The ladies got their grand entrance, so it's well past time to introduce The Men of the 'Malywed' (in case you missed it Malywed is the winning entry - by default - in the
Matt and Lynne Wedding Anagram Contest. It's not anagram really at all, but it does have a ring to it, doesn't it? Congratulations to Ann - you win a
Clark Bar).
Ahem. Without further ado, here are the lads:
BEST MANAt 4-foot-3....from Ecuador....a former Hoffman Estates High school cross country runner... Alex Cruuuuuuuz!! 
Alex and Matt have known each other since their days at
Eisenhower Junior High, though they didn't become really good friends until probably junior year of high school. Back then, they were both on the cross country team at
Hoffman High.
Alex spend many evenings at the Hanley's house, allegedly studying calculus. Although if you ask either Matt or Alex a calculus question, there's little chance they'll have the right answer.
Lynne and Matt played a game last week called "unusual friendships" where they speculated on people who will become unlikely friends at the wedding, although they don't naturally have connection. We can't reveal the results - lest the results be tainted - but here's the truth: Alex is most likely to be friends with everyone at the wedding. Everybody likes Alex, with good reason. He's smart, friendly and he smells much better than he used to.
Matt was the co-best man at Alex's wedding, so now it can only be assumed it's time for the revenge toast. Of course, whatever Alex says will be completely untrue. Matt has never done anything embarassing. Ever. Perhaps it's best not to say anything dangerous here, pre-toast.
Alex and his wife, Ann, live in California. Alex works at CDW and is one of their all-star salesmen.
GROOMSMEN And now....standing at 7-foot-6...from Palestine....another former Hoffman Hawk.....Muhammad Alansaaaaaaari! 
Muhammad and Matt have known each other since grade school days at
McArthur Elementary School. They became really good friends in high school on the
cross country team when Muhammad claimed to have the fastest finishing kick on the team and "ran like a bulldog."
Who was going to challenge him? He was tougher than anyone else on the team, especially Matt.
Matt and Muhammad have run the
Chicago Marathon together five times. There is no way that Matt would have made it through one of those 26.2 miles bad boys if Muhammad wasn't there pushing him the whole way.
Matt and Muhammad remained good friends as 'Mo' went to Marquette. Muhammad and his wife, Erica, live in Hoffman Estates with three great kids: Isabella, Abraham and Anthony. Muhammad is a super genius working at Abbott Labratories.
And now....an Illinois State Redbird....from Naperville, Illinois....standing 14-foot-15...Michael Maaaaaaaajewski! 
Michael is Matt's cousin, the son of Matt's mom's brother, Tom, and Tom's wife Nancy.
Michael and Matt have known each other since, of course, Michael was born. For a while the difference in ages (8 years) made it sort of a big brother-little brother relationship, which meant Matt got to take Michael's lunch money whenever he wanted.
But now that Michael's in college, he and Matt are good friends. Michael even lets Matt come to visit him at college, where Michael pretends not to be embarassed when Matt starts every story, "This one time when I was in the dorms, Kramer and I...."
Michael is now majoring in education at Illinois State University and he will graduate next year.
So there they are. There a lot of other people with co-starring roles in this wedding who will be introduced soon. But, for now Matt would like to post a transcript of an email conversation between the three groomsmen.
Matt emailed Alex, Muhammad and Michael with a question: Would it be OK if instead of tuxes, the groomsmen all wore black suits and the same color tie?
----- Original Message -----From: Matt
To: Alex; Michael; Muhammad
Sent: Fri Jan 11 16:55:43 2008
Subject: Tux survey...
So, Lynne and I are still deciding whether the groomsmen (which is you three guys) should wear tuxes or they should wear black suits with the same color ties. I want to start with a little survey of the people directly involved.
Any opinions? Do you guys have black suits?
That's all for now. Talk at you soon.
Matt
From: Alex
Sent: Jan 13 12:34:22 2008
Hey!! Thanks for getting our advice. Take it from one person whose been there. You can't go wrong with Gorilla suits!
My brother has two so I'm sure he'd let us rent them for a small fee but we'd have to buy the third one. This is great! Think about how much fun everyone would have in gorilla suits.
That's my vote.
From: Michael
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 10:29 AM
Subject: Re: Tux survey...
Hey! I am all for the gorilla suits! That would be amazing.
Mike
Subject: FW: Tux survey...
Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:20:57 -0600
From: Alex
Alright so we have two votes for the gorilla suits. I also just thought of something, we don't need a third gorilla suit. I forgot that Mo is a pretty hairy guy to start with. You guys get where I'm going with this?
Matt- you are so lucky to have such a good group of guys backing you up here.
From: Muhammad
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 7:15 AM
Where are you going with this Alex? Are you saying you want me to show up to Matt's wedding in my boxers? Wouldn't all the excitement take away from Matt's special day?
So, do you think Matt picked the right monkeys?
Those are your groomsmen - three great guys and great, lifelong friends to Matt. They helped, inspired, amused and amazed Matt. He wouldn't be half the person he is without them. So it's only perfect that they'll be standing next to him on one of the most important days of his life.
(And with any luck, they won't warn Lynne what she's getting herself into.)
Well, after years of running onto the field and trying to steal the football during the game, Matt finally made the big screen at Memorial Stadium for the right reasons. He ran a marathon under four hours. Sort of. 
Matt was happy with his run. 
