Toast for Elizabeth and Will Murphy

(With apologies to the official Best Man, Sean Murphy)

Hi, everybody, for those of you who don't know me, I'm Joe Vaughan, the father of the bride. Today, I get the honor of toasting the wedding couple. No, I'm not the best man.. the "best" man is, of course, Will Murphy.

Today, I get the honor of toasting the wedding couple. But first, I need to tell a small joke, give a little advice, and then give the toast, which I hope you all will join me in.

I had planned to tell the joke about the three rings.. you know,

What are the three most important rings in a husband's life?

1. The engagement ring.
2. The wedding ring.
3. Suffering.

But I'm not going to tell that joke, because during the wedding ceremony, the preacher reminded me of an important question that I must ask you:

How many wives can an American man have?
No.. not one, but sixteen:

Yes, "four richer" "four poorer" four better" and "four worse"

Sorry about that.

And now for the advice:

To keep your marriage brimming,
with love in the wedding cup,
whenever you're wrong, admit it,
whenever you're right, shut the hell up!

Here's a little more advice just for Will:

Will, take Elizabeth's hand,
and place your hand over hers.
Now, remember this moment and cherish it,
because this will be the last time you ever have the upper hand!

Now, for the toast:

May you never lie, cheat, or drink.

But if you must lie, lie down with each other, and comfort each other.

And if you must cheat, cheat death and live a long and prosperous life.

And if you must drink, drink with us, for we all love you
and wish you both all the love and happiness that you both deserve!

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(For more about the wedding, see my previous post.)

The Marriage of Elizabeth Clark-Burrell and Will Murphy on November 27, 2010

((As an amateur genealogist, I am always excited to find information about weddings that occured many years ago to my family ancestors. Therefore, I am writing this not just to tell my experiences about a wedding that occured yesterday in the year 2010, but to tell my progeny who find this post in years to come about a great family event that happened to their ancestors.

To my great, great, great, great grandchildren: this event is part of your family's life and I hope that reading it makes you feel more connected to those who have gone before you.))

Yesterday was a very happy day for the Vaughan family in Maryland. Elizabeth, the first daughter of Joe Vaughan and Elaine Langlois Vaughan was married to a fine gentleman named Will Murphy. With this marriage, the old Prepop (me) obtained a new son-in-law, as well as several tall, handsome, beautiful grand-children-in-law. Wow!

It was a wonderful marriage ceremony, full of humor and tears. The preacher (Brian Hamilton) was young and witty and seemed to know a lot about Elizabeth (Beth) and Will's lives. We got there a little late (as usual) and missed a family video show, but we did experience all of the beautiful service.

Beth was given away by her daughters, Heather and Danielle Clark, and her Maid of Honor was her daughter, Adrienne Burrell. A very professional looking Cameron Coates (Beth's grandson) did a great job as ring bearer.

For Will's side, his son, Sean, served as best man, and Will's other children and close relatives were all part of the wedding party.

Let me list the names of the others who had a part in making this a memorable day: Heather Hardesty (part of Beth's family), Mary Konilidis (wedding ideas), Mary Thorn (favors), Sister Diane Cole (centerpieces), Carol DeCarlucci (invitations and wedding cd), Jeff Simmons (music cd), Chris and Kathleen Vaughan (wedding pamphlet), nephew Joseph Bass, niece Nicole Johnson, her fiance Brad Hannon, and those others that, through ignorance, I am not listing here.

My partner Elaine (Lottes) and I were treated as honored guests and I was given the priviledge to give the toast at the reception (In case anyone is interested, I'll publish my remarks in a separate blog entry.)

The reception was held at the Hellas Greek restaurant in Glen Burnie. This place is renowned for their crab cakes. And they were good! As was all of the wonderful food that was made available.

Most of the Vaughan children and grandchildren and great grandchild participated vigorously in the dancing, with music provided by a very capable DJ. (Elaine and I also managed to dance a couple of times...although what I do should not be called dancing. My daughter in law, Kathleen, and my daughter, Diane, also very kindly put up with my foot shuffling.)

I took a lot of pictures until it dawned on me that everybody else was snapping photos that would be all over Facebook the next day. So, I relaxed and shut the camera off for a while.

As far as I could tell, everybody had a great time.. in fact, nobody seemed to want to leave at the end. But, since all good things must come to an end, Elaine and I said goodbye to old and new family and old and new friends, took our pieces of wedding cake and left the newly married couple to try to figure out how to make all of their wedding gifts fit into their car.
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