T+T Wedding

Introduction

Tim and Tessa. I want you to take a moment and look around. Look at the people behind you and beside you. Look at the decorations and the food. All of this stuff and more importantly, all of these people are here for one thing. You. We are all here for you. Though I have prepared this message for everyone here to listen to, I will be primarily speaking to you two. And as two people who shamelessly and constantly give of yourself, your time, your money, your love, your laughs, and your creativity to others, it might make you feel a little bit selfish or guilty for all of these people to carve time out of their schedule, book the flights, and take the road trip for no other reason than simply to celebrate YOU. Even though it shouldn’t, knowing both of you as well as I do leads me to believe that at least a few of those thoughts have probably crept in. BUT since I’m the one with the microphone I will speak on behalf of everyone here and say that it is our joy and pleasure to be here with both of you celebrating this captivatingly wonderful moment as the two of you begin your marriage journey, right here. Right now.

JOY

Speaking of JOY, I want to spend the majority of my time today talking about that. There is a few different reasons for that and I will unpack those in the next few moments. The primary reason why I want to talk about joy here today is because it’s almost impossible to talk about you two without talking about joy. It’s one of the primary character traits that I believe both of you share. I’ve chosen this word very intentionally. The reason being that there is a certain steadfastness to joy that isn’t there for other words like happy or pleasant. In my opinion, joy takes root. It digs in and stands firm in the face of adversity. When things get tough and life get turned upside down, joy perseveres. When things are great and life feels easy, joy shines and lifts the moment even higher, maximizing peace and squeezing every last bit of the dopamine hit out of the moment. I believe that joy is a key component in the foundation of a strong marriage. The good news for the two of you is that this is not something that you have to learn, this is just who you already are.