My best man speech for Dave's Wedding

"True love is hard to find, sometimes you think you have true love and then you catch the early flight home from San Diego, no this Is not the right speech either

For reals, for reals, let us begin.

Dave Woolever has been my best friend since 5th grade. Back then, we were a motley crew. “The hill gang,” which our North Hornell friend, Keith Burrell, later so lovingly titled since we all lived on Gypsy Hill, consisted of Dave and I, his sister Jennifer, Matt Burdell, Doug Herbert, Kevin Valentine my cousins Paul and Lisa. We used to play in the woods behind Fairview Avenue every day. We used to walk through the woods up to the Donlan’s farm and build hay bale forts, with tunnels, secret passages, and booby-traps. I always made sure there was a make out room. It was never used.

Back then we were full of imagination and dreams for the future. We used to imagine that we had girlfriends, and dream that one day, we would.

Our parents let us do whatever we wanted back then. If I had kids, I would never let them hang out in a bunch of hay bales full of snakes, mice and God knows what else.

Now, being friends with Dave can be tough. When you go through your whole life being the nice guy, and then you get placed next to Dave, well, suddenly, you’re not such a nice guy.

See Dave is the straight man in this relationship. Marieka is the one that gives you great stories, one of the guys, the 5th Badgemen.

As an only child, Dave is the closest thing I have to a brother. Today I am happy to finally welcome Marieka as my sister as well. Even though she’s pretty much been there for years now. Marieka has been one of my best friends for almost a decade. Yes, a decade long journey that I know Marieka would call, Phenomenal. With Marieka by our sides, Dave and I have been through the greatest, the badest, and the downright ugliest.

I’m standing here as the best man, but I can honestly say that that is only because the best man is sitting next to me. As Tina Turner would say, Dave is “simply the best.” He is the best friend, the best the best son, the best brother, the best “father” to Ruby. The F’ing BEST guitar player, the best boyfriend, the best fiancé, and today, will now take on the roll of, the best husband.

And for those who were not able to be in attendance here today, They don’t know what they are missing, but I will be posting a transcript if this presentation on my blog which can be found at www.badgemen.com

At this point, I will now ask you all join me in raising a glass for a toast.

To Dave and Marieka Woolever, we wish you, a merry Christmas? We wish you “the best,” to continued happiness, for years, and decades, and hopefully, a century to come. I know the best is yet to come.

This excerpt was originally titled “Dave’s Speech,” on my computer, but is now entitled, “‘Twas meant.” When Dave and Marieka started dating, a lot of their relationship was via Instant Messenger, where they always used to sign off by saying “It was meant”, as in meant to be. Us guys, of course, turned their cute sign off into “’Twas meant” just to make fun of poor Dave.