Notes

Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of my wife and I, I would like to thank you for being here with us today, sharing in our happiness. Thank you to everyone who has brought us gifts & greetings.

I would like to keep my speech short but there are some very special people we would like to thank. Firstly, all the people who have helped in preparing for today's celebrations by baking and in other ways too numerous to mention. Particularly we would thank Carmen, Marva, Tessa and Shelene for their hard work and travelling from America and Canada to be with us here today.

I would also like to thank Chris McLaggan, Earl, Shanaz, Stephen and Ron Harry for staying here this morning to look after the sound equipment.

We must thank Hayden and Yasmin for being such a well-behaved pageboy and flower girl. This is also an appropriate moment to thank the beautiful bridesmaids who are Michelle's three sisters: Sonja, Sharon, Tanya and my cousinvAmanda. They all complemented the Bride perfectly. Thanks to Rose who made the bridesmaids' dresses.

We are grateful to our two ushers, one of whom isvIan, Michelle's brother who is also installing the central heating in our new house. For those of you who know Michelle well, she is very appreciative of anything that stops her from being cold, and therefore I am eternally grateful to Ian.

The other usher today was my brother, Stacey. Stacey led the way and celebrated his first wedding anniversary a few days ago. I would particularly like to thank him for his help and I hope that we will remain close now that we are both married.

You are about to hear from my best man, Lee, who will no doubt have a thing or two to say about me. Therefore I had better say the good things about him before I hear what he has to say.

Lee and I have been best friends since schooldays and whilst other friends have come and gone, we have remained close. The test of friendship is trust, and I can say without a doubt I would trust Lee without hesitation if it came to the crunch. Even if we have a falling out or disagreement, I know that if I need help, he will still come to my aid. I have never had any other friend like Lee and I must thank him for doing the hardest job today and for his good friendship. He will also be deejay-ing later on and I understand that he will be joined later by his deejay-ing partner, The Englishman, for what will be a great party.

We would like to give very special thanks to Michelle's grandparents who have set us a fine example and recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. We hope that we may follow in their footsteps. I would personally like to thank them for welcoming me into their home as a total stranger and gradually accepting me as one of the family.

Michelle has told me that when I first gave her a lift home from work when we both worked at Safeway in Stanmore on Saturdays her grandmother said to her "Watch that boy because he is after you." Well there was never a wiser woman!

I could not finish without giving a very special thanks to our parents who are probably breathing a collective sigh of relief to be rid of us. Both of us were their first born and we hope that we have lived up to their expectations, as they have certainly lived up to ours. We would both like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

However, no matter how wonderful today has been, it has for me a great deal of sadness, as none of my grandparents have lived to see this day; and it is now almost four years to the day that my Dad suddenly passed away.

Today would be perfect if I could shake his hand and thank him for being the best father I could hope for. At least I have some wonderful memories and photos to show my children, should we be blessed with any.

Of course, the reason we are all here is to see the beautiful Bride. Michelle and I have a lot in common - we were both born in Kingsbury Hospital, both went to Claremont High School and both worked at Safeway in Stanmore. As I was at all of these places first, I soon figured out that she was following me and was probably infatuated with me.

Since our first date at McDonalds on 25 January 1987, Michelle has had a dramatic effect on me, by giving me greater confidence in myself and giving me a new perspective on life. In some ways, I feel she is too good for me. She is good-looking, intelligent, independent friendly and very popular.

I still don't know what made her decide to say yes to me. There is no doubt that Michelle is the kindest and most caring person that I have ever met, and she will always have my undying love for making me so happy and marrying me today.

Finally, I am pleased to finish with even more good news, Michelle has just heard that she has passed her Legal Executive exams.