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Well its now Sunday, so time to update on the wedding and more...
Unfortunately, no pictures as I left my digital camera at home, but I will be scanning in all the photos (and possibly the proofs) when I get hold of them.
Anyway, Ian stayed over on Thursday night. Got my haircut in the morning. We took his 2 boys to the Wacky Warehouse for dinner and when we got back, started to get ready.
The Rolls Royce turned up at 3.30 to take us to the church, so off we went. Arrived in plenty of time, chatted to some friends outside and then made our way to the front of the church. Ethan scraped his finger on his chair before the service started and Auntie Gine had to sort out a plaster. Shelly and the bridesmaids arived. Shelle was in a black dress and look simply stunning. The bridesmaids were equally gorgeous, in red and black outfits. I'll talk more about the bridesmaids later :)
The service went perfectly, made even better by Anthony (Ian and Shelle's youngest lad) wandering around in the service and asking what was going on. The vicar was excellent about it - this is her last ever wedding as she is retiring soon. I was also Ians witness on the wedding certificate - which was cool. He only told me on Wednesday :)
After the actual service - photo time. The photographer (Tom Gage) was excellent and took a mass of photos inside and out.
The bridesmaids and I then took a limo to the reception - but we had to stop off at a cashpoint enroute ddue to me leaving all the cash at home! Spent most of the journey chatting to Tracey, one of the bridesmaids about all sorts of crap. There were 4 altogether, Rachel - 14, Nikki - 17, Vikki - 27 and Tracey - 32. They all looked great in their outfits.
The reception was held at the Commodore Hotel in Sand Bay and it was great. As the wedding happened on Hallowe'en, the room was decked out in a spooky manner and most of the guests were in fancy dress. It was great.
The speech - well here it is:
Ladies and gentlemen, firstly may I start by thanking Ian, on behalf of the bridesmaids and page boys, for his kind words..
When Ian first asked me to be the Best Man, I told him that I was deeply honoured, but unfortunately I didn�t think that I was the right person for the job.
Ian said to me �How about �20�. I said �Ian, I can�t be bought�. Ian then said to me �How about �20 and a double rum and coke�...(Pause)...So, Good evening ladies and gentleman my name is Tudor and I am the Best Man for today...
Initially, I was quite thrilled at the prospect of this privilege. But it didn't take long for this feeling to disappear as I remembered the last time I had to stand up in front of a room full of people. I was found guilty and fined �200...(PAUSE)...So I hope you will be a little bit more forgiving and lenient than the last lot were.
Being the best man is quite a responsibility, so I checked in several places and came up with a checklist of what my basic duties should be for today, just so that I wouldnt forget anything.
Item 1
On the day, bring a credit card and loads of cash in case there is anything the groom may have forgotten to pay for.
Well, ever since I have known Ian, I have had to carry around my credit card, this so thats nothing new. He's always pretty good with the cash though.
Item 2
Help the groom dress himself.
It took a while, but I did eventually manage to persuade Ian that the Church had a strict no jeans or Dr Martens policy.
Item 3
Ensure that the groom is sober, punctual, has his shoelaces tied ,his flies done up and uses the toilet before the service.
Well, that all went OK, but I did use the toilet before Ian and checked that the window was too small to escape out of.
Item 4
It is my responsibility to make sure his face and hair are in order.
Now I think that this is really unfair on the best man. If God couldn't do it right in the first place what chance did I have?
The rules also stated that I should sing the praises of the groom and tell you all about his good points.
So what can I say about him (get paper from pocket)
He's Handsome
Witty
Intelligent
Charming
Erm...
Sorry Ian, I can't read the rest of your writing, so we'll just leave it at that.
[READ CARDS]
It is customary at this point in the speech for the best man to launch a severe character assassination of the groom and to tell you a bit about the stag party, but frankly, I am far too scared of Shelle to do that so I will instead give Ian some tips that I found on the internet.
Ian:-
The best way to remember your anniversary is to forget it once.
Always remember those three little words..."You're right dear".
It is important to get on with your mother in law. My friend didnt speak to his for two years. Not because he didn't didnt't like her... he just thought it was rude to interrupt.
Anyway, I've done enough on my own so at this point I would like to ask Ian and Shelle to participate in the speech for a short moment. Don't worry, it's quite harmless, TRUST ME...
Shelle can I ask you to put your hand flat on the table...
Ian now it's your turn. Place your hand directly on top of Shelle�s.
I hope you're enjoying that Ian, because it's the last time you're gonna have the upper hand!
Now, it gives me great pleasure (and immense relief) to ask you all to stand and raise your glasses in a toast:
Michelle and Ian, May your love be modern enough to survive the times, and old fashioned enough to last forever...
Michelle and Ian
It went down really well and thankfully, several people told me how good it was, etc. The fact is, I was shaking like a leaf. In front of maybe 150 people. I've done public speaking in front of 12000 people before and not worried about it, but this was weird.
My kids were there the whole day with Bimbo, Pete and Shauni. When I wasn't doing my offical duties, I was with them, dancing with them, chatting to all and sundry or chatting to Tracey. Both of the kids fell asleep on me within 20mins of each other - it was great. I love it when that happens :)
At the end of the evening, I'm stood at the bar with Ian, drinking Brandy and Lime (it sounds disgusting, but its great) when Shelle comes up to me. Apparently, Tracey really liked me and would I be interested in going out with her? Yes I said, cos I thought she was lovely (and well fit!).
So we texted yesterday and we're going out next week :)
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