Speech by Harold Gay

Speech Type: Father of the bride/groom
Speech Creator: Harold Gay
Speech Date: Oct2005
I'd like to extend a warm welcome to all of you here today. For those of you that don't know who I am I'm Harold.… the bride's father as you may have deduced by the recent church service.

Those of you who know me will know that I never have much to say. An odd statement perhaps for somebody who spends a lot of time addressing committees. That speaking though is always concerned with boring facts that can be looked up in equally boring books and, as such, is relatively easy. I often get the feeling in “real life” that conversations, particularly were women are concerned, happen on a different plane and I, like many men, don't really understand them and generally keep quiet. So initially I was very pleased when ‘Toria mused whether speeches were going to happen today but then I thought about it some more and told her she was having at least one speech as it was the one time that I could get her, and her mother, to listen to me without butting in!

‘Toria and her mam, what a pairing the last few weeks have been. “It's MY wedding” one day and “don't you want to be involved?” the next…..it's been a rough ride and tears and tantrums have happened but they have done it. Neither has stabbed the other and both are here, both beautiful and both loved to bits. My “other” girl is here too looking equally gorgeous and she is equally loved but she “plighted her troth” to her man Ian a few years ago and that left me with only one…… ‘Tori.

My Toria. My little girl. She was little once…and she lisped. If you have ever needed a heart to burst you should have a three year old holding your hand, giving you a huge smile and lisping how much she loved you. Your heart also skips a beat a few years later when the telephone bill comes in but it was never ‘Tori….it was always somebody else(so she said). She must have used the phone occasionally though in her younger days as where else would she have learnt the skill to be able to drive and ring me up to ask which way she was going and did she live North or South of “x”. There's something about a daughter getting married that touches the heart of a Dad. So, my ‘Toria, my adored toddler, my argumentative, stroppy girl, who now sits here a beautiful, magnificent woman, I love you today more than words can say. For nearly 30 years I have been the MALE provider in her life. Providing love, protection, security, money, stability, a shoulder to cry on, and, as mentioned, someone to argue with or referee between her and her mother! I have been the male role model, BUT from this day forward that has changed for ever. As a Dad that isn't easy to do, Ash is now the number 1 male in ‘Toria's life. Today, I was asked during the service, “Who gives this woman?” Ashleigh I gave her to you, even though you never officially came to ask, and, as I propose the toast, I welcome you “as one of us”…..and if you don't look after her I'll send her mother round.

Ladies and gentlemen, please raise your glasses…