Thankyou Brian

First of all “my wife and I” would also like to thank all our guests for being with us today. It means so much to us that all the people we love were with us on our wedding day. We know that many guests have travelled from interstate, and we have some visitors with little babies that have flown all the way from the UK and Norway too. Thankyou to everyone for making the effort for us.

Thankyou Brian for the touching words you gave about us during your speech. Thanks to Brian and Prue for doing such a good job of raising Rosie! All of Rosie’s family has been very welcoming to me, especially Rosie’s parents with Belle and Nick too. You guys have been great and I already feel like I’m part of the gang and I’m very pleased that today has made it all official. I’m very lucky to have gained Brian as a father in law. He is always doing things for Rosie and I, and whenever we’ve needed assistance whether it be moving house, working though car troubles, fixing ski bindings or general advice on work and life matters he’s always there for us and we know you will continue to be into the future. I’ve also just scored a great mother-in-law in Prue! Prue is always very loving, caring and generous – which must be where Rosie gets it from, she also cooks the most wholesome and delicious meals you could imagine, which is just perfect when we feel like a change from getting dinner out of the freezer! We’d like to give a special mention to Prue for all the work she’s done in helping us to bring this whole day together. Your guidance and background support has been invaluable and we couldn’t have done it without you. Prue started making the pot pouri for the bonbonniere over 12 months before the wedding. The dried flowers have come from all around Australia with many friends and family contributing including the Woods’s and Colbys in Adelaide and Robe, Prue and Brian’s garden in Caulfield, our house in Wallan which is the first property we bought together and many other places around the country, this along with a vast array of herbs, oils, perfumes and much tender loving care has created what you see in front of you today. Take them home with you and they will last a lifetime.

For male guests Prue has put together an old classic, sugared almonds. You’ll notice that each box has a mix of blue and white almonds, plus one pink almond added to the mix. Because according to tradition the mother of the bride must add one pink almond to each bonbonniere, otherwise she won’t receive any grand-daughters!

I’d also like to thank my family, especially Mum and Dad for all the support you’ve given me over the years through the good times and the bad, and of course for our wedding. You two have been, and still are tremendous role models and I hope that I can be as good a parent to our children as you were to me. Even though we live on opposite sides of the country now you’re always offering and giving help to Rosie and I in any way possible which we really appreciate. After we moved into Wallan they even spent a couple of weeks with us doing our landscaping, establishing the garden and filling our freezer full of delicious food! Rosie and I have great memories of the trips we’ve done with you through including the big one through central Australia. We’ve very impressed that turning 70 doesn’t stop you from climbing Ayers Rock or even learning to ski for the first time. Please continue to visit Melbourne as often as you can, and we’ll keep popping over for some beach time in Perth!

“My wife and I”, would like to thank the large number of people who contributed to making our wedding day what it is. Thanks Peg and David Woods for your support throughout the wedding preparations and helping us with the wine tonight. Thank you to Jen Waterman for painstakingly pulling all those nasty little seeds from every one of the raisins that went into making our wedding cake, and lovingly driving it all the way down from northern NSW.

Table Names: You’ll notice rather than using table numbers tonight we’ve named each table after a place that has been special to us. We also did our best to sit most guests at tables which seemed appropriate to them!

Starting with our bridal table Samaria Gorge: Where Rosie and I became engaged. Everyone at the engagement party would have heard how that all went down!

Adelaide: Where Rosie was born and lived the first 8 years of her life. And where a lot of the stories Brian mentioned about Rosie occurred. Rosie’s family has a long history with South Australia and many family members have made the trip over for today.

Albany: The town where I was born, we grew up on a farm in South West WA and Albany was the nearest major town. Rosie and I love visiting the area and have a number of relatives there including my Auntie and Uncle Jean and Trevor came all the way from Albany to be with us today.

Perth: Where I went to boarding school and where my parents have retired to. We love visiting their place in Scarborough and I know there are many people here from NSW, SA, QLD and of course VIC but I do have to say that WA does have the best beaches in the world there’s no doubt about that.

Victor Harbour: Where Rosie and her family spent a lot of their beach holidays. Rosie has a lot of cherished childhood memories from their holiday house. As Rosie will tell you the area near Victor harbour in SA has the 2nd best beaches in the world.

Falls Creek: Rosie spent her early school days learning how to be a racer in the Falls Creek race club. She even won the Australian championships when she was 11, before her hip condition cut that career short. She is still a champion skier though anyone would have to admit. Since meeting Rosie I’ve learnt to ski and we’ve made many good memories up a Falls. I even had my bucks weekend there a couple of months ago. My mates made me ski the whole day wearing a batman suit - that got quite a few comments from the fellow punters up there.

Cheynes Beach: A favourite holiday beach of mine near Albany when I was growing up. I took Rosie there a couple of years ago and she fell in love with the place too. Especially after we went spearfishing off the rocks and cooked our catch with lemon seasoning and potatoes (of course – Rosie loves potatoes and they are her favourite food in the world, as you’ll see come time for mains!). We even considered having our wedding there but realised it would have been a very long trip for everybody!

Leuven: Where Rosie went on University Exchange and met lifelong friends Liz and Kjersti who have made the long journey out here from Europe with their husbands Stuart and Didrik and 6 week and 9 month old babies. Rosie has very fond memories of her time in Belgium and considers it a life changing experience.

Ormond: Where I went to College and the first place I lived in Melbourne. Most of my best friends all are linked to those Ormond days and we had a lot of good time there. I’m very thankful that as a 17 year old I decided to make the move to Melbourne. Although I’m not sure that my mother always agrees!

Feathertop: Rosie and I love hiking. In the early days of our relationship we experienced a couple of memorable walks up Mount Feathertop including one amazing time when it was absolutely covered in deep snow. It was October, but a late season dump had been so heavy it was extremely slow going after Federation Hut and we had to turn around before making it to the summit as the cover was becoming too icy and dangerous to continue. However it was quite an adventure to experience together!

Mt Everest: Due to our aforementioned love of hiking, my wife and I are heading to Nepal for our honeymoon to trek to the Everest base camp. One example of how Rosie and I are so compatible is that we both firmly believe that the experience of a trek to Mount Everest with the unique scenery, atmosphere and culture of the Himalayas is the perfect way to spend a honeymoon together. But it’s OK everyone we are stopping for a week in the Seychelles on the way home. So we’ll be well rested by the time we get back.

Licola: Another escapade Rosie and I partook on in the early days was a “spin the knife” adventure. We spun a knife in the middle of a map of Victoria and wherever the knife pointed to we had to go! The knife sent us to Licola which is a tiny town on the southern end of the high country with a total population of about 20 people.

It turns out there’s absolutely nowhere to stay in Licola, so we headed on through some dirt roads, almost hit a massive deer and eventually found a place to stay at the Merrijig Motor Inn near Mt Buller. In the room they had a DVD of “The Man From Snowy River”, which was just perfect for the occasion!

The church ceremony was just what we wanted today. We hope that you didn’t mind singing a couple of extra hymns but we just had to squeeze all our favourites in there!

Thanks to the girls who did a fantastic job of our readings today. Liz, who has come all the way from London read the first one, which we left in old English as it’s Rosie’s old school anthem. Kjersti has also flown here from Norway and did our second reading. As I mentioned Liz and Kjersti are Rosie’s close friends from her University exchange in Belgium and Rosie attended both their weddings recently. Catherine or Cat as we like to call her gave our final reading is a good and long lasting friend of Rosie going back to their Melbourne University days together.

We were very lucky to have a talented family friend Glenn Coughlan who with his wife flew here from Perth to play the organ for us today. Glenn also helped us choose the music for the ceremony and we were very happy with the selection.

The flower girl and pageboy today are our little niece and nephew Sarah Harris and David O’Connell. They belong to my sisters Catherine and Judith and thankyou for organising their outfits. You two did so well and were super cute today! We hope you enjoyed getting dressed up and you’re also doing a great job of staying up late tonight!

Before I started this speech which is probably going to go overtime the day had been running like clockwork. Our ushers did a fantastic job pulling everybody into line at the church and Royce ballroom. Tom David and David Henderson have been great mates of mine for a long time and thanks for helping us out in that way, and for hiring those matching suits in which you look very suave. And to Rosie’s big brother Nick who was in charge of the ushers and did very well at rallying the troops come photo time. Thanks not just for today but everything you’ve done in the lead up to the wedding, including being the Master Chef at my buck’s weekend and taking time off work simply to help us get ready for today. Nick and I have become good mates and we’ve already been referring to each other as “brother in law” for quite a while, and now we can lock it in as a real title!

Thanks to the other Nick - Baldwin for being our MC tonight. Nick and I are old friends. We were both at Ormond College and were housemates for a few years after that. We had a lot of good times together in those years. From my perspective it may have been a bit dangerous giving him a microphone because he knows far too many stories from our younger days, but he’s doing a marvellous job and we’re grateful you jumped at the chance to take on that role for us.

And you know how I found out he had impersonated me at the video store? I went in one day to hire the latest Lord of The Rings DVD. I took it to the counter and the girl said “I’m sorry sir but you have a fine owing on your account.” And I was like, “but I never return movies late, which one is it for?” So she looks at the screen and reads out “Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigalow”, then she just looks at me. And I said “what? I never hired, that, what?” Anyway I eventually figured out it was a case of identity fraud by my devious housemate.

Anyway nevermind, we had a lot of fun.

If he tells that movie story make a joke about Basic Instinct 2, Deuce Bigalow and Scary Movie 4. I was hiring Lord of the Rings.

Another great friendship spawning from the college days is my good mate and Groomsman today Ricky McKerrow. Thanks for your help during our wedding process. I have a very special friendship with Ricky and his wife Katherine because when things weren’t going so well in my life they took me into their home and helped me find my feet and really set me up again. We had an enjoyable time as housemates and I moved out not long after meeting Rosie, and since then life has just been getting better and better!

As we grow older Rosie and I are gaining a great appreciation for the relationships we have with the friends and family here tonight, speaking of which I must mention our close family on the bridal table including my older brother and Best Man Jonny. I’m the youngest of four children so am very pleased that Mum and Dad decided to have a fourth child! And I know Jonny is too because that meant he had a little brother to pick on, and somebody to beat at table tennis. Which didn’t last very long because I made it my mission to get better at it than him! But to be honest as an older brother Jonny is a great person to look up to who has always done extremely well at everything he’s tried. Looking back I’ve achieved a number of things in my life simply by trying to emulate him! (Apart from golf as I’ve always smashed him at that!) We’re great mates, are very similar people and have always had a special understanding between us. In fact Mum says that she’s glad Jonny and I weren’t born as twins otherwise we would have developed our own language! We enjoy sharing experiences together and are always looking forward to the next adventure or catch up which thankfully is never too far away!

Sitting next to Rosie is her little sister Annabelle. Rosie and Belle have always had a loving relationship and she was the perfect choice for our Maid of Honour. Belle has been involved in almost every aspect of planning our wedding, in fact if we tried to put into words all the ways Belle has contributed towards this day we would be here all night. So we’ll just say thankyou for everything you’ve done.

On a personal note I’ve seen how close the relationship between you and Rosie is and know that’s something you’ll have forever. I really appreciate how right from the beginning you let me be part of that. In fact I knew I was one of the gang when Belle came up with a nickname for me and started organising an extra 30th birthday party for me all on her own. Belle says it’s already like I’m part of the furniture around home so it’s about time we made it official!

The Maid of Honour and Best Man will be giving speeches after mains. Rosie and I thought we should mention that after a few drinks Belle and Jonny tend to become a bit delusional and have a tendency to make up stories and things that never happened! Please keep that in mind!

Apologies to the boys but despite their good work I think it’s fair to say that the girls do a lot more when it comes to wedding planning and preparation. This has certainly been the case with our bridesmaids who both look beautiful tonight. Our bridesmaid Hope and Rosie first met 8 years ago and quickly became close friends as they both share a passion for skiing and the outdoors. As her dear friend Hope has been there for Rosie in countless ways over the years. In fact I would like to thank Hope for the role you played in bringing Rosie and I together in the early days of our relationship. If you hadn’t been supporting Rosie in the background then all this might not have happened! As Hope and Rob were married a few years ago her experience has been invaluable during the lead up to our big day so a huge thank you for that.

In fact, I believe the bridesmaids are well overdue for a toast to thank them for all their efforts today. Please everyone will you be upstanding and join me in raising your glasses – To the Bridesmaides!

Now before I finish I thought I would give you all an insight into the relationship between Rosie and I.

We met each other for the first time on a Saturday night back in February 2009 at a restaurant called “Elbow Room” in St Kilda. It was a blind date and I got stuck in traffic on the way there and was running late – which is unusual for me but Rosie didn’t know that at the time. Rosie was waiting in the restaurant and she was put-off by the tardiness of this guy and was thinking to herself “I’m not going to be stood up, I don’t need this!”. Rosie’s friend and of course now Bridesmaid Hope knew she was on this date so Rosie texted Hope saying “this guy isn’t here yet, he’s standing me up. I’m leaving!”. Thankfully Hope came to the rescue and texted back saying, “Just give him a few more minutes.” Then she added, “but if he doesn’t show up soon, then yes - stuff him!”

At this moment I was driving around an underground carpark off Fitzroy st. I remember running around trying to find coins to pay for a ticket, then bolting up to the street where there was phone reception to call this girl and tell her I’m sorry but I’m coming! Thanks to the extra few minutes Hope bought me I made it just in time!

The reason Hope knew about our first date is because Rosie was quite worried about meeting me for the first time. I found a copy of the email Rosie sent to Hope with the details of our meeting.

Rosie says: “So his mobile number is on that other email, he works at United Pumps designing pumps, is from Perth, went to Melbourne Uni, lived at Ormond College, is 28, um... yeah so if he murders me you have the specs on how to catch him and make sure he goes to prison.”

And yes I’m sure if I’d tried something Hope would have hunted me down!

Rosie showed me the texts and emails after she decided I wasn’t murderer afterall.

Anyway, It was a really hot February night and after dinner when we both went to get up to use the restrooms I said to Rosie, “you first”, but Rosie insisted “No you go”. Little did I know that Rosie had been sweating and didn’t want me to see the wet patch at the back of her skirt!

After dinner we went for a wander into St Kilda and walking passed Luna Park decided to go in. We went on a few rides together, including this one called G-Force where they put you in a capsule and the ride spins and spins around. The capsule was really cramped and as we spun around the g-forces pushed us really close together which was quite awkward on a first date (and this was all completely unplanned). After a few different rides we decided that since we were both daggy enough to go to Luna Park on our first date maybe we should have another one! And the rest as they say, is history.