W | E
Wedding Party
Justine Grossman
Maid of Honor
Justine met Emma at Long Lake Camp for the Arts back in 2005, along with Stuart Farber, and the three of them have been inseparable ever since. Justine and Emma were in the same cabin, and after spending the second day of camp together at all of the same callbacks, for the same shows, they instantly knew that they were bonded. Their enduring friendship has been full of memories and experiences that have shaped who she has become. Justine met Billy on the day that Emma, Stuart, & she got the keys to the apartment that they shared, on West 101st Street, and they all bonded that day by eating sushi on the living room floor, together.
Stuart Farber
Master of Honor
Stu had a say in his title (Master of Honor) but no say in this bio. He enjoys pina coladas, getting caught in the rain, and getting catfished by his girlfriends with oddly specific ads in the classifieds.
Nicholas Wakim-Takaki
Best Man
I met Billy on my first day of class at CMU, and I made a friend for life. During college, the separate paths of our lives ran alongside each other. Through mid-day math homework parties, board games, Shadowrun and Dungeons & Dragons, and just hours and hours and hours of excellent jokes, our paths went side by side. All things pass, and graduation meant that our friendship has taken different paths. But, though Billy went on to do software and I did my PhD in optics, we still seized every chance for our paths to overlap. That means yearly gatherings at Origins, games online during the pandemic, and hours here and there while he's passing through Connecticut or I'm passing through DC. And I'm delighted to have that overlap include Billy and Emma's special day.
Eliza Bertrand
Bridesperson
Eliza has spent the last 16 years making sure Emma ate lunch, and she is very glad to finally pass this responsibility over to Billy. Eliza and Emma have shared a love of wearing heels to high school, several summers performing in increasingly ridiculous musicals, and an apartment in Jersey City with a hole in the wall. Before Billy proposed to Emma, he asked Eliza's permission and Eliza said "yes, but you have to take Oz, too, and I don't accept returns or exchanges." Eliza is now a tv producer in New York who currently works on (insert popular television show here) and spends her free time watching romcoms and sewing sarcastic cross stitch patterns.
Kayla Spinelli
Bridesperson
Emma and I met at our father daughter dinner dates in third grade, we’ve been friends ever since. From our cookie dough movie dates to summer parties and her parents or mine whoever we could convince to let us do it. Pool days and mall trips and always trying to be there for all of her shows!
Melissa Englander
Bridesperson
Melissa (Mel) was too busy being the only competent person in her office to write this bio, so she had Eliza write it for her. Eliza also introduced Mel to Emma, and then the two of them decided to go and have a whole friendship on their own. Over the years Emma and Mel have bonded over a love of New York, hatred for the patriarchy, and inability to go a full week without needing a doctor's appointment. She looks forward to helping Emma bustle her dress on the wedding day.
Melissa Thone
Bridesperson
I have known Emma for so long I cannot even remember when I met her. As cousins, we have seen each other in all phases of life, from pilgrim competitions at Thanksgiving (yes, you should be confused), to being the first ones in the family to get tattoos, to getting through higher education in the names of our passion, and I can only imagine what comes next. I could not be happier she found such a great partner in Billy and am very happy to be a part of their special day!
Sofia Cummins
Bridesperson
I met my cousin Emma on the cold, dark and stormy night I was born in… July, in New York. From the start, Emma has been nothing short of an older-sister to me. I followed in her footsteps to Vassar, unlike everyone else in my family. In fact, I share her exact dorm number! We bonded in Emma’s Harlem apartment where she introduced me to a love of theater, hedgehogs, and 90s shows. From Emma I’ve learned what it means to deeply care, love, and recognize the best qualities in others. I’m so exited that she has found a partner equally as caring in Billy. I knew he’d be the one when he shared his creative and hilarious puns with me. To close, I’ll allow Emma to have the title of coolest cousin on her big day, but on 9.24, I regain the throne.
Adam Williams
Groomsperson
Adam and Billy met at CMU, where they initially bonded over dumb jokes, challenging math problem sets, dumb jokes, Beartato comics, and also dumb jokes. While living together as part of the Billytown community, they maintained an illustrious friendship featuring many accomplishments, including co-teaching the award-winning course Introduction to Humor Theory for Non-Majors, producing and starring in the acclaimed sitcom Billytown, and running the wildly popular Twitter page @billytownsitcom. These days Adam lives in San Francisco with his wife Stephanie, who can vouch for all of their above accomplishments.
Andrew Dempsey
Groomsperson
Andrew met Billy on their first day of high school. They immediately bonded over throwing a frisbee back and forth for an hour in complete silence. This was the beginning of a friendship built on experiences like crashing sailboats into small islands, being forced to recite a public apology to their entire high school for playing video games in a computer lab, and surviving an absolutely terrifying 80mph taxi ride through the winding streets of Amsterdam. While following each other around from Massachusetts to San Francisco to New York, Billy introduced Andrew to a variety of board games with mechanics often based on lying. This served as the perfect opportunity for Andrew and Emma to bond over a shared distrust of Billy, who is definitely the werewolf.
Day Fisher
Groomsperson
Like most of the wedding party, Day is a human person. They met Billy while working at Dropbox, where they collaborated on important projects such as extemporaneous rhyming phonation and vocal percussion. A few years later, when they were all in New York, Day got to know Emma over a series of board games nights, which is also where they found out that she is a werewolf.
Heather Harper Sestili
Groomsperson
Heather and Billy met while both were studying math at Carnegie Mellon University. Together with their collaborators, Nick Wakim-Takaki and Adam Williams, they embarked on a several-year research program in wordplay and absurdist humor, culminating in groundbreaking results about the tensile strength of jokes (the maximum amount that a joke can be stretched before breaking). Adam, Billy, and Heather went on to create the course Introduction to Humor Theory for Non-Majors, an actual class that they really taught at CMU. Heather now works at CMU by day, where she conducts less significant research in computational biology. By night, she performs electronic pop music.
Sandy Wood
Groomsperson
Sandy and Billy Wood bonded early over a shared love of duplo blocks, couch cushion forts, and jump-scaring their grandma. They’ve since also attended the same high school, taken a train trip around the Northeast, and lived concurrently in New York. Historians agree she is likely an early model for his iconic sense of humor and charming personality. But who is cutest? Voting opens 9.23.
Thomas Wright
Groomsperson
Thomas failed to meet Billy during several years of overlap at Carnegie Mellon University, and instead the two first came together while working at Dropbox, where they bonded over their shared interests - board games, liquid 1:1s, and committing to bits. Thomas dubiously claims credit for Billy's affection for Bo Burnham after forcing, no, convincing him to watch Make Happy in 2016. Thomas, still working in tech but no longer at Dropbox, lives in San Francisco with his partner Isadora and is cat step-dad to an incorrigible cat named Olive.
Sara Matters
Mother of the Bride
I have known Emma since before she was born, since she danced in my belly during Beauty and the Beast. It seems she was destined for musical theater, doggedly pursuing it from the age of 4 through first jobs after college. I doubt I ever won an argument with her, though, so becoming a lawyer may have also been preordained. Emma's always been a person with passion, heart and kindness, qualities shared with Billy. I didn't want to jinx it but I thought Billy was a keeper early on, since Emma and Billy had overlapping interests (comedy, theater, social justice) and clearly cared so much about each other. They are good to and for each other. Billy may have sealed the deal, though, when he adored Emma's dog Pasha enough to adopt his own Finnegan. Together with Oz, Stevie and Riley, they have already formed a family. And I couldn't be happier.
Craig Matters
Father of the Bride
Emma once wrote in a note that from me she inherited her "sense of humor, taste in music, love of baseball and crippling drive toward perfectionism." That about sums it up, though I'd note the parallel construction falls apart a bit with the addition of that completely hyperbolic "crippling." As for Billy, I've told all my friends: "Really, really great guy--with prospects. I don't know about Emma, but Daddy's thrilled." As for me, my first (long) career was as a journalist. In my second, I inflict my drive toward a measured, liberating perfectionism on high-school English and journalism students.
Sue Wood
Mother of the Groom
I met Billy at Beth Israel Hospital. Fortunately, we have had very few subsequent hospital visits. Billy and I have had many great adventures: Maui, Mt. Etna, Macedonia (hard hats needed). We also visited places beginning with other letters. I've mailed him odd things hither and yon: an alligator and several globes. We've searched for werewolves, populated Catan, and built rail service across many continents... Lego, Knex, Brio constructions grew and size and complexity. I will be delighted to walk Billy down the aisle as the Mother of the Groom (MOG) traditionally does.
William T. Wood III
Father of the Groom
Bill Wood first met Billy Wood in the Fenway district of Boston. We were both in the same hospital room at Beth Israel Hospital on a wonderful, sunny November morning. (I was there first, though.) Our lives moved in parallel for many years. In addition to a shared name, we jointly travelled to Alaska, Italy, Disney World, and a host of Lego stores. Unfortunately, Billy’s work life separated us, but now that I have retired, there is a lot of time to visit my rapidly expanding family.
Anna Stoessinger
Officiant
Emma is my younger sister-cousin and as such, I have met all the people she’s loved before; it is everything to know that she found her person in the magical Billy Wood. Emma and I have known each other since birth, gotten into trouble that is likely now illegal, consoled each other on all matters of life, love, and style, (mostly Emma doing the consoling), loved our dogs hard, eaten gooseberry shaved ice, handily survived our childhoods, engaged in lengthy dialogues on topics ranging from US healthcare to small childcare, laughed until forced separation, fought over hard stuff, worked through it together for real, indulged my sweet tooth, walked through the woods in Vermont, gone to farmer’s markets everywhere, fallen asleep on each other, woken each other up in big ways and small, (again, mostly Emma rousing me), and pretty much everything else in between. She is a mentor, extraordinary human, instinctive caregiver, responsible-beyond-compare friend, student, worker and community leader, with a heart made from pure, unadulterated kindness (plus canine spirit vibes.) And, yeah, she’s totally my cousin, nbd.