The Wedding Speech

Elaine, the gorgeous bride has asked me to deliver a speech in her beautiful wedding ceremony on 26th June 2005 at Tirtha Uluwatu, Bali. I nodded yes at that time, not realizing that it was a heavy task on my shoulder.

Why is it heavy?

Firstly, it will be part of one of the most memorable day in Leo and Elaine’s life, one milestone in their blissful marriage life. Surely I would have to chip in accordingly. I simply couldn’t take this task lightly and just give a speech as I wish.

Secondly, I have stage-freight. Funnily enough, many people think that I have a high confidence. I can directly look at the people when I talk, but my voice and legs will all be shaky. I just couldn’t imagine how I would stand before hundreds of people and delivering a wedding speech.

Thirdly, I have never, ever, known in my life how a wedding speech is like. I seldom attend weddings, so wedding speech is still alien to me.

Well, not knowing what a wedding speech sounds like can be a good thing actually, in the sense that I can make it an original one (cieeeeehhh…). As long as it is still of an acceptable standard, of course.

So, for around one and a half months the time given to prepare the speech, I kept procrastinating doing it. There must always be something that came along the way. Even my weekends were always occupied by something. My weekdays were already full with my office workload, where my project is now at a heightened stage.

‘Til the last weekend came before I flew off to Bali, I still didn’t manage to find a time or to find a nice and unique way to deliver the speech. Then, OK, I think I would just make it during the two and a half hours flight.

I did make something in the plane. But it was very… blatant. Very… ordinary. Nothing’s special. It was just like filling up a void. It’s only better than nothing.

It was only until around 16 hours before that speech that I found something to say, though it was still incomplete. Ironically, it was an accident that inspired me. Even my friends supported the idea of mentioning the accident that we had in the wedding speech.

I made an analogy of the accident that we had in Kudeta’s sands at 00.00 – 02.00 am (Bali Time) with their marriage life, though they are as different as heaven and earth. Ours only lasted for two hours, but theirs will be forever. Problems and stormy moments will come now and then. Sometimes they will see no lights at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes they will see helps as threats. Sometimes they will lose trust on each other. The time may come when their faith fades and hope falters. The grip of life loosens. Just keep trying. Keep pushing. Keep digging. Don’t hesitate to ask for help when required, and knowing always that all problems must have a solution.

As for them, their love has been united and blessed in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit as they exchanged their wedding vow in front of the altar. This beautiful wedding scene in the chapel (with breathtaking sea view as background) also inspired me to add something in my speech =P.

Ha ha ha…. =D Actually I thought that my speech must have something which makes it more… well, sounds more sophisticated (cieeeehh…). Captivated by the beauty of the Sacrament of Matrimony, I thought of putting something about LOVE in it. As I had no time to prepare, so I just took the chorus portion of the closing song which I wrote for “Perhaps Love” The Musical. Well, it is still my original work and they truly really reflect the sacredness of love in my eyes. Impromptu and yet well-prepared =P. So I memorized each word from that chorus, and here goes:

There is one thing we call LOVEThe greatest mystery revealed
Some say it hurts, but more it heals
It makes you alive, and it may also kill
It is the reason to cry and laughter it may bring forth
It is the only reason your heart fights with your head

But hold on to it you will know when it arrives
Love is God, we obey and pray
That’s all we have to say

Ha ha ha…. =D This piece made my speech sounded a bit like well-prepared.

I continued the speech by catapulting us back to nine years ago, when I first knew Elaine as a bright and respectable senior in Santa Ursula High School. Our rollercoaster ride of friendship started taking off in NTU, Singapore though. Since then, we have shared many things, including some embarrassing moments =P.

Phew, finally my first ever wedding speech is done. Come to think about it, for an unprepared speech I think it was not bad.