The Fabulous Mr & Mrs Cooper

So two of my best mates got married yesterday and I am FAR too hung over to blog today.

Thankfully I was one of the 'best men' - so I thought I'd share a couple of photos of the fabulous day and the speech as I orginially wrote it!

The gorgeous Mr & Mrs Cooper

Well, isn’t this lovely. Lovely couple, lovely venue, lovely bridesmaids (one of whom I have a fully secured snog scheduled with later). Let’s start by just taking a look  around and luxuriating in how  all round gorgeous today has been.

I’ve had the great pleasure of attending both the hen and the stag before coming here today and I have to say I’ve never experienced such a joyous lead up to a wedding. Bob & Laura have excellent taste in friends. You are all crazy rockstars! So feel free to pat yourselves on the backs in congratulations for your all round awesomeness. 

But enough about you – lets concentrate on the bride and groom. All this gorgeousness today will come as no surprise to anyone. Of course with these two we couldn’t have imagined anything different. I love these guys, they are just made for each another aren’t they? Their senses of humour, taste in everything from food to furniture – even their yoga teacher says they move the same – quite simply the perfect couple.

 

And what’s wonderful about them is not just how much they love each other. But actually that it’s catching.Because there are a load of ways of loving another person, and most of them are about putting your energy into them, focusing on them and eliminating a little something somewhere else to make space for that love. But sometimes, rarely there are these amazing unicorn couples who find loving one another so effortless – that the joy they have in one another spills out into the world. 

 

And that’s what we are witnessing here today, that beautiful champagne like bubbling over of love, that made all our hearts swell as these guys said their vows. That makes picnics and dinner parties and walks in the park just that little bit more fun if they are there too. I once spent a tortuous 12 hours including no less than three vehicular breakdowns travelling to Cornwall with these guys. My most vivid memories of that trip (beside our encounter with  Tim the words most helpful serial killer) is dancing around to Jack White in a multi story car park whilst we waited for our third rescue by a mechanic. It wasn’t wasted time, or angry time, or lets bitch at one another cos we’re all so frustrated time, it was simply we’re stuck here so let’s do our best to have fun time. It should have been a nightmare, and it wasn’t – because time with these guys is never wasted.

We could talk about their talent if we wanted to, god knows they are talented, Laura’s photo’s, bob’s drawing, they can both cook, they can both style a room. Laura knits and crochets things of beauty, and I still resent Bob for not giving me one of the wire meshing dragons he made in sixth form.

But if I’m honest it’s not really their talent at work stuff, or at art stuff that interests me. It’s their talent as hosts, as the kind of friends who make those tiny, wonderful adjustments to make everyone welcome. It’s the interest and concern they show for people that they know well, but also people who are new to them that makes them unique and precious.

 

Now I know there are supposed to be jokes in this speech –  but I also want there to be love. Because actually I feel pretty honoured to be here today, speaking to you all about these lovely lovely people.

When Bob asked me to be his best man, I punched him. Hard.

It was perhaps not the most dignified way  of accepting the honour – but I was actually lost for words (unusual for me), and deeply chuffed and excited to be asked.

Bob and I have been friends a long time. We met in sixth form, taking the same hour bus ride to a school we both hated. I think Bob must have dated/ snogged 50% of my mates during that period, he was the undangerous ladies man. It was the self confident ok with themselves girls who liked Bob, girls who expected boyfriends to be respectful and nice to them. And Bob was. While the relationships didn’t last, the underlying friendships did. We went to a lot of fun parties and even developed a bit of a fan club made up of some friends younger brothers and their mates.

One of these boys once said to me that if Bob and I ever had a baby it’s be so cool it’d be god. Which makes me very glad that Bob & I were never in the slightest bit attracted to one another – as a) we’re both of us actually quite geeky and it might result in a global ‘lowering the bar’ on cool, which would be shame for all the hipsters in Bob’s beloved east London. And b) because nobody would want any kind of deity that displays our shared indecisiveness, excessive politeness, ability to get distracted by shiny things or adoration of Laura. Nothing would get done! What use is a God that is fixated on Lauras boobs? I mean they are spectacular, but someone would need to keep gravity and  physics and stuff working and no god created by Bob or I would be up for that!

Which brings me to Laura. I love you. You are an absolute gift in my life and having spoken to a load of the women here today – I can say that I am far from the only one who feels this way.

Bob and I lost touch for a few years after school, and the first time we went for a drink after reconnecting he started to preach the gospel about this amazing woman he was in a relationship with. How she was pretty, and funny, and creative, generous and talented. And I thought. Well to be honest I thought he was full of shit. No-one could possibly be that insufferably  brilliant.

The first time I met Laura was at my birthday party & I thought she was lovely. The second time was an afternoon in their tiny little flat and it is no exaggeration to say I fell a bit in love. Because you really are all the things Bob described and more. My lovely precious friend – how lucky I am that Bob fell in love with you and you with him. Because it gave me one of the people I love most in the world. 

And bob. Oh bob – who here has seen bob dance? Then you will know what I’m talking about. And if you haven’t – then tonight my friends you are in for a bloody treat. There is simply no one in this world as happy as Bob is when he’s dancing. It is fabulous. 

fabulous

Bob is one of my very favourites. I am never bored in his company – he doesn’t judge when I get lonley if Matt’s out for the evening and I don’t judge him when he’s the same when Laura’s away. We’re both rubbish without our beloveds – and know the other one will be required to come drink a pint or watch a film to prevent us collapsing in on ourselves and we’re both totally fine with that.

Bob is fun and he’s generous – and he can talk about real stuff as easily as he talks about star wars and I value him more than diamonds. He’s the best mate a girl could ask for and he’s going to make a wonderful husband. 

And to both of you together, I won’t wish you luck because you don’t need it, I will wish you fun, and opportunities for adventure, I wish you Sunday afternoons under a blanket, meals for two, and meals for 10, Scotland, camping, the sea, and exciting undiscovered cuisines – I wish you both the life you desire and with each others support you will have it. And so finally from all of us here – lets toast- to happily ever after.