Dawn’s Speech
Coming soon! I didn’t say how soon
Kevin’s Speech
Hi everybody and thank you all for being here today to help Dawn and I celebrate ‘our not a wedding day’.
It’s really good to see so many family members here today which include God Children, Aunties and Uncles, Nephews, Nieces and Cousins, Brothers and Sisters, Brother in laws and Sister in laws and of course our children, our son in laws and our 6 wonderful, unpredictable, grandchildren.
It means the absolute world to us both to have our large and extended family with us and it’s just a shame that we don’t get to see you all more often.
We also have some of our closest and dearest friends with us today. Some of those friendships are long-standing with many of those relationships going back over 30 and 40 years and one nearly 50 years and it cannot be overstated just how important all our friendships really are to us.
Some of our friends here today are relatively new to us but you have made such a positive impact in our life since we’ve known you that we couldn’t imagine this day without you being here.
A quick thank you to the Petwood Hotel for hosting our event today but especially Janet Leigh and her team for looking after us so well, from our first enquiry right up until today.
Chris Morris, our brilliant photographer is sitting with you so be kind to him because he’s promised to make everyone look amazing when he does the final editing and he does edit every picture before they go live so be kind and look good.
You might think today is all about us, which actually it is – in your eyes, but in our eyes it’s all about you. It’s about our family and our dearest friends and we just wanted you all together in the same room at the same time. Tick
A few years ago, Dawn suggested we should have a party to get all our family and friends together. I said why and she said as a celebration of us. I told her I thought she was being a bit self-indulgent and I said no, because it had to be more than just a party.
Now look what she’s talked me into. I should really learn to listen more. Well-done Dawn, you did well.
So, why not a wedding?
Since we announced we were entering into a civil partnership, we’ve been asked this question quite a few times by quite a few people.
And it’s a really good question and I just wish I had a really good answer.
We decided some time ago that we probably wouldn’t get married, mainly because we’ve both been married before and if we were going to do something on this scale, we wanted to do something a bit different but something that was meaningful to us.
Plus, I had another reason, I didn’t want to be husband number 3, only because I’ve read the statistics and they are not good.
73% of third marriages (this would have been Dawn’s third marriage) end in divorce 73%. It was just too risky.
Dawn, bless her, she probably didn’t know this but, in her subconscious mind she was already planning the divorce!!
So that’s why it’s not a wedding!
However, we wanted to commit to each other in some way because our relationship is obviously very important to us as a couple, as is our blended family and we wanted to show our kids but more so, our Grandkids that Grandma and Grandad are forever and this relationship is important.
In (2019), it became legal that mixed sex couples could enter into civil partnerships which have much of the same meaning and security as a traditional marriage but wasn’t a marriage so we decided that’s what we would do and here we are today doing exactly that.
Actually, an interesting point about civil partnerships
If you want to end the partnership at any time, it has to be done legally through the court system just like a marriage and for many of the same reasons as ending a marriage.
The only reason it cannot be ended for is adultery!!!!!
I suppose if you’re not married you can’t commit adultery.
I only mention this just in case anyone’s thinking of tying the knot sometime in the future, all I’m just saying is, you do have choices.
So, as you know we set the date initially for March 2021 and then because of Covid restrictions we had to rearrange it but I’m happy to say that 12 months to the day after the original date, here we are – all together
It’s not often that you get to surround yourself with so many of the most important people in your life, all together. We’re grateful to you all for being here and it makes us very happy.
Something that makes me happy is having Dawn in my life. I don’t find it easy expressing emotions but today is an exception.
Dawn is special person and I could have spent hours listing all the many wonderful things that I love about her but I don’t need to do that, she’s given me a list which I’ll circulate it later.
Joking aside and as you all know; Dawn really is a wonderful person.
I know you’ll all agree with me that she is beautiful, not just on the outside (although, she is 2nd cousin to the Miss World winner 1961) but she’s also beautiful on the inside.
She cares so much about family and friends and they mean everything to her. She’s loving, intelligent and she’s very funny.
This is the first time I’ve ever said this out loud and in public, it’s a running joke with us, that I say she has a great sense of humour which is very different to being funny but I’ll never tell her she’s funny.
Dawn makes me smile every day and we laugh more or less every day, not necessarily at the same things but we do laugh a lot and I fall further in love with Dawn every day and I’m looking forward to spending the rest of my life with her.
We class ourselves as lucky people, we have lots of wonderful friends, a great family and we have each other and I think I’m the luckiest man alive to have such a beautiful, loving partner by my side.
So, before I get really soppy, please raise your glasses and join me in a toast to the most wonderful, caring, loving, and funniest woman in the world. Dawn. Dawn