My brother gets married
Best man duties
On the first weekend of the March 2020 my brother, and his then fiance, Katrina got married at The Landing, a beautiful location just outside of the Masterton, New Zealand.
It’s fantastic for him and Katrina. To see him in such control and composed and handling things in such an admirable manner was such a delight. He has matured so much over the last several years. Even when I saw him in NZ five years ago he still had his unsure and confused manner about him.
Since meeting Katrina Ryan’s life blossomed with such intensity it cast a shadow over the past misgivings.
I will imagine that I will add more to this post, but for now I simply wanted to drop my best man speech in;
…..
Ryan’s best man speech
Intro
It’s inevitable that you were all going to hear my voice again.
You can blame Ryan for that by assigning me the role of best man and MC. When he first asked me, my response was simply, anything else? Catering? Direct traffic? Park cars?
But lucky for me he thought I’d been given enough responsibility. I’ve come to the conclusion its due to charm and wit.
But jest aside; it’s a wonderful to be asked to step into this dual role.
As his Ryan’s brother it also means I can publicly roast him with impunity. Because my god, I, like many of you, have enough Ryan stories to fill a library, honestly we could of made this a comedy festival in which we simply shared Ryan stories. But unfortunately, due to time and the occasion we’ll have to leave that until other day.
Quick shout out;
My first duty to make some acknowledgements. Firstly, to both bride and groom’s parents; Peter & Julie and Alice.
Then to the wonderful bridesmaids, the groom’s men, and everyone else who has helped (high and low) to make today possible. So Please raise a glass.
Finally, a shout out to everyone else for coming today from far and wide; we’ve got friends and family from across New Zealand of course, but also others who have come from afar as Australia, Germany, Sweden, the UK. It is so wonderful and your presence is greatly welcomed.
Speech
So, as the groom’s older brother it’s natural innumerable stories about growing up together.
But Like all stories, it’s best to start at the beginning; with only a couple of years between Ryan and I, we spent a majority of our childhood together and in close proximity, whether we liked it or not. Even sharing a room on several occasions.
We also moved around a lot which created a close bond; from country to country, town to town, house to house, even with a couple of farms along the way. So we relied on each other a lot for entertainment and company, even if this resulted in broken bones or a fistfight.
Speech — second part
Young Ryan was a mad streak of lightening; hyper-competitive, aching for the limelight, loud, showy and non-stop, even then he had the makings of a car salesman in his DNA.
My memories are most vivd in the halcyon days of our youth in the late 90’s and early 2000’s — memories of trampoline wars, dress-ups, songs in the lounge, Wrestlemania & Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 on Playstation, bad fashion, and listening to music from cassettes, to CDs & finally MP3s. Van rides, fish & chips at the beach, stories, fights and hikes.
Through it all Ryan was boundless energy and chatter.
When we were old enough to shoot off by ourselves, we terrorised swimming pools, skate parks, campgrounds and beaches. These were the days of forever summers that lasted as long as the scabs on our knees and Ryan always had a booger hanging out of the nose and an encyclopaedic memory of meals gone by.
Later, at the time haha of my university days, Ryan’s presence was felt. Often dictating what music we listened to, what we talked about, and how much airtime others were allowed.
We even lived together briefly: although it was a tinder box and we would break into bouts of war & peace often at 30 second intervals. Much to the dismay of the others around us.
But through it all, Ryan’s had an enthusiasm to play, to be entertained, to entertain, to look for the party and then place himself firmly in the middle. His infectious, joyous outlook for life illuminates any situation even if sometimes overbearing. But it’s one of his best attributes. But most of all, he’s considerate and his heart’s always been in the right place.
so here we are now
Happiness is earnt. Ryan and Katrina are testament to this with their hard work and dedication and how they nourish and inspire each other.
Feeding their flames, individually and together, to continue building on the foundations of their relationship in order to build a meaningful and fruitful life together from the years of sacrifice, hard work, and learning through failures.
Once Ryan met Katrina, it redefined what it meant to be Ryan. Profound changes in his life were evident to those around him from that moment onward. A sense of purpose, the achievements at uni and work, a new life with Katrina. It was the beginning of an upward trajectory in Ryan’s life. Goals were set, then met, and then the good things in his life just accelerated with such speed and such frequency that it astonished us all.
Especially in contrast to the place Ryan was in personally & professionally in the years leading up to meeting Katrina. That place was confused, lost and tinted with a self-imposed malevolence.
But today we witness the culmination of both their successes with this wonderful day to see them join together ever close with us all lucky enough to be part of it with them.
So let’s toast to both of them and reflect on love and compassion as guiding principles.
