Speech by Robert Forbes

Speech Type: Father of the bride/groom
Speech Creator: Robert Forbes
Speech Date: Sep 2001
Wedding Speech

On this most special of special days I thought to myself

What's in Name? From today Hannah and Ian will have the same surname.

Our Girls have got what we think are lovely names. For Instance Sarah's middle name is "Robyn". Now what does that conjure up in your mind. To me it's a pretty wee Scotch Bird that you never see in the summer, and only appears in the winter when she wants fed, watered or shelter, the rest of the year she is out enjoying itself at every opportunity.

Hannah's name? Well when Hannah was being born I was in Cornwall and Sheila was in Lossiemouth. For the men amongst us I strongly recommend that this is a suitable distance to observe childbirth. We had the usual discussions about first and second names. HJ's first name we liked because Hannah is a Hebrew name which means "Graceful". As for her middle name we were a bit stuck, but the moment I saw her I said to Sheila that she was our little Gem and she immediately became "Jade", and she has been our little Gem ever since.

So today Ian it is my honour to hand over the care of our precious gem to you. I'm sure you will value her as much as we do.

Early last year Hannah came over to visit us in Italy. Arriving late at night after our Hello's HJ very nervously announced she had something to tell us. For any of you who have a young daughter, for a father this was a moment of fear and dread. What could it be, had she had a row with her sister(again), had she been sacked, was she ill, was she very ill, was she pregnant? Well it turned out all that was wrong was she was going to marry a Celtic Supporter.
I am no great philosopher or intellectual, and if I need to know something I always just ask Sheila. What is Ian like, is he a good man, can he be trusted, will he look after our daughter. She, in a moment, replied. "Rab, Ian loves Hannah, that's all that matters"

Ian, Sheila(Like Hannah) is never wrong.

Ian I must take this moment to welcome you to the family. You bring a smile to our daughter's face. Long may that continue.

I suppose I should be telling you lots about Hannah. Our Hannah is the little girl with curly hair who was always laughing. She doesn't get a suntan; this comes for being literally in her mothers shadow for the first 5 years of her life. When she was young finding Hannah was easy, just find her Mum and there she was.

She has always been the best big sister you could find. This includes trying to suffocate her little sister when she was born by trying to climb into her little cot to give her a big hug. I'm not so sure she does this anymore.

She always loved her teddy bears; care bear, panda bear, and even her Grandma made her a bear, and now it is some sort of bear called KEECH bear. No, Sorry, that should that be Pooh bear.

>From Bears Hannah graduated to pop Music. First came Jason and Kylie, and then it was a group of acne ridden youths called Take That. No doubt her tastes have matured and who knows what her next Steps will be, Bob the Builder.

>From her mother's side of the family she gets her ravishing good looks, charm, wit, culinary skills (pasta), and honesty.
>From me she inherited her ability to say no, and mean it.

And so what is marriage.
These are some pieces of useful advice that famous people have given about marriage,

Ian: "Women are meant to be loved, not understood"
Hannah: "A husbands last words should always be ‘OK Buy IT’"
Ian: "Women like silent men, they think you are listening"
Hannah: "A man is incomplete until he's married, then he's finished"

I asked Ian what he expected from a marriage, he said love, happiness and eventually a family. I asked Hannah the same question and she said "a bread maker"

Marriage is not easy, but it is not impossible. Marriage has to be worked at constantly with a lot of give and take. This year both sets of parents have had silver weddings, and speaking for myself and my solicitor I never really thought Sheila and I could stay married that long. Perhaps Marlene and Wallace at least once have had similar thoughts. But as you set off in one of life's great adventures remember the support and advice you had before today from all your friends and family, will still be there tomorrow.

At last I am at the end and I have only a few words left to say
Here's to the past, for all that you've learned
Here's to the present, for all you can share
And here's to the future, for all that you look forward to together

Ladies please be upstanding for
Our Bride and Groom
Hannah and Ian Stewart