Round two, and this time it's perfect

Evening everyone! I'm [Your name], and I've been friends with [Groom's name] long enough to have attended his first wedding, which I'm told I'm not supposed to mention. So I won't. Moving on.

What I will say is this. There's a version of [Groom's name] from five years ago who was genuinely convinced he'd spend the rest of his life perfecting his sourdough starter and talking to his cat. And honestly? He was pretty good at both. But then [Bride's name] came along, and suddenly the sourdough took a backseat. The cat still gets plenty of attention, don't worry.

[Groom's name] once told me, "The great thing about being older and wiser is that you stop worrying about whether love is perfect and start appreciating when it's real." I thought that was surprisingly profound for a man who once microwaved a fork.

[Bride's name], you should know that you are the reason this man has regained his enthusiasm for life, for plans, for the future. Before you, his biggest weekend ambition was reorganising his bookshelf by genre. Now he's booking holidays, trying new restaurants, and, I believe, learning to dance. Badly, but still.

What I see between you two isn't just love. It's relief. The relief of finding someone who fits, who understands, who makes the hard-won wisdom of past experience feel like it was all leading somewhere good.

So here's to [Bride's name] and [Groom's name] - two people who prove that life's plot twists can lead to the best endings. Or beginnings. However you want to look at it. To the happy couple!