Speech by Charlie Fraser

Speech Type: Father of the bride/groom
Speech Creator: Charlie Fraser
Speech Date: 15/06/2016 22:10:46

Good afternoon everyone. For those of you that don't know me, I am Charlie and I am the very proud father of this beautiful bride so it falls to me to make the opening speech. I know I am just the warm up act for Joe and Alex, who I know are anxious to get on, but if you know me at all then they might have a bit of a wait yet!

Before I start I want you to know that I will be doing an additional toast during the speech so please top up your glasses to ensure you are prepared. With this being an Army Officers Mess and toasts at Army functions are done using Port you will find a decanter of Port on each table which you can use to pay homage to this tradition if you wish.

I would like to start by extending a warm welcome on behalf of myself, my wife Jackie and Joe's parents Joy and Charlie and to thank you all for joining us in celebrating the marriage of our daughter Chloe to Joe. What a beautiful ceremony it was and what a fantastic setting for a celebration.

Today is, of course, a celebration, not just of the love that has united Chloe and Joe in marriage, but also of the families that have created, moulded and influenced the lives of these two very special people. We are really pleased to see so many of you here and I know that many miles have been travelled to be here and we thank you for that. We trust that you all have a wonderful afternoon and evening.

A wedding is a time for celebrating, for happiness and fun, with family and friends gathered to see the happy couple off as they start their new life but it is also a time when our thoughts inevitably turn to those people who have watched you both grow and cannot be here to share your happiness. I am not going to mention anyone by name but around the room you will know who they are. So, would you please all stand, raise your glasses and join me in a toast: absent friends and family – thank you.

It was the 17th November 1993 when this little bundle of joy arrived on this wonderful planet of ours and every year straight after my birthday on 17 Aug don't we know it as the countdown to her birthday starts. When she was young we had to be careful not to let her get too excited as it often didn't end well if you get my drift and even now it's worth keeping an eye on her! Growing up, Chloe was a happy go lucky child who appreciated the simple things in life. She was always bubbly and cheerful, and thoroughly enjoyed the regular trips to animal farms, horseriding and our family holidays in the Far East and later in our caravan on the beach in Spain. I recall one holiday where she brought Tori along and the MP3 had just come out, she had one but it only had about 7 or 8 songs on it, one being Umbrella by Rihanna and sharing a set of headphones they sang it repeatedly in the back seat, nearly drove us mad – ella, ella, ella! At school she was enthusiastic and excelled in the classroom but the same couldn't quite be said on the sports field, particularly athletics. I remember we went to watch her at sports day and when she spotted me with my camera while she was stood on the start line she posed and the race started without her!

Chloe, we are blessed to have you in our lives and we hope you are aware just exactly how much we love you, and how very proud we are of the lovely young lady you have become. It has been an absolute pleasure for us to watch a very talkative, extremely inquisitive and it has to be said an often clumsy little girl develop into the very beautiful, clever, loyal, still slightly clumsy and loving young lady we see before us and it was my honour and privilege to escort you down the aisle today. Although fathers are naturally biased about their daughters I'm sure you'll all agree that Chloe looks absolutely stunning.

Chloe is a wonderful daughter and sister who has provided us with so much happiness, and yes a few tears over the years and to see her looking so beautiful, radiant and happy today is the icing on the cake. I would also like to mention how supportive you have been for Stephen over the years, you have always been there for him and I know he has appreciated that and we certainly have as well. I am now going to break from tradition as Jackie would like to say a few words:….… If you know Jackie you will know that she can talk the hind legs off a donkey but public speaking is not her thing and that is the first time she has ever done anything like that. (Clap, Clap)

During the time we have known Joe we have come to realise how special he is to Chloe and what a great son-in-law he will be (football teams aside). When Joe asked me if he could marry Chloe my answer was simple – yes, make her happy and don't try to convert her to being a Utd fan it won't work. I believe he will (not the fan bit) and Jackie and I would like to take this opportunity to formally welcome Joe to our family. With that comes certain responsibilities and there are some which I need to formally hand over as of the moment: looking after her when she is poorly, holding her hair up when she is being ill, making sure she can see at concerts (strong shoulders or take the step) and finally….… the Christmas sack.

Today I am the proudest man in the whole world. Seeing your daughter looking so happy and radiant is a truly amazing experience, but it is tinged with a little sadness. If you know me well, being generous does not come naturally to me (especially at the bar apparently) so having to give our daughter away was doubly hard. I will however cherish our time together en route to the church and our little glance at one another as we were ready to start our walk down the aisle.

Chloe, you started in one family, became part of our family and are now about to become part of a third family so I thought it would be nice for your new family to know just what we all think of you. I canvassed our families to pick 1 word to describe you, in most cases they couldn't pick just one so I have included them all, so in no particular order they came up with: gentle, smiley, caring, compassionate, delightful, smiling, gorgeous, cheerful, kind hearted, outspoken (take note Joe), bookworm, home bird, titch, animal lover, beautiful, kind, lovely, cherished, happy, short (it shouldn't be too hard to work out who that was from) and finally pearl (lovely and very precious).

Now Chloe, this is the time that every bride fears… what is he going to talk about, is he going to tell about the time when, what if he says…!! Well you are right to be worried and so should some others but if you are worried about being embarrassed by what I am going to say I would be much more worried about how embarrassed you are going to be when I hit the dance floor with some serious Dad dancing. There have been a few embarrassing moments (for us or you we'll see – maybe some of each) along the way and it would be remiss of me if I did not share a few of these:

When Chloe was young she was so cute but times were hard and we could not afford a paddling pool so had to settle for what we had – (a fermentation bin).

When she was small, mm let me rephrase that, when she was a little girl, mm still there, Chloe would wake early and was full on during the day so by the evening was shattered. When she was about 5 we travelled to Phuket from Brunei and on the first night we were having dinner in the outdoor restaurant. We were chatting and when we turned round Chloe was actually asleep with her face in her pizza!

Chloe wanted to be a vet for many years and her love of animals did lead to some amusing moments. The 2 funniest both involving our cat Tom and a bird, not the same one as you will see. One morning Tom had a bird in his mouth, Chloe started screaming and Jackie came rushing out into the garden in her towel to see what all the commotion was and ended up chasing Tom around and yes her towel did fall down. On the other occasion we rescued a bird from Tom's mouth just as we were walking to School and laid it on top of the wall to recover, amid much sobbing and many tears. When we walked back from School it was no longer there and I convinced Chloe it had recovered and flown away……

When she was a little bit younger than that she was left in the care of Gaga while Jackie and Andy went out. When they got back Chloe was missing. They searched everywhere to no avail, the Police were called to no avail and then Chloe just appeared. It transpired that Gaga would not let her in the bathroom with him so she had gone to sleep under the spare bed in protest!

I don't know if it is just little girls who like to put on shows for their parents but we endured I mean enjoyed our fair share. Chloe and her friends would spend hours upstairs rehearsing and then we would be summoned to the front room for the latest extravaganza. In fact we have one of her co-stars here today who could tell you all about them, don't we Tori. This must have inspired her love of West End shows which has become an annual birthday event with E.

I could keep going: sleepwalking, getting stuck at the bottom of the bed, nicknames etc but I think that is enough so I am going to move on from embarrassing Chloe to looking back on those special memories which Chloe has generated for us over the years which has made us so proud of her:

It goes all the way back to the very day that Chloe was born and Jackie held her for the first time (but only after Ian and Kevin who had got there first). On that day Grandad came in to see Chloe and drove around the hospital one way circuit the wrong way which became part of family folklore and the story had to be repeated many, many times to satisfy Chloe's curiosity. When Chloe was born Jackie gave up work and stayed at home with her for the first 2 years and that was the basis of the very strong and special bond which exists between them now – top tip don't stop your daily phone calls or my life will be hell.

Chloe is a very good dancer and when we were in Gibraltar she learnt Flamenco which is not easy and this culminated in her performing a Flamenco dance in Casemates Square in front of hundreds of people and in the Rock Hotel. Chloe is also very musical and she played the clarinet in the Duke of York's Royal Military School band which performed at Twickenham ahead of the annual Army Navy game. It is at times like this that your heart swells with pride.

For me:  • Taking Chloe to her 1st Liverpool match at Anfield which was against Derby and we won 6-0. Having stood on the steps of the Kop at the same age that was special.  • Taking Chloe to her first function which was the Purple Ball at the Defence Academy at Shrivenham where there were over a 1000 officers and guests, she looked stunning and I needed eyes in the back of my head!  • Teaching her to ride a bike, for all of those who have done this you will know how back breaking it is. I taught her on the beach in Brunei and she mastered a straight line but couldn't do corners so without her realising I drew a large 8 in the sand and told her to follow the line and hey presto cornering mastered.  • When Chloe was at Bloxham she was a Sgt in the CCF and by pure coincidence my Regiment provided the Cadet Liaison Officer for the School – and yes it was me. This meant I got the opportunity to be the CCF Inspecting Officer and Chloe and I had to have a shoot off against each other using air rifles on the indoor range. Thankfully I won just, phew. • Finally and it might sound a bit silly but coming with me to watch me play hockey meant a huge amount to me. I am sure she will remember the last time when it was so cold that the team gave her all their spare tops etc to put on top of hers and she was still freezing.

Well Chloe you will be pleased to hear that is all the stories and recollections and it is now time, as is customary on these occasions to offer the happy couple some worldly advice on marriage, and this is the one time when you both have to listen:

• Neither of you will ever be perfect, but you can be a perfect match for each other. A successful marriage is not necessarily about finding a person you can live with but finding one you can't live without and I know that you've found that with each other.

• With all the pressures of modern life it is easy to forget what is really important so I urge you to make time for each other and make time for your marriage, it is bigger than both of you and at the end of the day it is the only thing that matters.

• Love unconditionally and be quick to forgive, don't go to sleep on an argument, start each day positively and with a smile and make many friends as along with your family they will always be there for you.

• My greatest wish for the two of you is that through the years, your love for each other will deepen and grow, that years from now you will look back on this day, your wedding day, as the day you loved each other the least.

Joe, on top of that I have canvassed our families and can offer you some additional bits of advice for you about Chloe which are worth noting: she loves the sun, going to the theatre and most animals: she does not love soggy bread, being cold or meatless mondays. Finally, if you are doing a jigsaw check her pockets and don't travel straight after a meal.

My final duty and very great privilege is to propose a toast to our daughter and new son-in law. So would you please stand and join me in a toast:

Here's to the past, for all that you've learned. Here's to the present, for all that you share. Here's to the future, for your hopes and dreams, your love and happiness and all that you look forward to together.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, Chloe and Joe THE BRIDE AND GROOM