Speech by Darren Whitham

Speech Type: Groom
Speech Creator: Darren Whitham
Speech Date: 07/07/2010 10:10:25

Thank you Ron for your kind words

Distinguished guests, relatives and friends

Thank you very much!

First of all, Claire, thank you for coming! The day just wouldn't have worked without you showing up just before!

Ok as tradition depicts, on behalf of my wife and I, I would like to thank you all for coming here today to celebrate our marriage!

I feel privileged to be here today, now Husband to Claire my new Wife and surrounded by all our closest family and friends. It means a great deal that you could all make it and it is very much appreciated when for everyone here there has been a considerable distance involved. Thank you, our day would not be as special without you all here.

Some would say that this wedding may be a little overdue! But I am a cautious guy and it takes me about 12 years to be sure that something is just right!

Joking aside, it is long overdue that I made an honest woman of Claire and I would like to say just how overwhelmed with happiness and pride I am that she accepted my proposal and is now my good lady wife.

Claire, I love you babe and am looking forward with sheer delight at spending the rest of my life with you.

When after 12 years it still feels as though every day is the first, and the adventure together always feels so fresh and exciting there is something special there and I am honoured to be part of this with you.

You look stunning babe, and I love you.

So please, ladies and gentlemen, raise your glasses and join me in a toast to my beautiful bride,

to Claire!

I now have some thank-you's to bestow on behalf of my Wife and I

To Ron and Anita – Claire's Dad and Stepmother

Ron, Thanks again for your kind words and for bringing Claire up to be the wonderful woman she has become. Thank you also, to yourself and Anita for welcoming me into your family with open arms and making me feel part of your family as soon as we met all that time ago. You are both wonderful people and I am thrilled to know you both.

I hope you can rest assured that my life's work remains as it has been since meeting Claire to make her happy and give her the best life I can.

To show our appreciation we have got you a gift that we hope you will accept and will be a souvenir of this memorable day.

If you could raise your glasses once again,

To Ron and Anita!

To my Mum and Dad

Mum, Dad, to find the words with which to thank you is a difficult task indeed. With all the time in the world I could never convey my gratitude to you both for the love, care and affection you have showered upon me during my life.

You have been there always through my highest highs to my lowest lows and no matter where I was or what the circumstances, I have always known you were there for me. The love you have shown me I am so lucky to receive and so I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all you have ever done and for moulding me into the person I am today.

 I am quite fond of how I have turned out!

And it obviously enabled me to win Claire over to so jobs a good un!

We have some presents for you guys too which we ask you to accept as a memento of today.

Thank you also for treating Claire as you would me and for the support you have given us both over the years. We are both more appreciative than words can say.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

To Tom and Marilyn!

To my Best Men

Guys, I'll make this mercifully short and sweet for you and try and spare too much sentimentality and embarrassment so if you could reciprocate with your own speech that we are all looking forward to I would appreciate it!

I have know Mick since Infant school  and I remember that once we met we became firm friends and have been ever since. I must have known him now for nearly 30 years and yet still when we get together the laughter never stops. Albeit at the expense of the poor unsuspecting world!

Ste, I met a little later in life at the age of about 14 I think. A friendship that started because of a mutual interest in each others stuff. Ste wanted to have a go on my new computer and I wanted to be friends with the lad who lived in the big house!

We have been close for many years now and have been in many a scrape and adventure together. The laughs  poured down over us during the years of our friendship.

Guys, there are too many times to regale and it was too much work to try and think of a story that would be anywhere near suitable for my speech!

I do feel I have missed out on some amazing laughs since moving away but I know its always the same when we get together. A steady rock in the sea of life.

So, please accept these gifts on behalf of my wife and I as part of our thank you.

So I'll leave it simple. Cheers guys, I really appreciate you accepting the role of Best Men and I know that we have been miles apart for many years now, but true friendship is not diluted by distance.

Please raise your glasses,

To Mick and Ste

To Bryn

Bryn, Claire's brother. It's been a long time now since we first met and I was quaking in my boots about being grilled by Claire's fierce financial advisor brother!

I just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you for your kind words before and also say that not only have I gained a brother in law today but that it has felt as though we have been great friends for many years now.

Your love for your sister knows no bounds I have seen this and am thankful for your bond. Have no fear mate. I will look after her.

I would also like to ask everyone if they would join me in raising their glasses to those who cannot be with us today. Whether separated by distance or by destiny. Please join me in drinking to

Absent family and friends

I hope this speech is not getting over long. It is surprising when you sit down and put your words on paper how much there is to say. I believe it is traditional to tell a story of how the Bride and Groom met and so, if you would be kind enough to indulge me a little longer I would like to share with you how I was fortunate enough to get together with Claire.

Over 12 years ago now on 11 April 1998 I was at a friends house with Ste and Kev – who is here today – cheers mate – doing the usual thing which, back then, was having way to much to drink before entering into Blackpool – the Riviera of the North!

This night was different than the usual though, in that we had decreed that tonight was a pure lads night out and there would be no room for chatting up the laydees!

Little did I know that the girl I asked for a light from later that evening would be then by my side for the rest of my life!

I think fate finds you when you least expect it.

If you had told me then that I would be here in 12 years time making this speech I would have never believed it. I didn't even want to leave home!

After meeting we were together every day and the connection between us grew into love faster than either of us could believe. Within a few months Claire had moved into my bedroom with my parents and that was a great recipe to hurry us into getting our own place – no offence mum and dad!

Not long after moving into our great little house in Blackpool did I get the opportunity to take a risk and move to Wimbledon to work in a job that involved my hobby – playing video games!

When I told Claire, she was the driving force saying that in life there was no good in asking what if and that we should go for it. Together we did just that and we have now been in London for 10 years and have a beautiful home here in Old Coulsdon that is better than anything I could have dreamed

We have had so many New Beginnings together and now at last we are uniting in front of all those whom we love for this next New Beginning – Our Marriage – and we look forward to all the opportunities, challenges and happiness that life will offer us within this.

And I do have one piece of news that we would like to share with you all. It is with great pleasure that I would like to announce that Claire is pregnant and we are going to have a baby in December. This is great news for us and we hope to enter this New Beginning in the same vein as all our others.

There is much more that I could say and I can only put into words in this humble speech but a tenth of the feeling that myself and my lovely bride would like to get across to you today. Let alone my feelings of adoration for my beautiful bride.

So, without further ado, please raise your glasses for my final toast:

To Love, Life, Friends and Fellowship!

Thank you