Everyone rose once again to toast with me as Rachel smiled that massive beaming smile
she had been sporting most of the day in my direction. Not amazing but a speech
that I hope did them justice

Next Mike, M.J. and Connor stood and gave a joint speech as the male relatives and I
think to ensure moral support, they were great though and I had tears streaming
from laughter by the time they finished and handed over for the final speech of
the day

————————————————————Rachel————————————————–

She never had a problem speaking in public, much like Bette it was a finely honed
skill for her and yet I knew she was nervous about this speech, and I felt a
little bad as I could not help her, for public speaking or any attempt at it
renders me catatonic. So as she handed Holly over to me and rose to her feet I
simply held her hand letting her know that I was there and whatever she said I
knew how she felt.

Her voice was softer than usual as she began but I revelled in the melodic sound of
her beautiful accent and was reminded again of how much I loved listening to
her speak.

            “Hi everyone, I just first want to take the chance to say that and to thank you all so much for being here, it truly means more to us than I think you all will ever know that you have come here to share
this day with us.

            You see for us all of the people that are here are in fact the reason that we made it here at all, you are the reason that there is a wedding today and for the part you have all played we
will be grateful for the rest  of our lives.

            There are some of you, all dressed in blue today who have done more than we could have ever asked of you to make this day what it has been and for each of you we have a gift, hopefully we have
done okay and found something for each of you that will bring to you at least a little of the happiness you have brought to us. There is however a lot of you so we are going to do most of the gift giving after we are done here but we each have two gifts that we wish to hand out in front of everyone in keeping with a little bit of wedding tradition.