“I never imagined that I’d meet someone who fits together with me so perfectly” – Bride Speech by Fiona

Speech Type: Bride
Time to Read Aloud: 7 minutes
Our Favourite Line: “My sister said that I should take the opportunity to write a list of all the qualities my perfect man would have… I hope you’d agree that my list could be used to describe Adam perfectly.”

First of all, before I start talking about my wonderful husband, I want to take a moment to say some thank yous. Firstly, of course, thank you all for coming! It’s wonderful to see so many of our friends and family have been able to join us to celebrate our wedding. Having you all here really is so important to us. As much as I love Adam, it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun or special to do this as just the two of us!

I’d like to thank Vanessa who works at Dockside for all the help she’s given us in getting our day just the way we wanted it. She’s helped us very much with planning things out and given us some fantastic design ideas as well.

Kathy – thank you so much for the use of your blackboard for our ceremony drinks and the beautiful writing on it. And Robbie and Kath, thank you for performing the extremely important duty of being buddies for my parents and Isabel. You got them here in one piece so I know I left them in safe hands!

Isabel, it’s wonderful to see you. It makes me so happy to have a relative on the same side of the planet as me! Thank you for coming. I want to say a huge thank you to my two beautiful bridesmaids who organised a fantastic hen night for me and have both helped out with getting things organised.

I want to say a special thank you to Adam’s lovely family who welcomed me from the moment I met them. I’m so pleased to be joining your family! And, of course, Mum and Dad. I just can’t imagine getting married without having you with me. I’m so grateful that you have come to New Zealand to share not just my wedding day, but the most amazing holiday. I’m just so happy to have been able to spend so much time with you. We don’t get to see each other nearly enough any more so these last three weeks have been really special. Thank you so much, not just for being here, not just for wonderful, emotional speeches, not just for making some delicious canapes… but for being amazing, wonderful, supportive parents. I’m very lucky and so thankful that you’re here today. Love you.

And so, onto my husband. My family would agree that prior to meeting Adam, I wasn’t all that good at choosing suitable partners. When my last relationship ended my sister, Fleur, who had been through a breakup fairly recently herself, took me aside and said that I should take the opportunity to write a list of all the qualities my perfect man would have, and to keep hold of that list, never compromise, and never even consider a relationship with anyone who didn’t meet every single point on the list. So I did, I wrote it up, and here is my ‘perfect man’ list:

• Kind
• Thoughtful
• Creative
• Ambitious
• Tall
• Talkative
• Intelligent
• Tactile
• Affectionate
• Trustworthy

Now, most of you here know Adam well and I hope you’d agree that my list could be used to describe Adam perfectly. He’s honestly the kindest, most thoughtful person I’ve ever met. He gets up an hour early during the week just to take me into work. He makes all the tea and coffee at home. He makes sure my electric blanket is on every night through the winter because I always forget to put it on. He reads me bedtime stories!

We all know how creative he is and I’ve just been in awe of everything he’s done, all the short films, the music videos, his amazing documentary. He’s so talented and makes me feel so proud of him. His ambitions are stupendous – how many other people have spent over a decade of their lives chasing a dream which is so big it’s almost impossible? And yet, for Adam, it isn’t.

He’s clearly tall, and I love that he makes me feel small and protected when he stands next to me. He always has something interesting to say and his intelligence is obvious, especially if you’ve ever come to a quiz with us.

He’s the most tactile and affectionate man I’ve ever met too – I’m sure you’ve all seen more than enough cuddling and hand-holding when you’ve spent time with us. So, trustworthy. This is the only man I’ve ever met who likes to regularly check that he’s been charged enough for things. I’ve seen him paying at restaurants, triple checking that every drink is on the bill. I’ve seen him pick up a hard hat from the street outside a building site on a Friday night, to keep it safe overnight from all the naughty drunken revellers, and hand it back in the next morning. He is, quite simply, the most trustworthy person ever.

But it doesn’t stop there. Adam can’t be summed up in just 10 words and I’m lucky enough that, as we got to know each other better, I found out other things about him that fit just perfectly with me. He likes sci-fi, he hates arguing, he even doesn’t care that I don’t always shave my legs regularly, and he gets very, very excited, and appreciative and thankful every single time I make him dinner, just like my dad does with my mum. I never imagined that I’d meet someone who fits together with me so perfectly, and I’m just so lucky that I did, and that he feels the same. So please join me in a toast to my perfect man, my husband, my Adam.