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Ladies and gentlemen, Family and Friends, I would like to start off by thanking Katherine and Rhyan on behalf of the dedicated team of Bridesmaids and Ushers – that's Penny, Karen, Alison, Martin and Daron and myself – for your kind words and for letting us be a part of your wedding. Over the last few months it's given us all… how can I put this? Something to do. Now, it's up to me to say a few words about what we've all witnessed today, and also to say a little bit about the bride and groom. Well, what can I say about these two that hasn't been said before? Apart of course from "Now there's a turn up for the books, who'd have put those two together?!!" and "Don't you think they're rushing into it?" I think it's traditional for the best man to talk about the circumstances in which they got together, and what Rhyan was like as a single bloke, but that's rather difficult for me as they've been going out for as long as I've known them. I first met them both at a student bellringing practice at St Johns, Cardiff. As I entered the belfry, I was introduced to this short blonde girl with a moustache and a Mexican's hat – oh did I mention it was a fancy dress night? She was introduced to me as "Kit", although despite asking for this to be repeated a couple of times I went through that evening thinking she was called "Kim". I was grateful when a list of emails handed to me at the end corrected me. I must admit I didn't really notice Rhyan at that practice, as you all know he's a fairly quiet lad, and he'd not been ringing long at that stage and so pretty much kept himself to himself. In fact I was quite convinced for a short time that Katherine was going out with Mark Veness. It's quite common for the best man to discuss the drinking exploits of the groom, but I recall him telling me once how he found it embarrassing that his girlfriend could drink him under the table. I pointed out to him that Katherine could drink most people under the table. I think this was after the game of the 100 club we played one Thursday evening in Cardiff. For those of you not acquainted with this tradition, the idea is to drink a camera film cap full of beer once a minute for 100 minutes. To cut a long story short, the two girls playing – one of which was Katherine, made it successfully to the end, whereas neither myself nor Rhyan managed to get much past half way without feeling ill. Rhyan had to spend the remainder of the evening clearing up the dog mess I'd managed to trample through his house. The worrying image of how well those marigolds suited him is one that will stay with me…. It's episodes like this that made me (and everyone else if you're all honest) wonder why Rhyan asked me to me his best man. I thought it was possibly to do with my organisation skills, so I offered to help with any aspect of organising the wedding they were struggling with. Rhyan asked for my advice on the cars, but I think he wanted a little bit more help than "I think Bentley's look nice". It's been my job as well as that of the bridesmaids to be there for them as they prepared their wedding, which wasn't much of a problem as we seem to spend just about every weekend with them anyway. And I'd like to reassure them that this support doesn't stop at the wedding. No, if they need anything, anything at all during their honeymoon, we'll be in the room right next door. Up all night, ears to the wall just in case. Well, it's my job tonight on behalf of all of us I think to offer congratulations to Rhyan and Katherine. Well, unbeknown to you all I have already congratulated Rhyan. I said to him, "Rhyan, you will always look back on today as the most important and happiest day of your life." Unfortunately, I did say that to him on the stag night…. Ladies and Gentlemen it gives me great pleasure tonight to propose the final toast to the bride and groom. So if you'd raise your glasses. "Rhyan and Katherine". |