Friend of Bride

Hi!  I want to thank all of you for letting me take a few minutes to toast my very dear friend, Gail, and her new husband, Chris.  Have you ever seen a more radiant bride?  How about Chris, is he looking good or what?  I feel like I’m looking at Bride Magazine when I see this picture perfect couple. 

My role of distinction today is that of Maid of Honor, and my name is Anna.  Gail and I have known each other since third grade, which quite frankly, seems just like yesterday on one hand…and like a million years ago on the other!  We went to the same elementary school – the same high school – and we shared a room in college!  We have seen other through the good, the bad and the ugly, and we’ve each learned a lot from each other.  I’d like to tell you about some of the things I’ve learned from Gail.

First – I learned that she and I needed to get better at keeping our stories straight!  When we were in high school, we may have told a tale or two, and it would probably be the blatant inconsistencies of our stories that gave us away, and a part of me can’t help but think we are lucky to have made it this far! 

Second – Our parents were right about some of the boys we dated…I have no idea how they were able to read the minds of those young men, but let’s just say that when the intentions were not honorable, our parents told us that way before we realized what they said was true!

Third – To not be afraid to give all in a relationship.  I have to say that it was watching Gail blend in her relationship that taught me that life lesson.  You see, we were both seniors in College the year she met Chris.  She was, how do you say, “the older woman” in his life, and as a matter of fact, she kept his age a secret for a long time.  After all, he was 19, and she’d already seen her 21^st birth date.  I think for a while, she tried to let the age thing get in the way, but thank God Chris pursued her, because here we are today!

Lastly, Gail taught me that good friends are hard to find, and that friends are more important than boyfriends.  Wow, now that she’s getting married, I wonder if that will still hold true over husbands?  I hope so!

I remember the first time that Chris and Gail kissed.  It was like my radar was up, because I knew something was going on.  When they kissed for the first time, it was in my apartment…and I quickly smothered them with a hug and welcomed Chris to the family as soon as she told me!

I have loved watching this romance bloom.  Chris is a great guy!  He’s funny, friendly and really easy to get along with.  More than that…he’s got a great bod!  The first time my boyfriend met him, he asked if he worked out (like, duh?) and if he had a license for those guns!  Really, he’s nice on the eyes, and I love to look at him.  Of course, 99.9% of the time when I’m looking at him, he’s looking at our Gail!

Gail has just blossomed since Chris came into her life.  She used to be anti-marriage, but somewhere along the way (thank god!) she changed her mind!  She’s become happier and has a better outlook on life in general.  She’s a genuine person, with no pretences, she is caring, warm hearted, bright, intelligent, and completely self-less!

When I heard Gail and Chris were engaged, I had to know the whole skinny!  Turns out he proposed to her on a gondola one night in Long Beach.  Now, the fact that they had attended 12 weddings that years had nothing to do with marriage being on their mind…..but I don’t think it hurt either!

I look so forward to the future for these two.  They are a perfect match, and I know that they will remain not only lovers, but friends, for all of their life.  They just seem to have that certain something about them, and I know that theirs will truly be – a match made in heaven.

Please raise your glasses while I propose a toast:

If ever you are to enjoy life…now is the time!  Today should always be your most wonderful day.  Let today be the building block for all the years to come, and may your home and hearth be filled with your laughter and that of your children as well, for all the days of your life.

I love you guys!  Congratulations!

Maid of Honor

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Friend of Bride

Hello!  Good evening!  How are you!  My name is Jan and I’m a Bridesmaid in the wedding.  I stand before you honored to hold this position as Shannon’s oldest friend.  Well, when I say oldest, I don’t mean, chronological!  I mean that we’ve known each other since we were twelve years old, and we’ve seen a couple of decades pass from that time in our youth!  My friendship with Shannon has been special to me, not only because of it’s longevity, but because she was a great person to go through the trauma of our teenage years together!  Even though we see each other only sparingly now, whenever we are together again, we pick right up from where we left off, and it always seems as if we haven’t been apart at all!  I’m not sure what started our friendship, maybe it was just that I liked the melodious sounds of “Jan and Shan”, or maybe that we’ve always looked somewhat alike and have the same demeanor…I mean – we’re both petite and we’re both obnoxious!

I’ve been hearing about James for the past eight years.  From what I’ve heard, this guy is nothing short of a knight in shining armor.  What convinced me of that was their engagement story.  Have you heard it?  Well, even if you have, I have to tell it!  It seems that the two newlyweds were celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday together, and bright and early that morning, James tied the ring onto Shannon’s kitten’s collar and called the kitten over and when he jumped up on Shannon’s lap, there was the ring, all shiny and glowing, which, kind of describes how Shannon has been ever since!

I know that James is the perfect guy for Shannon.  I know that because she’s exactly the same woman she has always been (well, ok, maybe she’s a bit more romantic lately), but the proof that he loves my friend for who she is and hasn’t made any attempt to remake her is proof positive that he’s a great guy!  Now, they have a few things to iron out in the future, such as they still aren’t sure who is going to move to whose city….and he loves the outdoors and wants to start a tree service and live in Maine.  While, Shannon, on the other hand, is allergic to grass and is a big city gal!  Ah…they’ll figure it all out and I know that theirs is a marriage that will not only last for decades to come, but it will be one filled with love, laughter, and eventually, children!

I think that one of the hardest things Shannon will have in adjusting to marriage is to get up and find that her sister Marci isn’t there!  Marci and Shannon have been roommates for quite some time, and now Marci has to move out and get her own place.  More than that, Shannon once told me she didn’t know if she’d ever get married, because she didn’t know if she could share her bedroom with anyone!  Somehow, I think she’ll manage to make room in the bedroom, just as she has made room in her heart, and that within days it will seem natural to pick up the phone to call her sister who will be living away, and to roll over and hug her husband, who will be sharing not only her bedroom, but her bed as well!

Let’s raise our glasses as we toast this couple:

May you both live as long as you want,
And never want as long as you live.

May you experience decades of happiness and may you~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maid of Honor

Sister of Bride

Hi!  On behalf of our family, I’d like to welcome all of you to today’s wedding.  For anyone who doesn’t know me (like maybe the waiter in the back) my name is Trisha, and I am Tiffany’s older, but much wiser, sister!

When I look at our bride and groom, Zach and Tiffany, I feel such a kaleidoscope of emotions.  I know that Tiffany has found her true match and I know that theirs will be a marriage of long standing.  My heart is bursting with love for you two today.  I know you have a wonderful adventure ahead of you, and with God’s blessing your marriage will last for decades yet to come.

I never knew Zach before he dated my sister, so I can’t tell you horrible before and after stories of him…but I can tell you that I think he’s perfect for my sister!  He’s adventurous, spontaneous, enthusiastic, and has a spice for life.  He’s easy going, interesting, easy to talk to, and he fits so well into our family, and he’s just like the 4^th brother I never had!

Now, when I talk about my baby sister, I could regale you with stores for hours!  I’ve always been a bit protective of my sister, but when I think back on our adventures in childhood, I have nothing but fond memories.

I recall one night when we were sharing a bedroom at our cabin on the lake in Canada one summer night.  In the pitch of the night, I heard something fluttering and swooping by me…I whispered to Tiff…”A BAT’S IN THE ROOM --- OH NO!”.  What does my baby sister do (keep in mind she is seven…count them…seven years younger than me)?  She gets out of bed and states emphatically “Let’s kill the bat”.  She then…gets a weapon and proceeds to swing at the bat.  She whips the bat against the wall…and she killed it!  Then, she turns to me and says “go ahead and take the carcass outside.”  In my state of shock…I had no choice to do anything but what she told me to do..so I did…because I just couldn’t believe what I had seen her do!!

I knew my sister was special when she was just a tiny little girl.  She could talk in complete sentences at 2 ½, and oh, did she love to talk!  I recall one of our long summer trips in the 70’s and that we went to a lot of fast food places.  Our particular hot spot was Wendy’s, which was known for its “Hot and Juicy” hamburgers.  We’d always preface our stops at Wendy’ with the catch phrase “let’s go get a hot and juicy burger”.  Well, one night, our whole family was trying to get to sleep, and in the still of the night, Tiff gets up in her crib and yells, “all right all you hot and juices”….it was soooo funny…imagine what she could have done with “where’s the beef?”

I can’t decide if it’s terrible that I have so many stories about Tiff, or not!  You see, we all have just loved this girl from the day she was born and we’ve coddled her, enjoyed her, and laughed with her!  Oh, I have to tell just a few more stories…like when she wanted to be carried, and would yell “my knees are bending … my knees are bending”……or, when she had an ice cream cone and wouldn’t share!  If you licked her cone, her face would turn beet red, her body would shake, and she’d make a fist, followed by a growling sound….or when she was being potty trained when she was two and in the bathroom stall she heard the woman in the adjacent stall peeing…and Tiff proudly told her “that’s a good girl”.  This girl had provided so much entertainment for our family, that we didn’t even have to go to the movies!  I know how much joy she has brought into our lives, and I can’t help but think that she’ll bring that into Zach’s life as well.

Zach and Tiffany are a perfect fit.  He’s a true romantic and I love the way he proposed to my sister.  We were at my parent’s place in Thanksgiving and were going for a scenic hike.  Tiff and Zach fell behind and when the finally caught up, they were engaged!  He had tricked her by saying that “nature called”, and then he suddenly found a pouch…that he tried to convince Tiffany had been an old treasure of sorts…when Tiff opened the pouch, there was her engagement ring…and the rest, as they say…is history! 

I’ve been married for ten years already, and have learned a lot over this past decade.  My husband and I thought about the words of advice that we’d like to give to the newlyweds, and together we came up with this:

Zach…..never, ever leave the lid up!

Zach….when Tiff asks “am I fat” tell her you have an earache and couldn’t hear her.

Zach…when Tiff says she needs money…don’t ask what for…just give it

And to Tiffany and Zach….never go to bed angry…it’s much better to stay up and argue!

Please raise your glass while I toast my sister and her husband:

Tiffany and Zach:   Take each day and cherish your time together, love one another and stand together.  Take time to talk to one another.  Put your love and your family first, and your job and your hobbies second.  Never lose your sense of adventure and your spontaneity, and may your future be golden! 

Cheers!

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Sister of Bride

God smiled down on our family when he brought Brandon and Shelly together – finally!

It seems that the newlyweds first met during Orientation Week of medical school (meeting #1) , but got to know each other much better on a mission trip to Mexico (meeting #2) , where they were cooks in a camp over spring break.  After they finished their rounds as Food Czars, they acted as study buddies and officially started dating sometime in May (meeting #3).  They figure that kismet must have had a hand in their meeting, because after comparing all of their stories, they realized that they took the same Tango (meeting before #1A) class at Stanford, and undoubtedly danced with each other at that time – unbeknownst to them that they were holding the hand of their soul mate as they tangoed around the floor.

It’s amazing to watch these two together.  They seem to move in tandem.  I sometimes wondered if they would ever get this far, and I can’t help but think that Brandon must have wondered as well.  You see, Brandon went on his first vacation with our family prior to their engagement.  We included him in our annual ski trip to Deer Valley, Utah, where upwards 50 of our friends and family meet each year.  Brandon was introduced to everyone, and the asked to sit down to answer a “few” questions by those who loved Shelly.  Poor Brandon was grilled by everyone on his intentions and was asked as to whether his personality traits were comparable to the rest of the crowd.  Now, keep in mind, this was all done in jest, and whether Brandon knew it then or not, he endeared himself to us with his calm demeanor, and his unflustered answers.  He was finally deemed appropriate for my baby sis, and the rest, as they say, is history! 

Because I know how special Brandon and Shelly are, my husband and I asked them to be Godparents to our one year old son, Matthew.  We chose them because of their strong Christian values, their love for one another, and we figured that with two doctors in the family, we needed to butter them up just a bit because of all the midnight calls we expect to make over the next 18 or so years!  We were honored when they acquiesced and became Matthew’s spiritual guides.

We are very happy to welcome Brandon into our family.  He has a genuine heart of gold, and he is sweet and caring.  He’s very quiet, quite shy, but has a great sense of humor!  We know he’s made for us, and we hope we’re made for him!

My sister has always meant so much to me.  She’s smart, funny, patient, kind, caring, sweet, and loving.  She has complete faith in God and she has allowed that faith to giver her direction and purpose in life 

Some of you who have known my baby sister for as long as I have might have been somewhat surprised when she announced her career intentions of obtaining a M.D.  I don’t want to say that Shelly is a bit high strung, but let’s just say, she can get as wound as a violin string on occasion.  As a matter of fact, she can get so stressed, that my parents made a suggestion to her at one point that she go into something a bit more calming – like jewelry making!  Obviously, Shelly knows her limits well, and she has chosen a field of medicine she was molded for, child/adolescent psychiatry.  Hmm, it should be interesting to see how she handles her tense patients in the years to come, shouldn’t it?

As a woman who is both wife and mother, I welcome Shelly to the ranks of the land of the married with open arms.  If her marriage can emulate that of our parents, who have been married for 34 years, or mine, which is now ___ years strong, then I know she and Brandon are ready for the ride of their life.  They’ll experience love, laughter and joy together, and they’ll stand together during times of trial. 

My wishes for Brandon and Shelly are that they have a continued loving friendship and partnership, that they enjoy success and laughter, and that they always see and talk with their heart.  With these wishes, I wish them the very best, on this their wedding day 

Cheers!

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