Wow…as of this time tomorrow, we will be officially married! On one hand, time has gone by so quickly, and I’m not sure where it’s all gone, on the other, I never, ever thought this day would get here. This speech started out as a short thank you speech for tomorrow, but I got a little long-winded somehow??, and realized that the large majority of the people Jimmy and I need to specially thank are here tonight. From the bottom of our hearts, I want to thank you all for coming tonight and for being a very special part of our wedding, I’ll never be able to tell you how much it means to us that you are all here to share and help celebrate our big day with us tomorrow. There are so many people to thank and acknowledge for what they have contributed…
I first and foremost want to thank my parents, Tom & Bobbie who have always been an inspiration to me, and who will surely continue to. You are a model for what marriage should be, 25 years of laughter, compromise, understanding, dependability, and above all, love. Among many lessons, you taught me that family is most important and I pray that Jimmy and I are blessed with children who one day will grow up to fully understand us as much as I understand you. Until recent years, I never realized how close distance can bring people together. You are not and never were the annoying, overprotective parents that I thought you were when I was a kid and teenager, but the best friends one can have. Thank you for making this all possible.
Of course, this wedding would also not be possible without MIL, my now almost official Mother In Law, Diane, who I can now almost-officially call Mom. From day one, I felt comfortable and welcomed into your family, long before any SERIOUS thoughts of engagement and marriage ever occurred. Thank you for the hospitality and kindness that you’ve given us so graciously over the last year. I know it must have been hard to invite us to live in your home, but you never made it seem that way, not even for one second. I know that all the traits that I love in Jimmy have come from you, and for that, I can never stop thanking you. Thank you also for this rehearsal dinner and this fabulous meal!
Kathy and Diana, where do I even begin to start?! I love you girls and really appreciate you being here especially because it is the start of Phillies’ NLCS battle tonight. I know, for this reason, that my fear of the rehearsal dinner running too long and everyone being out so late will be calmed. Everyone being up too late, that’s a different story! And while I’m on that tangent-just be aware— on the limobus, we WILL be checking the Phillies score tomorrow! Back to my thank you’s —- Kate and Banana, I am so glad that after all that fighting and ripping eachothers hair out, literally, that we did when we were little girls, we are so close now and can officially call eachother friends. Your help and support through all of this has been absolutely immeasurable and has meant so much to be. I will never be able to thank you enough and hope to return the favor two-fold one day when I help you guys plan your weddings.
Kyle, what can I say? You are the brother that I never had and truly the best man in both of our eyes. I know it has been especially difficult for you lately to help with the planning with going to school and working every hour you can, but you did, without a doubt, very much so by listening to every wedding detail that you probably didn’t care that much about. Thank you so much and we also look forward to one day being involved with planning your wedding. Thank you also for having us in your house. It has truly brought you and Jimmy closer, and I feel much closer to you as well.
Melissa and Dan-We love you two SO much. I can’t tell you how thankful we are for all that you guys have done to make tomorrow possible either, especially with all the headaches that have come from figuring out who’s carting around little cupcake in what car! Thank you for being such a big part of everything and for the little things that you do that mean so much more than you may think. That reminds me, can you tape Desperate Housewives for me the next two Sundays? Just kidding!! It is awesome that Jimmy and I can both talk so openly with you about anything and everything! Thank you SO much!
To the rest of my fabulous bridesmaids, Lisa, Michelle, Kerri, Shannon and Christina.. some of you, family who I’ve grown up with and will always be close to and some of you, my family of friends who have become extremely close and dear to me in the last almost 5 years. Thank you again for the beautiful bridal shower and the surprise bachelorette party, without which I might have never gone around dancing with guys named Jim that I am NOT getting married to and definitely would have never experienced walking around a busy club holding a pair of a random guys boxers suspended from a pen! In all seriousness, I am so thankful and could not have asked for better women to be by my side tomorrow. Jimmy and I love all of you, some in a different way than others **Cough** Christina!! **Cough** So kidding! We love you all the same!
To the remaining groomsmen, Greg, Dan, Ray, Keith and John— You guys are more than cousins, you are all friends, and really good ones at that. Before Jimmy and I started dating, I used to think that there was no way that anyone could be closer than my family in the way that we have random pizza & boardgame parties if we don’t see eachother every 3 weeks or so! With you guys and your family, it is a different kind of close. We see most of you every single weekend, either by going out to watch the Eagles game at the Pizza Pub, you guys stopping by “Grand Central Station,” or if we make plans to go out together! Special thanks to John for of course serving our country, but also getting everything together so quickly & driving across it this week to make sure you were here for our big day! Thank all of you for being here for us tonight, tomorrow and all the time.
To Matt, Jill and McCaela – thank you so much for reading tomorrow. It means more to us than you can know that you are involved in our ceremony in a very special way. To our loving godparents-Aunt Anna, Uncle Ray (and Uncle Joe who needed to be at work tonight) We appreciate everything that you have always done for us growing up and you are all like second fathers and mothers to us. Jimmy and I don’t always agree but one thing we do have in common is godparents that we can, and have always looked up to. Thank you for presenting the gifts tomorrow.
To everyone else here tonight, cousins’ spouses, boyfriends and girlfriends, our friends, all of you! – thank you for coming tonight and we can’t wait until tomorrow to have a great time!
Lastly but definitely not least, Jimmy. Thank you for being you. When I first started working at Bergey’s, if someone would have told me I’d be marrying someone from there.. I would’ve had a hard time believing it. And if that same someone would have told me that I was marrying you of all people, well I probably would have fainted. It is a pretty known fact (more known than I know you want it to be) that on my very first day of work, you made me cry. I’m not bringing it up now because you don’t like me to, but just because of the irony. Since that dreadful day, we eventually became friendly with eachother, then you took me out for my birthday and that, of course, was the catalyst for all of this. Within the first 2 months of officially dating, you accidentally said “I love you” as we got off the phone one night. Well, I believe in the Freudian slip and before you even said it that night, I felt that same love that I still feel today and hope to every day of my life. Almost 5 happy years later, here we are, at our rehearsal dinner, ready as we can possibly be to make the ultimate sacrifice tomorrow. You do realize, of course, that this is the last time on a Thursday night at 7 o’clock that I will attempt to make you cry in front of all the people in our wedding party before we get married, right? It’s not the ultimate sacrifice though, or your funeral as you may kid around about, for us it is the start of a much longer chapter of our lives than we have ever written before. I love you more than anything in this world, and even though everyone says that because we live together already, nothing is really going to change after tomorrow, I don’t believe it. You and I have been looking forward to this day for a REALLY long time and everything that has been unofficial for so long, will soon be official, in less than 21 hours. When we first got engaged last year on July 27th, we decided that we were going to get each other a wedding present. Here is yours. I wanted to get you something that you will have forever, but that you will never buy for yourself in a million years. Please open it.
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Again, thank you all for coming tonight. There are little shot glasses for each couple here tonight with Jordan almonds inside. And we will be handing out the gifts we got for all of you in our wedding party now. Thank you so much one last time, Can’t wait til tomorrow!, and GO PHILLIES!!
