Photo by Jeff Topham (www.jefftopham.com, www.liberia77.com)
With a brother as talented as Rob, I knew I had to ask him to sing at our wedding, but I really lucked out when he agreed to MC as well. Then to top everything off, his daughter Kennedy agreed to sing with him before the wedding.
The morning of the wedding, I had to run into my parent’s house to pick something up and I caught Rob and Kennedy preparing for the wedding. I grabbed my camera and took a couple of minutes of video. Coupled with the video shot by my friend Ed MacLennan at the wedding, I created the video below…it was a little rushed, so pardon the editting.
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We have a few more people that caught the pre-wedding entertainment on video, hopefully I’ll be able to post more when I get their clips.
As the day progressed, and we started the reception, Rob was invaluable at keeping the evening moving ahead on schedule.
When Karen and I planned the reception, we tried to avoid the hours of speeches and toasts. However, Rob took it upon himself to say a few words taken from my ‘diary’ and he was kind enough to give me the ‘diary’ after the reception. I’ve transcribed the contents here:
I really didn’t know what I was going to say when I got up here. But, by a stroke of luck, I was sitting at mom and dad’s computer and I saw this book…Guide to a Dr. Seuss theme wedding “Old fish, new fish, Borrowed fish, blue fish”. And right next to it was Ken’s Diary and conveniently, it is written in the style of Dr. Seuss…I know! Right?
So I selected some excerpts which I thought were pertinent to today’s festivities…
Here’s an entry about the best man…
That Allan Gee, That Allan Gee. I did not like that Allan Gee
He would not share his beer with me.
Not in the house
Not at the club
Not when he was soused
Not at the pub.
I did not like that Allan Gee
He would not share his ale with me.
I cannot like him No matter how I try
I hate that Al Gee…he’s not a fun guy
I said “try it, try it, you will see
That you can share your case with me.
And if you try, and if you do
I will share my beer with you.”
Allan said “Ok, I will share my case of beer
But you must understand my fear
If you drink at a faster pace, you stop at half
And buy the next case.”
By the second bottle I liked Al more
And all the better after four
We got along famously at the end
And I had found a life long friend.
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There’s a “Wocket in my Pocket”…I’m just gonna give that one a miss…
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Here’s an entry for the night he met Karen…
I met the most amazing girl today
It happened so fast and it happened this way
The night before last I thought it’d be cool
To call my friend AL and go down to the Mule
We danced the whole night and the music was blarin’
But the highlight for me was a vision named Karen.
Now being that my vision was a little bit blurry
I thought it most prudent to avoid any hurry
With a slight slur in my speech I had no doubt
That if I made any moves I’d surely strike out
But the next day brought boredom so I go to thinking
Hey there’s a Beerfest and I don’t mind drinking
I called my friend Al and we drove there with glee
But we were stopped at the door cuz we had no ID
The bouncer was mean an he wore a Habs cap
And I whispered to Al, “I don’t think I like that cat in the hat”
When we finally got in we were ready for fun
But I had no idea of what was to come…
For somewhere in there, with her girlfriend named Chloe
Was the Cher to my Sonny, the David to my Bowie…
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Toast:
Karen, of all the Who-girls in all of the places
The ones from the cities or from wide open spaces
Of all of the millions and billions…times two
I am glad that the one that Ken picked is you.
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Ken, at this time I would just like to say
A few words about you on this great day
You’re a fine brother
A great friend
And you’ve got talent to spare –
Athletic, artistic, but let’s not stop there…
You’re generous, care free
And your bride is sublime
I am happy you’ve married
It’s about bloody time!
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Of course…Karen and I had to follow that up…we weren’t nearly as funny…
Up next…a gift from overseas