Speech by Gary L

Speech Type: Best man
Speech Creator: Gary L
Speech Date: 05/09/2016 11:49:26

Thank you Mark and Keith for your excellent speeches, or as I would like to call it, the warm up act.

I knew that Mark's speech would be hard to follow, and I was right. I could hardly follow a word of it.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, sit back, relax, make yourself comfortable as I intend to speak for about 4-5 hours.

Let me start by thanking everybody here today, coming together to share in this special occasion, witnessing the wedding of Mark and Karen

For those of you that don't know me, I'm Mark's Brother Gary and I have the honour and pleasure of being the best man.

Now if there is anybody here feeling nervous, apprehensive and queasy at the thought of what lies ahead, it's probably because you just married Mark

I just wanted to say that Karen does look truly stunning today. She looks like one in a million…….however, looking at my brother; he looks like he was won in a raffle.

For the 2 bridesmaids Alesha and Bronwyn, you book look absolutely stunning today and have done yourselves proud.

For the Flower girl today my daughter Eloise, you look beautiful as always and you have done a great job and we are very proud of you.

I thought being a married man myself, that I would try to give Mark a few pointers, to help him settle in to his wonderful new life with Karen

First, set the ground rules, establish who is boss……Then do everything Karen says from now on.

From this day forward, your wife will always know a better way of doing things

The best way to remember your anniversary……forget it once

Whenever Karen's right, and you are wrong, admit it, whenever she's wrong and you are right, just keep quiet.

It is also important to get on with your mother-in-law. I haven't spoken to mine for 2 years, not because I don't like her, I just don't like to interrupt.

So, where do I start with talking about Mark……Not many people will know this but I've been told that at School, his sporting prowess was legendary. In fact, he was recognized as having made a major contribution to the Schools football team… by sticking to swimming.

I thought I had better find out some interesting events that happened on the day he was born. Mark was born on the 16th December 1972 which was a Saturday. Number 1 in the UK charts was Chuck berry with ‘my Ding'A’Ling’, I bet we all remember that little number. Mark was born under the star sign Sagittarius. Some of the traits of this star sign are being optimistic and always look on the brighter side of life, very generous and they go out of their way to help others. This does fit in with Mark's character, I am sure the people that know him will agree. Now I wouldn't say Mark was an ugly baby, but Mum only had morning sickness after he was born.

He was a slightly slow starter as well, at playschool he was different from the other 5 year olds, he was 11.

Not many people can boast of having a brother who is clever, funny, honest, ambitious, charismatic, not forgetting generous and handsome too. But luckily Mark, you can!

There is nothing I wouldn't do for Mark and there is nothing he wouldn't do for me. In fact we spend most of our time doing nothing for each other. I wouldn't have it any other way.

When I got married, Mark was my best man. I remember hearing an argument with a couple of girls arguing about who was going to have the first dance with the best man. Being my brother, I felt honoured that this argument was taking place. So, I got a little closer and I heard ‘no, you do it, no you do it’.

Growing up, Mark always seemed to have the ability for fixing things. He would only have to look at something to work out which part went where, how that twists in there. I on the other hand did not seem to inherit this particular set of skills, it would take me over an hour to wire a plug, and nearly having to replace the kitchen sink after I offered to replace a washer. Karen, you are not only marrying my brother, you are also marrying a handyman that I may need to borrow from time to time.

I asked our children to describe Uncle Mark, they did not need any time to think and said straight away ‘he's Kind and funny’. They always look forward to seeing him, and now they will have the added benefit of seeing Karen and their new cousin Bronwyn.

So Ladies and Gentlemen it is with great pleasure that I'd like to invite you all to stand and raise your glasses…in a toast to Mark and Karen.