November 29, 2012
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The Speech.
I don’t have my speech for Heather’s wedding and kind of wish I did. Not that I think I’ll be in line for any more MOH positions in my life but I like to keep track of these kind of things. I just went through and put some things in bold, just to help with emphasis on reading it. No, I didn’t have the words “pause” in the speech. Believe it or not, I naturally knew where to pause for mostly-humor-sake. For the most part, I had it down pat but there were a couple parts I wanted to be specific about saying it exactly as I had written it. You may understand why.
Her dad sent me this message a couple days after the wedding, “Bethany. Those videos — are amazing. We’re collecting some memory things we want to hang onto from the wedding. I LOVED your remarks at the reception — if you still have what you wrote, I would love to have it (or a copy) to put with our stuff” and I was amazed by the amount of people who came up to me afterwards specifically to say they liked the speech. My hope is that is met the expectations Emily had for it and I hope it honored her appropriately.
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I’m Bethany Sanderson the maid in this wedding. (pause) Emily and I met when she was a freshman in HS and I was a senior. 6 years ago. She thought my bright orange shoes were cool and wanted to be my friend. I had room for more friends at the time, so we agreed upon a mutual friendship. (pause) Well the shoe part is true.
I went to HS with the Mains and Debbie Rogers who invited a group of us from Algoma to second Sundays and other events at the church. Somewhere in there, the rest of the Algoma group faded out and I remained friends with the group. Believe it or not, Emily didn’t find me on Craigslist (pause) – a joke we’ve recently started because explaining how we actually met was more confusing.
Mine and Emily’s friendship really began through emailing and even then, I don’t know how that began. She was littleemmers2 and I was frozenpenguin32. Emily would have a life altering issue, come to me for advice and I’d lend my all knowing wisdom as an 18 year old. (pause) Yeah. I shutter to think of what “advice” I may have given.
We’ve been told on numerous occasions we might as well be sisters – probably because of how often we get or got in physical fights, rolling on the ground, biting, fist fights (pause) not because we were mad at each other, simply because we could. Thankfully, we’ve since matured in email addresses, advice and fighting.
We have a friendship unlike no other and I know everyone says that but really, we do. It’s not unusual in the “Oh Emily is the best friend in the entire world, she’s always there for me and doing special things for me kind of friendship.” Believe me, I wish that was true. (pause) Ever since Emily got down on one knee and asked me to be her maid, I’ve been wracking my brain to figure out how one explains our friendship. It finally came in an email thread about a month ago, I told her I’ve been growing my hair out for the wedding and how the length of my hair coincides with my love for her and she responded with this, “the length of my toe nails are directly proportionate to my love for you… (I said dot dot dot) one of my toe nails fell off last week.” (pause) I literally laughed out loud as I read that, I thought, this is why we’re friends.
It wasn’t until the shower and bach. party where it really hit me and I was incredibly humbled by the fact that Emily would choose me to stand so closely to her on this day. There’s something about seeing so many people in one room, like today, who have loved Emily (and Carl) in different ways throughout the years. (I began reading here because I wanted to make sure I said it correctly.) Over the past 6 years, issues in our lives have become more relevant and Emily has continued to entrust me with her heart and it has been an honor to see her grow in her walk with the Lord from a freshman in HS to a woman after God’s own heart, who seeks to know Him and His truth which in turn is poured out in her life to other people. (stopped reading)
One of the biggest thing over the years Emily has emailed, called and cried over is her relationships –specifically dating ones. She has wanted to be married long before she knew Carl would be her husband. But it was early on in their relationship, I knew Carl would be the man Emily would marry because he stood apart from the many other crushes and likes in her life. He was a man that sought after God before anything else.
And Emily as much as I know you love him, remember a couple things as you continue on. He is not God nor can he be. He is imperfect and human. Don’t expect him to read your mind, fill all of your hearts desires, or be the answer to all of your prayers. That is entirely TOO much pressure to put on a person. (started reading again) In your best moments you can not love each other as well as Christ has loved you on your worst days. All your best times will be mere shadows of the glory that will be revealed in Christ. Enjoy them and enjoy each other, and in these moments you will see the grace of God and find his mercy. Find your delight in God, and this frees you to find more delight in your marriage and the people you serve. (stopped reading)
Emily and Carl, I’m overjoyed for the you both and so thankful God has answered these prayers and look forward to see how God will use you as a couple! Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Wellborn! (this ending part was lengthened…I can’t quite remember what I said but I know I said more than what I had planned.)
