matt_doyle

As a co-best-man, I of course gave a toast at the reception, written, as tradition demands, at very nearly the last minute, and balancing sweetness with embarrassment.  In the interests of immortalizing it, here it is, as scripted if not quite as extemporized:

Peter and Kayse, you two have been the very best of friends for years now, both of you, and I hope that if Peter had best maids and Kayse had men of honor that Megan and I might still be up here.  I'm very grateful for both of your friendship... but I think we all know that even the very best of friends can make one another go crazy sometimes.

And that's actually how I know that the two of you are meant for each other.  Megan and I and the two of you have been through a lot of very stressful times together, and all of us have sometimes forgotten  to behave in calm and rational ways, and driven the others up a wall.  But when that happens... the two of you have always been one another's staunchest defenders.  If anyone has said an unkind word when Kayse  has forgotten her phone, or gotten lost driving somewhere she's been a dozen times before; or when Peter has been cranky and short-tempered or stubbornly demanding... these are all just random examples, you understand, I'm not suggesting any of them ever actually happened... you always leap to one another's defense, even when I know it's driving you just as crazy as it's driving me.

You're kind and understanding about each other's little lapses, and that is so terribly important to a healthy marriage that I can't stress it enough.

((Catcall from the audience:  "Sounds like you're speaking from experience there!!"))

Hang on to that.  Keep forgiving one another's faults, and always defend them just the same way even if there isn't someone -- like, say, me -- around to make sarcastic remarks about it.  

I know you've got the love, and the teamwork, and the perseverance to make this work.  I absolutely know you have the support of friends and family.  So keep being each other's champions, against the rest of the world, and even against yourselves -- and you've got it made.  Bless you both.