The Most Important Speech Of My Life

You might be expecting something business related, those speeches i'm a pro at, on the other hand, a wedding speech is far more challenging.

I found this on an old hard drive and decided to share as it is of great value to me. Words truly mean more than people put emphasis on. It tells a great story and shows true character.

Hope you enjoy! :)

Good afternoon everyone, and thank you Jim for your kind words, it means a lot to us.

Thank you to everyone for joining me and my beautiful bride today. We both really appreciate the time you have taken to spend it with us and celebrate the start of our future.

It has been an amazing day, and to have you all here means so much.

I'm a man of few words, so thank you…. (Que to sit back down in silence for 2 minutes then stand back up)

Only joking!

Thinking about what I wanted to say in this speech, I really felt like I should share with you the journey about how we are all here today and how I came to ask Amy to marry me.

One summers evening I was driving back from work and I was thinking about how much I love this girl, when suddenly it hit me. I slammed the brakes on my car.

Something came over me like I had never felt before, a tidal wave of emotion, I wasn’t sure what it was, something had come over me so strongly that the beeping cars and the pile up behind me didn’t even matter.

So I picked up my phone and called my mother and said “i'm going to marry this girl” excited, scared I waited for a response…. And waited…. And waited…. Then the tears started… 10 minutes later I finally got some sense out of my mother and the first thing she said was Darling, we need to talk flowers! And I must admit, she has done a fantastic job.

So after the near pile up in Stoke Village, I spoke to the rest of my family and Amy’s to tell them the happy news. It was amazing to hear how happy everyone was for this to happen.

I wanted to keep this a secret, just until I found the right time to propose properly, there had been some hints that this was going to happen and Amy had a pretty good idea that this was the natural step in our relationship. Makes sense.

In my ultimate wisdom, I decided to throw her off the scent. After all, how much of a surprise would it be if you knew it was coming?

Every effort was made by myself and all family involved to deploy project "dis-engage". I remember telling Amy's parents in their kitchen my plans, for Richard, Amy's step dad, it made sense, not sure Tina, Amy's mum was sold on project dis-engage!

It was very successful, almost to the point she thought she would never get married and especially not to me. I thought the plan was working like a treat. But a pretty dangerous move...

For 5 months project dis–engage was in full effect and everyone was in on the plan. I know Amy's dad, Jim, is pretty old skool, so I wasn’t entirely sure if I needed to ask to have his daughters hand in marriage?

Sorry Jim, you were one of the last to know, but you are a pretty big guy and I needed the confidence!

At Sarah And Simon’s wedding last year my step dad, Jon, re enforced the project dis-engage illusion by telling her “na, Sebastian isn’t ready for marriage, and probably never will be, give it 10-20 years, then he might be”

Nevertheless, Amy stayed with me, and we grew even stronger.

I asked Amy to marry me in Egypt, October time.

We were on the way to the airport, I had the ring prepped in my bag, hoping there wouldn’t be any security issues! with this in mind, I was nervous, looking more and more suspicious, I got stopped a few times for scans and questions. Luckily the staff just thought I was an odd person and waved me through.

We made it to Egypt, our destination. On the home run stretch we got to the hotel, but this was not the end of my torment, our bags had to be scanned before entering the hotel and there was a big screen showing the contents of our bags! Amy being the curious person she is wanted to see what the scan showed. Sweating, I swiftly moved my wife onwards saying “theres nothing for you to see here” – (for the fans of the League Of Gentleman!)

We spent 3 beautiful days in the resort and I was like action man scoping everyplace possible to do the proposal. Amy must have thought I was mad but enjoyed the sun bathing leaving me to do my thing.

Finally, I decided on the most beautiful restaurant I have ever been in, catering to our love of food and I thought, this is it.

I did consider and underwater engagement or something more extravagant but couldn't fathom loosing the ring.

I had the location, check, I had the ring, check, I had my beautiful bride to be, check,

I prepared myself for the walk from our hotel room to the restaurant when it hit me like a shotgun to the chest. Boom! I knew this was the end or the beginning. What if she said no? it would be a pretty awkward rest of holiday! 20 minutes of walking in a circle I finally got the confidence and proceeded to the reception to share my plans.

After walking the green mile, I approached reception with a big speech prepared "I'm going to ask the most amazing, beautiful woman of my dreams to marry me tonight and I need your help to make this a reality, can you help?"

K?

So I repeated my speech again. K?

Oh, I wasn't prepared for this, they don't speak English, or couldn't understand what I needed.

Ok, is there anyone here who speaks English?

2 hours later I finally get someone who could help, we planned the ring going into a champagne glass during our final course in the restaurant and the plan was set.

After giving the Egyptian man the engagement ring, I got back to the hotel room feeling elated. Unfortunately though, Amy had a bit of a situation developing, you know, when “there is nothing to wear” and didn’t want to go for dinner...

So, I have just given a rather expensive engagement ring to this Egyptian man who I may never see again past tonight, and a wife to be who doesn’t want to go. This is did not plan for!

Eventually I persuaded her to come to diner and find an outfit, which i'm glad she did.

As soon as the ring came out from the covered glass, the only thing you could hear was the ping, ping, ping as it rolled around. Complete silence, we were in true ecstasy.

Connected with a feeling never felt before, faintly in the back ground we could hear “I cant hep falling in love with you” by Elton John playing on a piano in the other room.

This is what Amy walked down the isle to.

We were in young lovers in paradise and everything from that point was amazing, we had ups and downs but we were stronger than ever and nothing seemed to detract us from our love for each other.

So that’s how it happened, we have had some amazing support from the moment we got engaged right up until this point. I find It amazing looking at the story that has lead up to the engagement because everyone here today has been involved in one way or another and now its our story.

So cheers everyone.