Speech by David McCleery

Speech Type: Groom
Speech Creator: David McCleery
Speech Date: oct 2002
Thank-you Roland for those kind words
Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen

My speech today will be like a mini skirt –
Long enough to cover the essentials and short enough to hold your
interest.

On behalf of Julia and myself, or should I say on behalf of my wife and I –
We would like to thank everyone for coming today. Everyone has travelled in
some way to be here and share this special day with us and we're delighted
to see you all. A special thank-you goes out to those of you who have
travelled a greater number of miles to be here today. It's quite humbling to
realise that you've friends and family that care so much, And are willing to
travel all that way to share in your special day.
Thank you for your cards, kind thoughts and of course all your wedding
gifts. They're all greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately there are two people who can't be here today, my Dad and my
grandda so, it would mean a lot to me if you would all stand for a toast in
their memory –

To Billy McCleery and James Harrison Snr.

Well now we've been planning this wedding for about a year now,
Well, I say "we", Julia and Norma did all the work, I just agreed to sort
out the weather
(if hot add: and what a good job I did)
(If cold add: And I even got that wrong.)_
They say You don't marry the one you can live with – you marry the person
you can't live without, which is very true with Julia, and while I was
looking forward and preparing myself for today I really wasn't prepared
enough for when I saw Julia in the church. You know I wasn't allowed to turn
around until Julia was beside me, and well what can I say, she just oozed
with elegance and grace. I was overwhelmed to the say the least at how
beautiful Julia looked.
But I should be used to it by now, as Julia always dresses to kill, it's
just unfortunate that she cooks the same way. Although I shouldn't have a go
at her cooking, as she made a lovely meal a just a few days ago, only
slightly burning it…..…
But it was a lovely salad.

I suppose it's only natural when you're about to get married to think back
over your past, and ask questions, not so much about your adult years, but
the earlier part of your life when you were, being brought up
Now, when I looked at myself in the mirror this morning, just before
I was about to set off for the church, I thought, "what a fine upstanding
young man you are? Your Mum did a good job with you!" That's why I want to
congratulate my Mum on the wonderful job she did, and to thank her for it.
Thanks Mum, for everything. And only my mum and I know what is contained in
that word Everything.

My next big thank you goes to Norma (who is more commonly known to me as
Norma G ). Firstly I'd like to thank her for having Julia, and secondly for
letting me marry her.
I'm grateful to her for accepting me into her family from the very start,
when Julia first took me home and said,
"Mum, look what I've found"
I'm also very thankful, to Norma for giving me her blessing to marry her
beautiful and intelligent daughter. Norma G – I hope that you don't feel
that you've lost a daughter, but you've gained another mouth to feed and
someone else to clean up after.
I have to admit that the whole day and everything else you've given us has
been overwhelming. We never expected all of this and you have made us both
feel very special. Both Julia and I want to express our very real thanks to
you for giving us this day, we thank you for your kindness and for making
our send off so memorable. I feel very proud to be able to say that I'm your
son-in-law and I'll always do my best to live up to your expectations and
promise to take care of Julia.

Thanks also goes to the Ushers Tim and Dave who have done a great job
ushering people today.

Now I'm not going to stand here and give you a load of stale old
jokes, I'm going to leave that to the best man.
While on the subject of the bestman, For those of you who don't know my best
man, this is Simon Lynn, we have worked together for a number of years now
and I want to say a very big thank you to Simon for agreeing to be my best
man today.
Simon is the best man. Well…the best I could get at such short notice.
And today while Simon makes his speech we could see an epidemic out break.
We might see Bangor's first case of foot in mouth. But don't be worrying
mate, I've seen you make a fool of yourself in front of a crowd before,
everytime you get up to sing at the keroke night down @ the Jamaica Inn, so
just imagine you're down at the Jamaica.
Once again I have to give Simon a word of thanks for all his help before the
big day and more importantly for getting me to the church on time!
Although I still think trying to wash and dress me was a bit over the top…

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my NEW Uncle Roland. You
know he always wanted to be an Actor and his acting career started when he
was 5. He got the lead role in the school play, as a man who had been
married for 25 years.
They said that if he was good that he could have a speaking part the next
time.
But seriously we have to thank Roland for all the work that he's done in
the flat – it is really appreciated by both of us – Thanks Roland

I would like to give a big thank you to the Bridesmaids, Julie and Alison,
for firstly performing their role so gracefully, and for looking fantastic
throughout the day. I'd also like to congratulate them for doing such a
great job in making sure that Julia went against her better judgement and
didn't change her mind.
All joking aside I would ask you stand and raise you glass as a toast the
bridesmaids.

Toast -The Bridesmaids

Now I'm going to tell you about the man who was speaking to god, just before
he got married.
He said

"God, why did you make women so beautiful?"
God said: "I did that to make you love them".
Then the man asked:
"Well, God; why did you make them such good cooks?"
God said: "I did that to make you love them".
The man then asked:
"But God, why did you make women so stupid?"
God said: "I did that to make them love you! "

So I just want to take this opportunity to thank Julia for becoming my Wife
and for loving me the way she does.
If I could finish by saying that I hope you all enjoy yourselves this
evening. And that Julia and I will try to mingle amongst everyone as much as
we can tonight.…

So without farther ado I'll hand you back to Simon.