Speech by Nick Williams

Speech Type: Groom
Speech Creator: Nick Williams
Speech Date: 11/09/2014 09:40:05

Good afternoon to all of you, our closest family and friends.

I'm not really very good at writing speeches or public speaking which makes this possibly the worst situation for me.

But if you lower your expectations then there is less chance of me disappointing you over the next few minutes.  Words I will no doubt be repeating to Lesley back at the hotel later. 

Hopefully there'll be at least one or two laughs through this speech and there may also be a few tears.

One thing I can be sure of is there is definitely going to be a lot of nerves so please bear with me.

Please make sure you have a drink to hand as there will be a couple of toasts and for those that attended my stag do, this means a glass of something bubbly and not a jager.

So lets get started because, despite the nerves, I'm pretty excited to finally be able to say these next few words.  It gives me great pleasure on behalf of my new wife and I, to welcome you all here to help us celebrate and share our special day. 

It's great to see you all and we really appreciate that some of you have travelled from as far as America and Australia to be with us. 

Some of you have travelled not so far but none the less we're grateful that you like us enough to take the time off work to be here. 

Or if you don't like us that much, I hope you at least appreciate we've given you a good excuse to have a day off and an evening without the kids. 

As is customary, I need to start with some thank you's. 

If you've helped in any small way and you don't get a mention then don't be offended, we do appreciate everything but I'm trying not to cut into your drinking time too much.

We need to say a big thank you to Jen and Paul for all their help with the wedding preparations. 

I would also like to say thanks to Jen and Paul and also to David for welcoming me into their family and for raising Lesley to be the lovely person that she is today. 

She's asked me to say that she hopes she's grown into a daughter you can all be very proud of. 

We need to thank my parents Bev and Ron for their help with the wedding preparations and personally I must thank them for raising me as well as they have. 

I've had some issues and I was what you might call “challenging” during my teenage years and early twenties

But they've always been there to help me, emotionally, sometimes financially and on the odd occasion physically

Like having to guide me back to my own bed when I might have fallen down the stairs or told Dad to “move over” as I tried to get into bed with them whilst drunken sleep walking.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that they've always been there to put me back on the right track with their support and encouragement.  I hope I can provide the same love and guidance to Blake and in many ways to Harry.  

You should be extremely proud of the great job you've done raising Katie (my sister) and you should be extremely thankful and relieved that Lesley has finally come along to take on the responsibility of looking after me. 

So if we could have a little toast please…..to the parent….THE PARENTS

So moving onto other members of the wedding party, starting with the most important man of the day, Harry. 

Thank you for doing such an excellent job of escorting your Mum to the town hall and down the aisle, you've made us both very proud with how grown up you were while completing this very important job. 

And the same to Jack and Alfie for escorting your Mum.

To my usher Simon, thank you for taking time out from being a new dad to calm my nerves this morning. 

And a special mention should go to Craig for helping with some of the organisation of my stag do.

I think it's fair to say everyone enjoyed themselves?!  

It highlighted a few things though. Firstly no matter how awesome your friends are, and you are all pretty awesome by the way, they will take great pleasure in shooting and hurting you with paintballs.  Also I can't drink nearly as much as I used to but thanks to all of you for putting that to the test.

 To the bridesmaids, Laura and Katie, you both look lovely and thank you for all the help you have given Lesley today and with the organising of the hen party. 

From first-hand experience I know Lesley can be very hard to please so you did a great job.

So if we could have a little toast please…..to the bridesmaids….THE BRIDESMAIDS

And finally our cute little flower girl Blake.

I really couldn't be any more proud of her than I am today.   

Those that have known me for a long time will probably know that I'd always wanted a daughter, a little daddy's girl. 

But even I've been amazed at what a wonderful little girl she's turning out to be and I have to give Lesley a lot of the credit for this.

I think a lot of it is down to all the work she put in with Blake and the fun they had together in the first year and continue to do so now, so thank you Les for being a great Mum.

Don't worry, we're nearly done….I think this reminder was more for my benefit than any of you.

So now onto the best part.  The part about my beautiful new wife, Lesley Ann Williams….or LAW as her initials now spell. 

I always remember the first time I saw Lesley in the gym, and I thought “Wow, she's pretty hot….a little moody maybe, but still hot”.  It took a while for me to pluck up the courage to be a modern man and email her.  But I soon found we were messaging each other on a daily basis and things progressed from there to spending weekends together.  I started to think she was a bit of a special one, I actually really liked her and perhaps we could be a little bit more than just friends. 

If you ask Lesley how we got together as a couple, her version of events is we were kind of on, then off, then on, then off again and then I eventually wore her down into a proper relationship. 

She then asked me to move in on a landlady / lodger arrangement, I fathered a daughter for her and then I eventually upgraded her to fiancé status.  It really is a fairytale love story!

Nowadays, thankfully gone is that moody face and Lesley tells me that I'm just blinded by my love for her, but to me she's more beautiful than the first day I saw her in the gym and I think you'll agree that today she looks stunning.

(turn to Lesley)

By the way, have I told you how pretty you are today?  You look very pretty!

Les, over the years I've fallen in love with you and you've become my best friend, you make me laugh on a daily basis with your inappropriate, unladylike humour. 

You accepted me for who I am, a bit of a geek, quite opinionated, unsociable, sometimes grumpy, the list could go on, yet despite all of this you still agreed to marry me.

I've learnt that your actions speak louder than words and you're one of the most caring and thoughtful people I know and I'm so grateful for everything you do for me and our family.  And as I'm sure some of your friends in the room will agree, you will do almost anything to help them if you can.

I believe this has had an effect on me too and Lesley brings out the best in me.  She makes me put more effort into things than I would without her to encourage me. Now I know there has been a lot about encouragement already in this speech but I was looking for a word that wasn't nag as apparently you're not allowed to say your new wife nags, so she encourages.  Nearly everything you see here today is Lesley's vision and is the result of a year of planning and organising by Lesley or by Lesley encouraging me.  I can't thank her enough for all the hard work she's put into making today what it is with her creativity and attention to detail.

I'm looking forward to settling into a new home very soon and spending many happy years together but for now I just absolutely love it that I can now call her….MY WIFE. 

So if you could all raise your glasses and toast…….to Lesley……LESLEY

So this pretty much brings to a close the first nerve racking part of the day for me.   It just leaves one more toast and the second most nerve racking part which is of course the first dance. 

As many of my friends are aware, as with public speaking, dancing is not for me. So when they say “Join the bride and groom on the dance floor”, that does mean join us on the dance floor please. I'm particularly relying on my friends here. 

We hope you all enjoy the day and if we could have one final toast please……..to family and friends……FAMILY AND FRIEND