Well........ it's difficult to speak after Sophie's parents' moving letter. Just goes to show what a great girl she is.
I was fortunate enough to meet Soph's parents and to see their love and affection for her. I'm actually surprised they let me whisk their eldest daughter away to an "un-civilised" land! No really, I am in debt to Mariette and Gilles for their support of our relationship and her move here to start our life together. For that I deeply thank them. Although circumstances can't allow them to be here today, I'm sure we know they are here in spirit.
This wedding is a culmination of many brillant organisational talents, two major ones being BCTEL and TELSTRA who managed to drain $9000 out of us over a period of several months.
For those of you who don't know. Sophie and I met on the Internet in late 1995. It was dislike at first sight! But eventually we got friendly and things flowed from there. We complimented chatting online with letters and phone calls. After a year or so, I travelled over to Vancouver to work (right boys?!?!) Naah, it was to meet Soph, but I did work, so it wasn't that fabricated....... Well, we hit it off and here we are today.
I'm still pinching myself when I look at Soph tonight, I feel like I have won the lotto. There's so much I want to say to you, but I can make it easy by simply saying: "I all of the above you".
Thanks, foremost, goes to mum for her tireless effort in organising and preparing everything. None of this would be possible without her.
So many people have contributed their time and effort. I want to extend our most sincere thanks to everyone concerned. Thanks boys, and thanks to all the relatives that travelled all this way today. Fred and Caroline from Perth, and the mob from Sydney. We appreciate your presence. I don't think I've seen this many of us in one place at once. It's nice. Thanks to Ed for being Bestman and last but not least, the Bridesmaid, Natalie. I think Soph might even look at you as an older sister. You're pretty kewl, don't ever change.
Now seems a good time to wrap it up and pass it along to the Bestman with a raise of our glasses.
Cheers!