The Wedding Party

The VIPs

The Kurgans

This photo shows the entire Kurgan family, including Charlie, at one of our favorite places in the world - our cottage on Platte Lake, Michigan. My parents, Karen and John Kurgan, met at a bar in Chicago, fell in love, and started a family together, beginning with me! I am the oldest of three. My brothers, Sam and Matt, and I grew up in Wilmette, IL, a northern suburb of Chicago. My parents left the Midwest after I graduated from college in 2014 and now split their time between Longboat Key, Florida and Platte Lake. They are very content to spend their retired lives doting on their goldendoodle, Riley. Sam has recently moved from LA to Denver and Matt is currently living in San Francisco.

The Deekses

Pictured here last Christmas, the immediate Deeks family consists of my parents Mel and Geoff, my brother Dexter, and the family cat Fiyero. We lived in London when I was born, until we all moved to Devon in 2001, where they have stayed ever since! Since I moved to Bristol for university in 2012 they have been regular visitors, and we're all excited to celebrate together. Ask Dex what it's like to be a zookeeper!

Bridesmaids

Sarah - Maid of Honour

Sarah and I met on the first day of orientation at Northwestern. In the first week of knowing her I made her very uncomfortable by (1) spilling my salad all over her during a lunch and (2) sitting on her lap without an invitation to do so. Despite this, we quickly became inseparable, sharing pretty much all of our happiest and saddest moments of college together. It is tough to find the right words to convey how much I love this woman, how amazing I think she is, and how grateful I am for our friendship. Sarah gives all of herself to her loved ones as well as her work. After about 10 years of absolutely tearing up the restaurant industry, she now works as a director of operations for a luxury real estate company and lives in Andersonville, Chicago.

Danielle

I met Danielle while attending Regina Dominican high school. We took almost all of the same courses and since our school was relatively small, that meant we were always in the same class together. I have such fond memories of joking around during Mathlete practice, chatting about our favorite British bands (hers being McFly, mine being the Kooks), and getting her into trouble by forcing her to talk to me during chemistry class ;). Danielle has the kindest heart, listens to people without passing judgment, and is a steadfast friend. She studied chemical engineering at the University of Illinois and now works as a health and safety specialist at Woodward Inc while living in Skokie, IL.

Emily

My first class on my first day of classes at Northwestern was organic chemistry and I had arrived early. Soon after me a girl wearing an alarming amount of pink flounced down next to me (the only other girl in the classroom) and introduced herself in a very peppy voice as Emily MacArthur. Since then, she has been the pink to my blue and the pep to my reserved nature. I am so very lucky to have had her by my side as we navigated majoring in chemistry together and then both worked for a year at the University of Chicago before I headed to grad school and her to medical school. This woman is a force of nature with a boundless supply of love. Following her graduation from med school and her residency, she now has a fellowship at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore where she lives with her woodle, Ollie, and her fabulous husband, Nick.

Katherine

The move to the UK to work in the Woolfson lab was a big one for me – as mentioned I grew up in Wilmette, IL and the farthest I’d lived away from my childhood home was Madison, WI. I was thrilled to learn that I would be making this move with another American, Katherine Albanese. I did not know then how truly lucky I was. She and I have lived this “post-doc abroad” experience together and I could not be more grateful. I have learned so much from working beside such a brilliant scientist who is so selfless, a fantastic mentor, and attacks all her work with such determination. I am so proud to say she will be starting her independent career at Wake Forest in July!!

Groomsmen

Pictures taken at Bristol Dynasty League Rookie Drafts

My fantastic groomsmen all share at least two things in common - they are all some of my closest friends, and they are also all members of our american football fantasy league. We all take it a bit too seriously (in a good way) and we have a lot of fun with it throughout the year. As the commissioner I thought that in addition to some background about them, it would be fun to add a little bit about that, too.

Phil - Best Man

I have known Phil - or the popular variant, Holiday Phil (pictured) - since 2013, where we met while working on a summer school. Both of us are deeply passionate about addressing eduational inequality - we spent three more years working on summer schools and other similar events, with Phil usually taking the role of my right-hand man, until I was left bereft as Phil moved away from Bristol upon graduation. A committed Chicago Bears fan, he is now a teacher and lives in Staffordshire with his lovely wife Jen, and one-year-old daughter Olivia. Despite his keen sense of justice and fairness, he remains the only member of our fantasy football league to be officially sanctioned by the Commissioner (sorry).

Ben

Originally from New Zealand, I first met Ben when he was working alongside Ed and Tom at the University of Bristol. Ben is currently living in Liverpool, where he's working as a palaeontologist at LJMU. Ben is known for his year-round commitment to Nightmare Before Christmas clothing (see photo), having the single sweetest tooth known to man and his dreams of becoming a professional longsnapper - the only thing stopping him is that he'd have to wear shoes while playing in the NFL. Somehow, he is also a two-time champion of our fantasy league despite never having had a winning record in the regular season. How 'bout them Cowboys?

Connor

I met Connor in my first few months at university, as I helped bundle him into a taxi outside of a nightclub after a foot injury. Thankfully for us all, he made a full recovery and we went on to become firm friends, and we lived together for the next two years (pretty much). He is a passionate Buccaneers (and Cubs!) fan, having suffered through the barren Freeman/McCown/Winston/Fitzpatrick years before their recent success. Connor lives in Rutland, where he earns his money by streaming video games on Twitch - in doing so, he met his fiancé Aly, who currently lives in Indiana. He was the inaugural champion of the Bristol Dynasty League, beating me in the semi-finals.

Ed M.

I have known Ed for a decade, first meeting at a beer festival where he was cursed with drinking his way through every dark beer on the list. Ed moved to Bristol full-time in 2016 to study a Master's in Palaeontology (where he met his excellent partner Kim), and has stayed ever since, completing his PhD here and subsequently working at the university alongside Ben and Tom. Ed is a stalwart of our Sunday afternoon games and football evenings and is renowned for his ability to consume meat at a large scale. A Raiders fan, Ed is currently living in Bristol and is steadfastly refusing to give me his first overall pick in this year's dynasty draft as a wedding present.

Ed S.

This Ed was a regular at parties and gatherings throughout university and has become one of my closest friends over the last ten years. Ed spent four years getting his PhD by making diamonds in a nuclear reactor before leaving academia for a 'real' job (which is a secret). Ed has recently joined me on the baseball diamond, coming up clutch with a huge base hit against Cardiff Merlins II to spark a game-winning rally while losing 8-4 with two outs in the final inning. Ed often ends up being my personal chauffeur to and from baseball games and football evenings, and refuses to take payment (despite my light insistence). Ed is a Vikings fan and is the current reigning champion of the Bristol Dynasty League.

Seb

Depsite an auspicious initial introduction, Seb has proven himself as an excellent friend. Seb has now lived in Bristol since 2018, and we have spent a lot of time since playing tabletop games and playing sports on the Downs. Seb is currently doing a degree in Robotics, and is a jack of all trades, moonlighting as a costume maker, set designer, carpenter, environmentalist and prosthetics maker (which brings a much needed practical edge to a group of academic friends). After spending a few years living in a shipping container behind a workshop, Seb is now renovating his new house. Seb supports about five different teams, including the Ravens, Raiders and Dolphins - and despite having spent many years in the basement of our fantasy league, Seb enjoyed a playoff berth for the first time this year.

Tom

Like Ben, I met Tom through Ed's work at the university. Tom is also a palaeontologist, having completed his PhD at Bristol, who now works at the University of Oxford. Tom is the only person to be even more obsessed with our fantasy league than me, notorious for his relentless wheeling and dealing, taking the mantle of league villain. Tom is a Chiefs fan and an excellent chef, holding his magnum opus (left, Korean style chicken wings) - and a brilliant host of big football events, hosting the yearly NFL Draft watch party and this year's Superbowl alongside his partner Hannah. Despite his obsessive fantasy football practice, Tom is a two-time fantasy championship game loser, losing by five points in 2022 and 0.25 points in 2023.

Some bonus pictures of Ruby

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