Hayley + Fraser
Hayley + Fraser
APRIL 8, 2020
COROMANDEL, NEW ZEALAND
Mellissa’s speech
Hayley and Fraser, such a beautiful wedding! A true celebration of your relationship together. You are an exceptional couple. You have faced challenges head on united, you encourage each other whole heartedly as individuals as well as a couple. You absolutely bring out the best in each other - a true rarity. Fraser I knew you were a keeper when not only did you survive your first Marchant Christmas - not an easy feat which included Aunty Margaret sitting on your knee at one strange part of the night but you showed up to the next Christmas. I never get tired of how squeamish you are. Nothing is more funny than watching your face when Em drags food on the floor and eats it again or I try to convince you its your turn for Em’s butt wiping duty because he likes you the most - suddenly you seem so busy in those moments needing to fix stuff or there happens to be a fishing show on you just can’t miss. I appreciate the banter and laughs you bring to our family. We are incredibly proud to have you as part of the Marchant clan and Matthew and Emmett just adore you.
Hayley, it is one of my life’s greatest honours to be standing next to you today on your wedding day as you did for me and your Dad. I feel incredibly lucky to have not only married your Dad but to have you and Cameron in my life has been a true gift. What an absolute pleasure it has been watching you grow and flourish into the beautiful and kind woman we see today. You inspire me each day with how courageous you are in achieving everything you set your mind to. I am forever grateful for your fashion, hair and makeup tips - you keep me trendy! I have always said you are one of the few people in the world who is authentically beautiful on the inside and out. Your kindness and thoughtfulness is such special part of you. Your Dad, brothers and I couldn’t be more proud of you today, tomorrow and always. A very warm shout out goes to Ian and Donna. Thank you for your warm welcome to your family and for hosting us at your home. There is something truely special about a wedding on family land - Fraser and Hayley you are incredibly lucky for the opportunity. Hayley and Fraser we wish you every happiness as you go forward together in your journey of life and marriage. Lots of love always.
Jake’s speech
Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen, for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Jake, one of Fraser’s older brothers. To say this day has been a long time coming is an understatement, Hayley has been part of our family since Fraser was a teenager, so you certainly know how to make a girl wait don’t ya Frizz. When Fraser asked me to be his best man, there was only one answer to give and it is a great privilege to be standing here today, to celebrate you guys in front of all your loved ones. Could I also quickly say Fraser for a builder mate, and a bloke who would rather rock bare feet everywhere instead of shoes you scrub up alright aye. And Hayley, well I am sure everyone could agree, you look stunning.
Anyway, onto a quick story... Fraser was a curious brother growing up, always interested in learning new things and figuring something out to make Mum panic. One afternoon Fraser decided to build a makeshift bike jump, hit it full blast and landed flat on his back with the bike on top of him. Needless to say Mum was less than pleased but Frizz is a tough bugger and bounced straight up. No health and safety checks needed. Crazy things like this too, somehow having to dry one of your chickens with Mum’s help as it had somehow fallen into the pool. Entertainment was plentiful with you as my younger brother.
One thing Fraser is and always will be is a keen fisherman. Whenever we’d get away, if there was a boat ramp nearby, Fraser would be up well before dawn making a racket-stomping his feet just to make sure everyone was awake, urging us to get up and about to catch some fish. Early bird gets the worm they say. Well Hayley I tell ya this, if Fraser loves you half as much as he loves fishing then you are in for a life full of happiness. On that note - If I could please ask you all to raise a glass and toast. To the Bride and Groom, Hayley & Fraser, congratulations to the both of you. I wish you both every happiness in the world.
Donna + Ian’s speech
Ian: We would like to welcome everyone here and thank you so much for joining us to celebrate this very special day for Fraser and Hayley - especially after having to reorganise everything for the 3rd time.
Donna: Hayley, it is such a pleasure top welcome you to our family - finally officially! You have been a wonderful part of our family for over 8 years and we feel so lucky that you chose Fraser and Fraser we are so lucky that you chose Hayley.
Ian: We would like to say how very proud we are of you both and what you have achieved in just 26 years. Both as individuals and also together. We are really excited for you both and look forward to where you take your future together.
Donna: It makes me reflect on a quote that was on my older sisters wall which I read with no understanding through 13 year old eyes. It went something like this, “Love does not only consist of two people looking at each other but of looking together in the same direction”.
Ian: We would like to acknowledge Frasers Grandparents, my parents Rex & Elaine and Donna’s parents Jim & Bev, who are no longer with us. I know that they would have loved Hayley as much as we do and would have been equally as proud of them both.
Donna: Now, I have a little story to tell which has a purpose. A few years ago I took Fraser and Hayley on a shopping trip to Hamilton. I had a sore eye so first point of call was the chemist. I head to the eyedrops department and Fraser and Hayley are hanging out int he mascara department. The shop assistant comes over to help me and starts really over thinking things - finally she decides on a recommendation and I go to the checkout. She says to me what perfect and well behaved children you have. I thought for a minute... do I explain? And then I thought “perfect well behaved children” 3 words id never heard before in the same sentence... so I said “why thank you”. Then we head off ato our next point of call Freedom Furniture - the barstool department. Fraser jumps on one barstool and Hayley on another - they spin them around and around and up and down. Hayley says “well we’re not so perfect and well behaved now are we?”. Which brings me to the purpose of this story. I don’t know about well behaved but I do know they are perfect. Perfect together and perfect for each other.
Scott’s speech
Good evening everyone, for those of you who don’t know me my name is Scott and I am Hayleys father. On behalf of Mellissa and myself I would like to start by welcoming you all and thank you all for coming here to celebrate this very special and long awaited happy occasion, the marriage of our daughter Hayley to Fraser. It really is great to see so many friends and family here today. But a special thanks to those of you who have had long and difficult journeys. I know it means a lot to Hayley and Fraser that you’re here with them today. Every wedding is special of course, but to see your daughter get married is something else. Hayley, our walk down the aisle this afternoon is a memory I shall treasure for the rest of my life, you looked absolutely beautiful in your stunning wedding dress. When the date was set for the wedding I thought there was plenty of time to get my father of the bride speech sorted or maybe just wing it, as I’m always a last minute person, but my wing its never turn out that well, so when the wedding date got delayed due to the dreaded lockdown I knew it was a sign for me to make sure I had it all sorted for today and have some good material to embarrass Hayley with, unfortunately I couldn’t think of much dirt on her.
However one thing I could think of was, growing up in here younger days Hayley had a nickname, that being “Little Monkey” as she always found some sort of mischief to get up too, however, the name didn’t last that long as one weekend we went to the zoo, when going through the monkey enclosure Hayley started balling her eyes out, when asked what was wrong she replied I don’t want to be a monkey anymore…. That was followed with assurances that she wasn’t, and she would not be living there with the monkeys, so we decided to stop calling her that. Hayley was always at peace when she was around any form of living creature such as cows, cats, dogs, horses, bees, insects etc. Her grandmother started calling her Hayleybeedle which soon went to Hayleybee then eventually I started calling her honeybee to which has stuck with her as a nickname from me to her to this day, these days she has become bee mad and has bee pictures, cutlery, tattoos and even branding on her new business. Whenever we see a bee in the house we would always say that Hayley is keeping an eye on us as a joke…
Hayley is an amazing artist, in her younger days she drew and painted some really amazing pictures which unfortunately I lost due to our house fire. But Hayley being Hayley she replaced them with more beautiful pictures. Hayley introduced Mellissa and I to Fraser back in 2014, he was a quiet guy but soon found his ground and became embedded into the Marchant clan, a crazy clan at that… Boy he could eat!!! Over the past few years I have a seen another side to Fraser, a side that has proven his willingness to support and be there for Hayley no matter what, a value that is very hard to find in people these days, a value that shows the true meaning to the word love. For that Fraser I thank you for being there for my honeybee, for being her rock and for being there no matter what the circumstances have been, a true gentleman. Anyone who know the two of them and saw them together will know how much in love and how well suited they are, especially when they have been dealing with some terrible circumstances over the past few years. You only have to be in their company for a few minutes to realise they are
madewithloveby
keepsake.
