Alicia's Wedding Party
Matron of
Honor
Jeanne Donovan
Hepperle
Alicia met Jeannie
through Jeannie’s now-husband, Philip (a friend of Alicia’s almost all the
time she’s lived in the DC area), and they hit it off immediately – almost
as fast as Jeannie and Phil did, though not quite in the same way ;-) Since then
they have spent countless days and evenings out at Iota and at each other’s
homes talking, drinking, playing pool, just hanging out, and talking lots more
(gosh, do we like to talk!) about everything both meaningful and meaningless in
life. On the evening Alicia visited Jeannie intending to ask her to be her
Matron of Honor, Jeannie welcomed her into the apartment with yummy red wine to
celebrate Alicia and Pete’s engagement, and a beautiful toast emphasizing
their close-as-sisters friendship. What a perfect segue!
Jeannie grew up in Montgomery Village, MD and has been living in Northern Virginia since attending George Mason University, earning her undergraduate degree there in 1993 and returning in 1995 for grad school. She is presently a teacher of 8th-grade English at Thoreau Middle School in Fairfax County, Virginia, and has published a book of poetry. She and Philip were married in August 2002 and share their home with two adorable cats, Wocket and Spartacus.
Attendants (in alphabetical order):
Alicia met Stefani on day
one of their four years at U.Va. They
lived in the same suite 1st year,
where Stefani helped Alicia snap out of her “I’m going to try to be a
typical Wahoo” phase and back into socializing with a more diverse group of
people! After two years at opposite ends of on-Grounds housing, they finally
lived across the street from each other 4th year where they invented
the “beer, bourbon and pizza” approach to observing Valentine’s Day. When
Stefani and her husband Steve moved out to the Bay area of California,
Alicia’s travels fortunately brought her semi-regularly out to the west coast
where Alicia got to visit with Stef and Steve and watch their two wonderful boys
grow up. Alicia is very happy that they have all now relocated to the east
coast, however!
Stefani spent her early
years in Washington DC (until age 7) and then in the Buffalo NY area before her
family moved to Baltimore, MD when she was ten. She now lives near Schenectady,
NY with her husband Steve and their sons Alex and Evan (and Wazzle, the cat,
who was offended that he wasn't mentioned earlier). After a several-year
stint as a full-time mom and community volunteer extraordinaire [ed. note:
Alicia added the “extraordinaire” despite Stef’s modest objections], she
has now gone back to school to earn a Master’s degree in Secondary School
Education, specializing in English.
Alicia met Lauren when
they were both working at APACHE Medical Systems, and they soon discovered they
had much more in common than just commiserating over the ups and downs of
healthcare technology! Alicia has been able to turn to Lauren not just for fun
times at events like concerts, Clarendon Day, and gossip sessions at local
coffeehouses and bars around Arlington, but also for advice and support in times
of various major and minor trials and tribulations.
A native of Rochester,
NY, Lauren received her nursing degree from Niagara University and has been
living in Northern Virginia for the past 15 years. She is now enrolled in an MBA
program at Marymount University – no small trick as she continues to work
full-time as a Clinical Project Manager at APACHE/Cerner Corporation.
Alicia and Amy met each
other for the first time just before starting high school together at the
Buffalo Seminary, when they were sure they’d have nothing in common besides
Amy’s friendship with one of Alicia’s cousins. Just goes to show how wrong
preconceptions can be! They spent their four years of high school learning,
growing and changing together, transitioning in that time from wanna-be preppies
to alternative music fans with spiky hair, and they have continued their
friendship since then despite geographic distances. Alicia finds it very hard to
sum up in this short space all the experiences she and Amy have shared –
ranging from late night political debates, to travels in Europe, to celebrating
and consoling each other through romantic and career-induced joy and tears, to
many long evenings of eating and drinking and discussing their hopes, dreams,
and fears for the future.
Amy lives in Chicago, IL
with her husband Bob and their two cats, Riley and Stella. She has been a
professor of music and music composition at Northwestern University for the past
three years, and has been performing contemporary piano music around the world
as part of The Bugallo-Williams Duo since 1995.
Alicia became friends
with Michael 4th year at U.Va. when they lived in the German House together and
spent many nights on the front porch drinking wine and practicing their French
(go figure). That year, they also co-starred in a German department production
of Die Dreigroschen Oper (The Threepenny Opera), and Alicia still wishes Michael
could have transferred some of his singing skills to her! Since that time,
Michael has become one of Alicia’s favorite travel companions – in the past
few years they’ve managed to spend time together in Spain, England, Germany,
and Italy (made much easier by the fact that Michael has been living in Europe
for the past several years)!
Michael was born and raised in southwestern Virginia and lived in Wűrzburg, Germany from 1983 to 1988 before returning states-side to complete his undergraduate and law degrees at U.Va. He began working at the London office of law firm Fulbright & Jaworski in 1996; he and his partner Don purchased a home there a few years ago, which they share with their two Siamese cats, Simon and Raphie. Since 2001 he has been spending lots of time on airplanes as he has added responsibilities at his firm’s office in Munich, Germany.