Ladies and Gentlemen, Ann and I would like to welcome you all and thank you for joining us today to help celebrate the wedding of Megan and Aron on this beautiful autumn day in Adelaide.
We’d also like to give a special thank you to the friends and family members who have worked to help make sure that today’s ceremony and this reception have gone smoothly and successfully.
Particular thanks to those friends and family members who have travelled long distances from interstate and overseas to be here with us today. We are particularly pleased to welcome our visitors from New Zealand, with a special welcome to Aron’s Grand-mother, Chris Coleman.
And a very special welcome and thank you to Aron’s mom Linda who has come down from Darwin and to his father Carl who has travelled here from Switzerland.
I’m delighted that the newly-weds’ parents are able to be here together today.
When a child looks at a parent, they see, hopefully, someone important to their lives but separate from them.
But when parents look at their child, they see part of themselves. When their child is happy, they are filled with joy. When their child is sad, their hearts break.
As Ann and I watched Megan grow, we experienced a whole range of emotions with her.
And we were always ready with some advice, guidance and support if she wanted it – or if we thought she needed it, whether she wanted it or not.
Everything from cleaning up scratched knees, and questions about why the sky is blue, through school and study, and how to build web sites, to the best way of handling customer relations and creating strategic plans.
And we watched her grow and mature into the confident, professional woman she is today and of whom we are very proud.
And during those years, from time to time she would bring home a boy – and that was fine.
Then one day she brought home a man. And that’s when a parent realises that things have changed.
And Aron was such a man – confident and mature himself, well-established in both his social and professional life. This was a serious contender.
For a while it was a bit like the old bull and the young bull, wary and weighing each other up.
But I’m glad to say that Aron showed himself to be a man we could like and respect. And we were delighted and honoured when Aron, in a very traditional way, asked Ann and me for permission to ask Megan to marry him.
Although that delight comes with a slight pang, when you realise that you are no longer going to be the number one go-to person for support and advice.
But there are many, very welcome compensations – like gaining another member of your own family, and bringing two families together.
That is why Ann and I and Rebecca are delighted to welcome Aron as a member of our family, and why we are happy for Megan to become a member of his. Through Megan and Aron’s marriage, our families are brought together and both gain.
We hoped you like the symbolism of having the ceremony in the New Zealand section of the Botanic Gardens, then walking through the South Australian section to the Reception.
Therefore, on behalf of Ann and myself, I ask you to raise your glasses and join us in wishing the bride and groom happiness in their future life together.
Ladies and gentlemen: The Bride and Groom.