We’re thrilled that two of our friends will read something during the ceremony to make the wedding feel even more personal. Here’s why we love them and what they’ll read:

Eric Smith, author, literary agent and the original Philly geek, will surprise us with a reading. Eric was one of the first people to pay Chris for freelance writing, way back when Chris wrote about fun Philly things to do for uwishunu — so basically some of our earliest dates were funded by Eric.

Philly probably knows him best for the Philly Geek Awards, but we know him as the smart, warm-hearted friend who thinks we’re qualified to give dating advice. For this and many other reasons, we trust him to pick his own reading and surprise us with it at the wedding. Congratulate him when you see him; he just tied the knot in late June.

Everyone keeps jokingly asking if my corgi was in the wedding. Well, here’s my answer. pic.twitter.com/Fpel9ChRMn

— Eric Smith (@ericsmithrocks) June 29, 2015

LeAnne Matlach doesn’t do anything quietly and we love her for it. That’s exactly why we’ve asked her to read an excerpt from one of our favorite novels. Chris and I met her back in 2007 when we were all students working for The Temple News. After college, she and I were roommates with a fly infestation on South Street, and working part-time in Temple’s journalism department.

Since then, LeAnne’s reporting has been on the radio and TV, and she now does marketing and communications for a tech company in Baltimore. We miss her in Philly, but we’ll get to celebrate her wedding here next fall. Here’s a favorite memory of LeAnne, with two of our other wedding guests/colleagues from The Temple News: