toasts

Greta's Toast:

I told Emily months ago that I'd be happy to say something at the wedding, as long as she didn't mind me standing up, bursting into tears and sitting back down again. We chose the bridesmaid dresses nearly a year ago, so I've had a lot of time to try to come up with creative places to hide Kleenex.

So in order to bypass that eventuality, I'm going to do my best to keep this both short and decidedly non-tearjerker, because if I don't start to cry, my impulse will be to talk for hours about growing up and climbing trees and how I always had to be an Ewok when we played Star Wars. If I have to stop in the middle of it, I'll leave my notes over on the guest book table and you can read it there.

I have actually only met Marc once before this trip, but my first correspondence of any kind with him was an email that he sent me, containing nothing but a YouTube link that turned out to be to a claymation Star Wars spoof. I laughed so hard that I squirted coffee out my nose and then I sent Emily a two-word email back. "I approve." So of course I was thrilled and not at all surprised when I learned that they were engaged.

In the planning of today, we talked a lot about the wedding traditions that Em and Marc wanted to involve in the ceremony and the things that they felt strongly about leaving out. One of the things that we talked about not wanting to focus on, and something that really escaped my notice until today, is that the established rituals of marriage tend to deal quite a bit with the suggestion of giving something away. A father walks his daughter down the aisle to give her away, partners give themselves to one another or they give up their old lives to begin new ones.

I think that marriage is a ceremony of expansion and addition and of joining. I also think, and especially in this instance, that it isn't just the joining of two. Growing up in a community like ours, you have no choice but to redefine the word "family" to include relatives, friends, soul mates, surrogate mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. By being here today, we're all announcing ourselves as members of the same expanding family. And in doing so, we're all not only a part of, but embracing and reveling in the growth that's occurring.

So I just want to thank everyone here for celebrating this expansion so joyfully and for coming all of this way so that we're all able to recognize this day, and this union, together.

I want to thank Emily, for being kind and fabulous and wacky and awesome, and, at times, completely insane.

I want to thank Marc for putting up with the insane part and for making Emily happier than I've ever seen her.

May you have a long and very silly life together. Love you.

Scotty's Toast:

Good Afternoon,

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Scott, but you can call me Scotty. I am Marc's Best Man, in addition to being his brother, but not necessarily in that order. When I had initially prevailed upon Marc to be my Best Man and deliver the toast at my own wedding last September, I had no idea that he'd be having me reciprocate the gesture some eleven months later. Had I known that I'd be responsible for writing and giving a speech, there is every likelihood that I would have fled the country by now, but alas, sanity prevailed, which is rare for me, and here I am.

They say that inspiration comes from unusual places, so naturally I logged on and did a Google search for the phrase "wedding toast," but after all I kept getting were suggestive images of bread wearing frilly white dresses, I finally decided to sit down and compose my own.

In the tradition of younger brothers, I always wanted to do everything that my older brother did when we were kids. If Marc had decided to get some paper and draw his own comic strip, it was only a mere matter of minutes before I was making up a character for my own. When it came to the issue of hand-me-downs, I used to bypass the waiting process and just take the clothes right out of Marc's closet to wear. Many a time he gave the shirt right off his back, literally! If he ventured into Manhattan to see a Paul McCartney or Billy Joel concert, guess who tagged along on his dime? In the summer of '89 he bought an electric keyboard and began writing his own songs, and before the summer's end I had acquired an electric guitar and formed a band. Marc attended P.S. 101, so did I. Mark Twain Junior High School, so did I. Edward R. Murrow High School? So did I. Brooklyn College? So did I! CUNY Grad School? Well, even I have limits. But it probably isn't much of a surprise to find that we both ended up as teachers today. This way we can pull our hair out together as we share a common ground for commiseration.

Now that he's married, I am so happy that in Emily he's found someone who complements his personality, and who fits together so perfectly with him just as I always felt that I did. From the very first time that I walked into their place, I knew it was meant to be: more DVDs, more MP3s, more books, more vegetables, more cats, more wicker baskets! And most important of all, more love.

So let us congratulate Marc and Emily for taking this significant step, and let us wish them nothing but happiness from this day forward. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in drinking a toast to the bride and groom. We wish you both a healthy and joyous life together, and may the force be with you always. Cheers!

Toasts