Speech by Mark Teverson

Speech Type: Father of the bride/groom
Speech Creator: Mark Teverson
Speech Date: 08/08/2016 09:23:40

– WELCOME – Good afternoon everybody, It is my privilege to make the first speech of the day, and although I know Steve and Chris are chomping at the bit to stand up and speak in front of all you lovely lot, I appreciate you indulging me for just a little while. – On behalf of Wendy and myself I would like to welcome you all and thank you for coming here today for this very special occasion to help celebrate the marriage of our daughter Zoe to Steve. If neither of those names are familiar to you then there is a good chance you are at the wrong event, and you may want to..… – STEVE WELCOME – I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Steve to the family, and of course Max & Andy and all the rest of your family. – Max & Andy, I know you are aware of this already however I would like you to know from us that Steve is somebody you should be incredibly proud of. He is kind, thoughtful, funny, hard working, and it is clear to me just how much he is in love with Zoe. It is only his obsession with scented candles and face masks that are a bit of a concern, but hey you can't have everything right?!

– LIVING WITH US – Steve managed to survive 18 months living with us lot which is no mean feat, and I would say he settled in just fine, and it really didn't take him too long. I first noticed this at the time that everyone was doing the Ice Bucket Challenge, and when Steve was doing his he came down to me and Wendy in some sensible cargo type shorts, and said that he wanted our opinion. Should he do the challenge in these shorts or……he then removed his shorts to reveal some very tight silvery/gold budgie smugglers! It was at this point that I thought ‘yeah I think he's settled in with us now’ – I have other stories about Steve learning to play the guitar, and strange conversations about showers, but I've probably picked on him enough.

• ADVICE – Now as father of the bride I am supposed to offer advice to you both on a successful marriage…..well there's a mine field! So staying clear of any booby traps, and potentially uncomfortable conversations with Wendy later on, all I will say is: success in marriage is not about finding someone to live with, it's about finding the person you can't live without, and I can honestly say I believe you both have done exactly that.

• PROUD – I am extremely proud of my family, of who we are, and how we approach life, and none more so than Zoe. I am so thankful that she managed to inherit mainly Wendy's side of the gene pool, as she has blossomed into a beautiful, determined, intelligent, well organised, caring, thoughtful person, with a great sense of humour. I would just like to pick a couple of those points out: – Thoughtful. You will see that as your favours on the table there is either a British Heart Foundation or a cancer research pin. I know that over the years both of our families have benefited so much from the hard work and research that these charities carry out, meaning that we have had much more precious time with loved ones that without these two charities we would not of had the chance to enjoy. So when Zoe said that she would like these as the favours, Wendy and I couldn't have agreed more.  – Well organised. I say this because Zoe and Wendy are so on the ball I think this wedding was organised and booked before Steve had finished his proposal! I had virtually zero input on the decisions, which did make my life much easier! I think the only thing that I contributed to was the table planning. You see between Wendy, Zoe and Steve they couldn't decide on who should sit where, so I suggested we placed people by the amount they spent on wedding gifts. So the more you spent the closer to the top table you are….So shame on you guys at the back, or as I like to call you: The Poundland posse!

• PHOTO – This time is also my chance to share with you a few memories of Zoe growing up, and you can't help but get a little sentimental when you do that. So preparing this speech sent me on a bit of a trip down memory lane especially by looking at some of the old photos and videos we have of Zoe, like the one where she was sat on the living room floor, babbling away to herself, holding on to her bottle, and trying to stand up and walk towards the camera………ah she really did enjoy her 18th Birthday!

– DRIVING – And the time I started taking Zoe on her driving lessons…….wow, now that was an experience! My girl has turned 17, my little princess was going to be driving and become more independent, so I volunteered to take her on some lessons. You all know Zoe, you know how polite, kind, and friendly she is…that's not always the case when she's driving! One of the first times out on the road, some guy comes flying towards her in his car and instead of him giving way, he just drives past…As I turned to her to say not to worry and let's carry on, she started with….beeping idiot, can't he beeping well see I'm a beeping learner! Beeping beep beep, I should beep your beep, you beeping beep! So my only advice to all of you here is that if you ever see Zoe on the road driving towards you, it may be wise to give way to her!

– We also found out recently that Zoe had her own unique way of asking for gifts. Whenever we took Zoe and Sean to a theme park or for a day out when they were younger, at the end of the day we would go to the gift shop and tell them they could pick one thing that we would buy them (obviously we would steer them in the £5 – £10 section!). Sean would run straight over to the £30 section and pick up three or four things hoping to get lucky, but Zoe never really seemed to want anything, or so it seemed. She has told us recently that what she would do was walk up to the thing she wanted and stand next to it, hoping that we would notice, she wouldn't say a word she would just stand there. Well of course as we didn't know what she was doing, she ended up hardly getting a thing! It does make me wonder though about how she picked Steve, I mean did she just go and stand next to him until she was told you could have that one? – On a serious note Zoe I want you to know how proud we are of you. You take everything in your stride, and always with a great attitude, whether it's gaining a first class honours degree, or being a very successful teacher, or even being able to successfully complete a Jager bomb train in a bar on your hen do! From the day you were born you have continually filled my life with love, laughter, and wonderful memories. I really couldn't be more proud of the incredibly amazing and beautiful woman sitting before me today.

– TOAST – All that leaves me left to say is that the two of you make a fantastic couple, singly you are both great, but as a partnership you are awesome, and I wish you every happiness, excitement, love, and adventure, now, and for the future. So on that note would you please all be upstanding and raise your glasses to: Zoe & Steve, the Bride and Groom!