Jenee Desmond-Harris & Joel Anderson

Alicia was my first friend at Howard. We met in the elevator on the way to chapel, and she will tell you all about the hemp overalls and cowrie shell necklace that I thought constituted appropriate church attire. Also: Her husband Jimmy and Joel played high school football against each other in Houston.

Hana Watkins

Co-Maid of Honor

Hana holds the record for most happy hours and pictures on social media with me. Which is probably why Facebook once told us we were soulmates (sorry, Joel).

saranah holmes

Bridesmaid

Saranah is the only known non-crazy, perfect roommate ever found on Craigslist. I lived with her for almost 7 years!

Valerie A. Young

Bridesmaid

Valerie's secret talent is that she's been formally trained as a voiceover artist. She should probably also do laugh tracks.

Lonnae O'Neal

Bridesmaid

Lonnae is the author of an amazing book on motherhood. After reading it, I stalked her and inserted myself in her life -- and here we are!

Gina Uriarte

Bridesmaid

Gina and I met in preschool and in addition to all of our other history, we have a long tradition of being uncoordinated together. At age 3, we both cried at peewee soccer practice and by 15 we were the worst players on our high school volleyball team.

Sabrina Munnings

Bridesmaid

Sabrina has an awesome job at Facebook but pretty much refuses to use Facebook because she's too busy traveling, going to see live music, and actually enjoying life -- I want to be like her when I grow up.

Katherine Noreen

Co-Maid of Honor

Katherine has developed a Minnesota accent after many years there, but she's still the biggest advocate of the California lifestyle -- in particular, hiking and burritos -- you will ever meet.

Thea Alexander

Bridesmaid

Thea and I have gotten many, many years of enjoyment out of saying yes to people who ask if we're sisters. She will readily admit that she's the mean one and I'm the nice one. She wins in other areas but we're not talking about them because this is MY wedding.

Danielle Allison

Bridesmaid

Danielle and I got through law school together -- including a Boston blizzard during which we were snowed in and survived on pork chops and cinnamon rolls.

Omonigho Ufomata

Bridesmaid

The former Ms. Kentucky State University, she owns over 100 lipsticks (a conservative estimate) -- and actually uses most of them.

Akoto Ofori-Atta

Bridesmaid

Akoto got married in Ghana and didn't mention until we got there that her dad was an actual king, and she'll never live it down.

Kennedy

Flower girl

Kennedy is the daughter of Joel's friend Ed and his wife, Christy. She lives in Austin, Texas and enjoys soccer, reading, and a large selection of hair accessories.

Matt invited me to his church in the fall of '95, where one Sunday there was to be a musical performance from an exceptionally talented group of four teenage girls. "They're good, dawg," he told me. Yes, they were "good." They were Destiny's Child.

Emerson Jones

Co-Best Man

Emerson doubles as both my very first friend and the very last person to own a water bed.

Steve Baker

Groomsman

We spent about three years speaking to each other exclusively in Pootie Tang ad-libs. Also known as "Bakes," Steve and his lovely wife Cassie (who I unfortunately cropped out of this picture) had their first child in February.

Gene Demby

Groomsman

Everyone thank Gene for this all happening because after I met Jenee for the first time, he was the one whom I reached out to. "Hey, what's up with your girl," I asked him in an e-mail. And dutifully and expedititously, Gene went and found what was up with her.

Broderick Hicks

Groomsman

Broderick is almost certainly the only person on Earth who believes "Dangerous" is as good an album as "Thriller" and "Off The Wall." He also become a father for the first time last month.

Edward Kargbo

Groomsman

Ed once broke a backboard while dunking at Cameron Indoor Stadium during warmups. More recently, he broke Uber in Austin and would much prefer to talk about this.

Steve Martone

Groomsman

Steve, my old high school quarterback, doesn't have any social media accounts. So unfortunately I don't have anything of interest to share about him.

Decker Ngongang

Groomsman

Decker, who shared an old barbell-shaped apartment with me in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, in the fall of 2013 (it literally had no living room), is one of the lesser-known members of the Illuminati.

John Stanton

Groomsman

John is my friend most likely to be recognized in public and surely the nation's foremost expert on the consumption of pork products.

Tony Welch

Groomsman

I don't have many memories of my late Uncle Gary but one of them is of him making fun of Tony trying to eat ribs with a fork.

Mark Schoofs

Officiant

Mark is Joel's editor at BuzzFeed News and a great friend and mentor to both of us. He's a wildly accomplished Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, but the reason we asked him to officiate is that he's one of the kindest and best people we know and someone who we both really admire and look up to. He's been certified by the State of California just to perform our ceremony.

Thank you, Mark!

Jenée's cousin

Jenée's cousin

Joel's cousin

Joel's cousin

Jenée's best non-adult friend

Alden

Host

Jenée's godson