Speech by Andrew Manis

Speech Type: Father of the bride/groom
Speech Creator: Andrew Manis
Speech Date: 20/03/2014 12:03:13

Good Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen. My name is Andrew Manis and I'm delighted to be the father of the bride. It is my great pleasure, on behalf of the bride's mother and the groom's parents, to welcome all of you who have gathered here in Atlanta this weekend to celebrate the wedding of Chris and Meigan.

About half my lifetime ago, when the Bride was a baby, among many other things, I learned how transformative it is to watch another adult love your child. I'm not sure who it transforms the most, but I do know that complete strangers can almost instantly turn into surrogate grandparents right before your very eyes as you observe them changing your daughter's diapers or talking baby talk to your son.

I recently got a look at the RSVP's on the wedding's guest list and all I can say is that I hope Brent, Alabama, will double its police protection to stave off a potential rash of burglaries because it appears that it will be virtual ghost town late tomorrow afternoon and evening as so many of its citizens will be here with us. 

Well, tonight I am also discovering that seeing people come great distances and spend significant sums of money to watch your son or daughter join hearts and lives with another has the same effect. So thank you so very much loving this couple  and for celebrating with us. We can't begin to tell you how much it means to us that you have been a loving part of Meigan and Chris's lives and that you are here to share this moment with them.

Let me also express our gratitude to Chris's parents, Rick and Ruth Brennaman, who are our official hosts for this particular event. We're grateful  the good job you apparently did in raising a son who could meet my daughter's looooong list of non-negotiables in a prospective husband. To you we promise we will accept and love him as if he were bone or our bone and flesh of our flesh. [Some of you may not be aware that their other son, Chris's brother Richard, was could not be here this weekend because of health problems that necessitated heart bypass surgery just yesterday. Let us all think good thoughts toward Richard, with hopes and prayers for his speedy recovery.

Now we get to the tricky part of the speech, where I'm supposed to give Meigan and Chris some helpful advice on the subject of marriage. So let me begin with Chris:  Crime statistics show that there has never been a case of a wife shooting her husband for leaving the toilet seat down. There must be some wisdom in there somewhere.

But more generally my suggestion comes from the fact that most of the planning and paying for this wedding has been done by Meigan and Chris themselves. Both the Bride and the Groom are slightly older and probably wiser than the average Bride and Groom in the US. Older and wiser probably translates to wedding planning that has been more systematic, rational, practical, sensible. In short, more adult.

So my advice is that when it comes to loving each other, make sure you balance all that rational with some crazy. After all, we don't say we took careful steps into love, we FALL in love. And in our heart of hearts, we don't want to be “sensibly in love,” we really want to be “madly in love.”

So the song says:

I don't want “good” and I don't want “good enough” I want “can't sleep, can't breathe without your love” Front porch and one more kiss, it doesn't make sense to anybody else Who cares if you're all I think about, I've searched the world and I know now, It ain't right if you ain't lost your mind Yeah, I don't want easy, I want crazy.

Now I know Hunter Hayes was around 20 and he looks like he's about half that age.  But back in the day, before Chris, Meigan, or Hunter Hayes were born, someone said roughly the same thing in six words:

“Be young. Be foolish. Be happy.”

And much older than that is the Greek proverb that says “The heart that loves is always young.”

So my advice is, when it comes to keeping your love alive, work hard at keeping some of the crazy.

Now will you all stand, raise your glasses, and join me as I propose a toast to the honored and happy couple:

May you always be “the kind of crazy people wish that they could be.”

May you be blessed with a love that lasts, a joy that grows, and a peace that passes understanding.

May the beauty of the two of you brighten every day and night,

May you find the happiness you seek, may you find love and light.

And tomorrow, in the words of Don Henley:

May you pause for “a moment of silence and a moment of prayer

For the love [you'll] need to make it in the world out there.

To want what [you] have, to take what [you're] given with grace.

For these things we pray on your wedding day.”