Meet the Ladies of the Club.

So I believe the first order of business is for me to let you get to know the ladies here. Certainly not all of them will be contributing, some of them will be on a very sparse basis, etc. No matter, I think it's important we do some virtual hand-shaking. And probably hugging. Girls hug.

My Maid of Honor, Brynn. My sister who is seven years my junior somehow manages to be all things above me: funnier, smarter, prettier, crazier, cooler, taller, better dressed, more together and wonderful...er. There was no hesitation or thought needed to make this choice - she is my best friend above all best friends, and we have the best sibling relationship I have ever witnessed. I may be partial, of course, but I like to consider myself a realist. My parents got it right with the two of us (two only children ;) ), and I am so happy she will be my Maid of Honor at the wedding. She is just the coolest girl I know. Seriously.

My bridesmaid, Kristen. Despite all of the pictures from our childhood (most show me squeezing her to death, and her crying trying to wriggle away), Kris and I have always had a pretty amazing bond. I went to the hospital when she was born, and I was so excited to see her - I was getting SOMEONE to play with! We did everything together for the first ten years or so of our lives, from watching "John-Jean Tape" over and over and over (our aunt and uncle's wedding video), to going trick-or-treating "down the point", and then mostly everything together since then. I have watched her pitch countless amazing softball games, slept on countless floors, couches, and beds all over New England with her, and have seen her countless hair colors over the years and I love that her response to me asking her to be a bridesmaid was "Definitely!" followed immediately by "now I have to go on a diet." (She doesn't.)

My bridesmaid, Meghan. In the craziness of my move to New York, my first job, my stress over finding a place to live and all of the other "bad" that can come along with moving here, I met Meghan and thank God for that. I'd like to get an exact time on how quickly we arrived at our first "inside" joke. Three years later, Meg and I are mostly full of inside jokes - and kind of act like old men in that we tend to repeat all of our good ones together every time we hang out. Miraculously, from this, we usually arrive at a couple dozen new jokes by the time the night is over. She has invited me in to the traditions she has shared with her best friends for years, which has led me to do so many fun things - like driving to Savannah, Georgia for St. Patrick's Day. I don't know that I laugh with anyone else like I laugh with Meghan, and that's why I asked her to be my bridesmaid. I simply can't imagine everything being nearly as much fun without her along.

My bridesmaid, Becca. Bec and I managed to spend four years in the same city, on the same campus, and mostly in the same building (not to mention growing up mere miles from each other) without really being more than acquaintances. Take this and add graduation, my big move, and a quick e-mail to see how everything was going, stir with 1/4 cup sugar and you have a long-distance best-friendship. Becca and I have seen each other through the best and worst of the past three years, mostly through e-mails, a smattering of amusing drunken phone calls, and as frequent visits as we can accomplish. The best description of our friendship, is every time I would drive to Boston on a Friday night, and it had taken me six hours just to get through Connecticut, I would call her as I was hitting the city and she would call and order pizza (and french fries) so it would be there for me when I finally got to her apartment. That's an amazing friend.

My bridesmaid, Jodi. Had you asked Jodi and I during say, our junior years of high school, if we would be friends at 25, I think we both probably would have spit our soda (or pizza rolls) out our mouths. Somehow, two girls who could not have been more different, ended up being so alike it's actually a bit weird sometimes. We chose the same best friend, we chose the same college, and we chose the same sorority. Jodi can save me from any bad mood with a few minutes on the phone. We know all the same people, gossip about all the same places, and think that if we could somehow combine the two of us physically and mentally we would be a superhuman of a woman, unable to be stopped from breaking every heart on the eastern coast. We have a big kind of love between us and I have deemed her the "social chair" of this wedding.

My bridesmaid, Christy. Despite the fact that her Monday is my Sunday for the next few years (she recently moved to Tokyo with her husband, who's a lawyer in the USAF), Christy remains one of my absolute favorite people in the world to talk to. Christy was the craigslist find of a lifetime. She moved into an extra room in the apartment I was living in two years back, and I couldn't believe my luck. She is smart, honest, funny, helpful, supportive, and the most organized person I have ever known. I was so honored to stand up for her at her wedding last December, and could not be more thrilled that she's willing to do the same for me. We have screamed together while playing the Jurassic Park game at her bachelorette party in Chicago, we have ordered Bubby's with the best of 'em (ha) and devoted night after night to American Idol and experimenting with new recipes, and we have watched and sung along with Beauty and the Beast in a basement apartment, ya know, just on a whim.

My bridesmaid, Lauren. I knew that asking Chris's younger sister to be a part of the wedding would be a really big deal for her, and I'm really happy she agreed to do it. Lauren has a great smile, good sense of humor, and is fun to hang out with. Chris and I care a lot about her and I'm hoping the wedding gives us a better chance to get to know each other and become closer. I'm excited that Chris and I have managed to really incorporate all of our important family members into our day.

So there you have it - seven of the coolest girls I know. Let me tell ya, you can never have enough friends... until you get married. Then all of a sudden you've got all of these awesome friends who you want to include. Luckily for us, our friends seem to have fallen so naturally into duties, it's really amazing. My friend Melody is going to sing for us (and good God is she amazing), my very Catholic friends will be doing readings, and we have more musicians on hand than we know what to do with. And yes I think it's totally adorable that Melody will be singing.