My Maid of Honor Speech

A couple weekends ago, I stood beside my middle sister, Melanie, as she married her longtime boyfriend and now husband, Ben. Being the first of three daughters to get married, my sister’s wedding was a huge milestone for our family. Lots of planning went in to making it the most special day. For two years, my sister called me (nearly) every day to discuss one wedding detail or another; with every FaceTime call, I quickly learned that wedding planning is not an easy feat. In the end though, the whole thing went off without a hitch — perfectly emotional, celebratory, and a whole lot of fun. The morning after, our voices were strained from singing, our faces hurt from so many smiles, and our feet were sore from dancing the night away. What more could you ask for?

Being the Maid of Honor, tradition told me I had to prepare a toast for the bride and groom — something my sister KINDLY reminded me to be prepared for several times in the home stretch (which, come on Mel, why’d you ever doubt me?). I had been in a few other wedding parties before my sister’s wedding, but never as the Maid of Honor. This was new territory for me, uncharted waters in terms of what was expected. “Should I be funny?” I asked myself. “Or should I stick to sentimental?” I countered. I didn’t want to overthink it, but I knew it needed to be special.

The first time I read the final draft of my speech out loud to my mom, I teared up. Well, we both cried. No doubt us Brandl girls get our emotional side from our mom. But truthfully, no amount of practice makes something so important any less emotional or nerve-wracking. From the time the DJ handed me the microphone to the time I recited my speech to my sister and 150 other people, I was shaking with nerves. I hate being the center of attention in a large crowd. But I got through it!

In the end, I chose a mix of funny and sentimental for my speech. Anything too sappy, I knew I’d never make it through. Plus, our mom would have been an emotional wreck and I knew that if she cried, I’d be a big, melted bucket of tears by the end. I shared my Maid of Honor speech with love and dedication to my sister and best friend on July 10th, and now I’m sharing it with you too. Melanie, my sister, my friend, this one’s for you.

“Good evening everyone.

First and foremost, I wanted to extend a heartfelt congratulations to the newlyweds. Melanie & Ben, it’s been nothing short of an honor standing beside you today as one chapter of your love story comes to a close and the next begins. I mean it when I say I’m so happy for both of you. Thank you so much for letting me be a part of your big day.

Many of you know me, but to those of you who don’t, I’m Jennifer, Melanie’s older sister and Maid of Honor. In all honesty, I can talk just about anyone’s ears off, but give me a microphone in front of a large audience and even I get a little bit of stage freight. That being said I’ll do my best to make this short and sweet with one objective: to cry fewer tears than our mom. Someone check the rain gage!

To Melanie, my sister, my friend. Growing up with you over the past two and a half decades has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. Never in a million years did I ever imagine I’d get a little sister and a lifelong best friend in one roll of the dice, but I did, and for that I’m so grateful. I have so much love and respect for you; I hope you know that now and never forget it.”

“We have such differing personalities, but at the core we’re so much more alike than we’re willing to admit. We share a lot of the same stubbornness, passion, and genuine desire to shine a brighter light into this world. We’re both too nosy for our own good, but that’s okay by me. When we fight, we fight hard, but we always come back to each other because we know we couldn’t stand being mad at one another for more than what, an hour? We share little secrets and always say, “Don’t tell anyone yet”, but one or both of us always ends up blabbering to mom because let’s be real, Brandl’s can’t keep secrets.

As you know better than most, there was never a dull moment in the Brandl household. 1 bathroom for five people meant there was often 1 person showering, 1 person on the toilet, and 1 person at the vanity at any given time. Privacy was a luxury none of us were afforded. Maybe that’s why we’re so close. ”

“Growing up, we were pretty much inseparable. You always looked up to me as a role model and I tried to be the best one for you. There was, however, one small mishap a time or two. Like when I dared you to stick your tongue to the steel patio railing outside in the middle of winter, promising you it wouldn’t get stuck. You listened to me and stuck your whole tongue onto the railing and it got stuck so bad I thought we’d have to call 911 to get it off. When we finally got it pulled off, you cried so hard, ran upstairs, and stuck your tongue into a pillow the rest of the night; I felt so bad making you swear you wouldn’t tell dad.

And then there was the time you took a candy bar from the Arpin concession stand without paying for it and I used it as blackmail to get you to do all sorts of stuff for me. When you wouldn’t listen to me, I’d look at you and say “I’ll tell mom about your stealing.” You were so scared to get in trouble and I rode that one out a litttttle longer than I should have. Sorry about that. ”

“We’ve made some of the best memories together, memories that we still laugh and talk about today. As we’ve grown older, we’ve grown to be more inseparable than our younger selves ever were. And it makes my heart so happy to have such a friend in you. When I went off to college and moved halfway across the country, I know it was hard for both of us. No longer could we hangout every minute of every day. But we learned to fill our void with FaceTime calls (LOTS of FaceTime calls), always there giving each other advice, ranting about something or another, and plotting our next travel destination. ”

“In all of our travels, I will always cherish our Florida sistercation road trip the most. After spending several days relaxing at Clearwater Beach and stopping at every WaWa gas station we passed, we traded the beach views for our first Disney experience. That morning, we left Tampa to drive to Disney (well, I drove, you slept all the way to the Magic Kingdom gates), spent an entire day at the park, then drove to West Palm Beach after Disney’s late night fireworks show. The drive from Orlando to West Palm Beach was 2 hours and we both agreed to each take a 1 hour driving shift. You offered to go first so I could take a nap before I drove the 2AM shift. Less than 15 minutes later we were doing a Chinese fire drill off some dark highway because I woke up to find you hovering over the steering wheel holding your eyes open as hard as you could. You got in the passenger seat and 5 minutes later, you were snoring. All the way to our hotel. You’re not a very good copilot. ”

“While I’m sad I can’t always be around all the time, I’m so happy you and Ben found sustaining happiness with each other. Ben, you’ve been around for so long I don’t even remember the first time I met you as Melanie’s official boyfriend. I just remember teasing her once I found out, singing “Mel and Ben sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g”. We welcomed you to the Brandlfam back then, and couldn’t be more excited that you’re still here with us today. Welcome to the family!

It’s been so fulfilling to see the two of you grow together over the years. Ben, I’m so happy knowing my best friend has found the truest kind of love and confidant in you and I couldn’t be more excited to watch the two of you blossom as husband and wife. As you begin your new journey together, I wish you both the most fun filled life, a life where you grow to love each other more every day, never stop exploring, and always find new, exciting ways to keep the spark ignited. May you always remember to compromise (and by compromise, I mean do exactly what Melanie wants, when she wants, and how she wants), apologize, laugh it off, and prioritize the needs of one another. You’ve made it this far, there’s no doubt you were meant to be together. I can’t wait to celebrate with you tonight and all the years to come.

So cheers to you, Melanie & Ben, and cheers to love, happiness, and adventures near and far. My only request is that you promise to save a little adventure in life for me. Melanie, I hear you’ve never been to Costa Rica and I see a sistercation in our future. I mean, someone’s got to show you around all the beautiful places I got to see when mom let ME go all those years ago.

Lots of love to both. Cheers! ”

As always, thanks for reading. See you next time!

Enjoy!

JB