and all around good time. She convinced Asia to go to the only two college parties she went to and even convinced her to go to the bars for Tailyn's 22nd. She gets people to come of of their shells, relax, and enjoy life. She will be needed out of the dance floor at the reception! But she's not just all fun and games, she is also an incredibly hard worker and supportive friend. Asia and Tailyn call almost every day on the way into work and discuss projects at work, goals, finances, and anything on their minds really. Asia and Tailyn are both engineers that work at mines so they understand each other's day to day better than most. They advise each other, celebrate together, and sympathize with one another. Even though Tailyn is many states away she is one of Asia's closest friends.
Groomsman
Davy Lyons
Zane has been friends with Davy for about 8 years now, since Davy was a freshman in high school. Davy is 2 years younger than Zane, but when he was in 8th grade Davy ran out of math classes to take at the middle school. He started coming over to the high school during the day to take Algebra II, so Zane knew of him, but they didn't actually talk to each other much, if at all, that year. The summer after that though, Davy started to join the nerdy extracurriculars that Zane was involved in like robotics and quiz bowl, so they actually got to know each other. The two became fast friends, both having interests in math, programming, and gaming, and they spent a lot of time with each other, being in most extracurriculars together and being in the same math classes despite the age gap. Davy is the one responsible for getting Zane into Rocket League, which Zane has since spent almost 1,000 hours playing (most of it with Davy). When Zane went off to college, the two still kept in pretty good touch, playing games like Rocket League, Risk of Rain 2, Factorio, and chess with each other. A couple years later when Davy was looking at colleges, Zane tried to get him to come up to Tech and be a Husky, and at least convinced him to make a visit. Ultimately Davy decided to go to NIU instead, but at least he was still a Huskie (even though they spell it wrong at NIU). Davy is certainly the closest one of Zane's friends geographically, living under a half hour away, and they still play games together regularly.
Bridesmaid
Julia Becker
Julia is the final piece of the MTU girls night squad and true rock (maybe yooperlight?) of the friend group. Julia is a go with the flow, up for adventure friend from Northern Light and yooperlight hunting at 2am to concocting crazy cocktails for Tailyn and Irene. Julia was happy to hang at home, work on campus, head out to lake superior, and even hand out candy to trick or treaters. Julia is a calming presence and is the definition of true chill. That's part of why Asia and Julia got along so well, both happy to come along wherever whenever, but tending to stay back and content to just be there together. However, the true bonding experience for Asia and Julia is apple juice. Yes apple juice. Neither Asia or Julia were feeling like drinking at one girls night so they opted for the big jug of apple juice to split (who doesn't like apple juice?). They still participated in drinking games with the juice and this was a life changing mistake. Asia and Julia got stuck "riding the bus" and went through nearly a whole deck of cards and alot of drinks. By the end of the night the two of them nearly finished 100oz of apple juice. No one should have that much juice. Both girls became terribly sick for days after and as a result avoided apple juice for years after, and they never liked it the same again.
Groomsman
Sam Kalkman
Sam is another friend that Zane initially made through music. When Sam came to Michigan Tech he joined the pep band, R&D jazz band, and the VGM jazz ensemble, and being fellow drumline members/percussionists/rhythm section players, Zane and Sam got to know each other relatively quickly. Sam was a very active member of the VGM ensemble, responsible for several of Zane's favorite arrangements, and he never shied away from throwing difficult drum parts at Zane. When Sean graduated, Sam stepped up and helped Ryan lead the band, then when Ryan and Zane graduated, Sam took over fully and kept it running after all the original members that joined in the first year had graduated. Sam and Zane still talk very regularly - when a group of VGM members including Sam, Zane, and Ryan were talking about setting up a D&D game to stay in touch with each other, Sam volunteered to DM the game. That group has since met over Discord to play almost every single week since 2023, with Sam at the helm as DM, running his own homebrew campaign.
Flower Grandma
Grandma Deb (Asia's Maternal)
Asia's maternal grandmother has taken on the role of Flower Grandma, which couldn't be more fitting. One of Asia's main hobbies and passions is plants and gardening, which she inherited from her grandmother. Grandma Deb will also be helping with planning and arranging the wedding flowers!
Flower Grandma
Gaga/Bev Wacker (Zane's Maternal)
Bev Wacker (Gaga) is one of two Flower Grandmas. Gaga along with Asia and Grandma Deb also enjoys plants. She actually helped Zane and Asia start their garden at their first house, gifting them Irises and other flowers from her own garden!