A little more wedding stuff...

Here's a picture of Heather's bridesmaids.  Don't they all look pretty?  Left to right - friend Melissa with her husband Mike, sister Laura with husband Aaron (who always misbehaves when his picture is taken), cousin Katelyn with her boyfriend Nathan.
I wanted to share that picture along with something Laura wrote for the wedding.  As Matron of honor, she had to give a little speech at the reception.  Instead of a traditional toast, she wrote a little story, that I thought was both cute, and touching.  Here it is - hope you like it too.

Hello everyone! In case I haven’t met you yet, I’m Heather’s sister, Laura. I’ve was thinking about what I could say to tell you all a little more about Heather and Andrew, and then I came across a little story that I thought did it perfectly, so I’d like to share it with all of you today.
Once upon a time, in a land not so very far away, on a holiday set aside to celebrate love, a princess was born. She lived with her parents, the king and queen, her older and slightly bossy but mostly nice sister, and her troublemaking younger brother.
She loved to play with her sister. They especially liked to build castles out of chairs and blankets and hide inside, which would have been more fun if they didn’t have to defend their castle from the aforementioned troublemaking brother who pretended to be an invading enemy and liked to tear their castles down.
The sisters shared a bedroom and even had bunk beds, and as they grew older, they loved to stay up talking and dreaming together. The only problem was, at night a terrifying troll would patrol the halls of the castle yelling, “I better not hear one more peep out of this bedroom!” So the sisters developed a method of tying notes to string and dropping them down from the top bunk, then writing a note back and tugging on the string for the top bunk to pull the note back up. It worked quite well, and the troll left them alone.
The princess grew into a beautiful, kind, softhearted young woman. She loved all the animals of the kingdom, especially the cats. She loved to read and was regularly seen with her nose in a book. Her parents and siblings were very proud of the lady she had grown into. Suitors began to arrive at the castle for the princess, but they were all frogs as far as the princess’s family was concerned. None of them were good enough for the princess. The princess wondered if there would ever be someone she could laugh, go on adventures, share life, and watch Dr. Who with.
One wintery day, a knight arrived at the castle. He had heard that the princess was an excellent shopper, and after a glance at her shoe and handbag collection, he surmised the rumors were true. He needed help with Christmas shopping, and wondered if the princess could offer her services. The princess agreed and went shopping with the knight.
Soon after, the kingdom began to notice a change in the princess. Whispers of her constant smile, bright eyes and joyful spirit were all over the kingdom. Rumors were heard that the princess had gone out in blizzard like conditions, against the advice of her parents, just to see the knight.
The princess told her sister about the wonderful knight she had met. The sister worried that he better be as good as the princess said he was, since she was obviously smitten with him.
And then the family met the knight, and could see that he was as fine a gentleman as they had been told. They could see the knight loved the princess and treated her very well. And yes, he even enjoyed watching Dr. Who with her. The family was thrilled.
So one evening when the princess was away, the knight went to the king and asked for the princess’s hand in marriage. The king said yes, because he could see how very happy the knight made his daughter. So the knight took the princess on a long carriage ride to the kingdom of Chicago where they enjoyed visiting historical sites, one of the princess’s favorite things to do. At just the right moment, the knight took out a ring and asked the princess to marry him. She of course said yes, and here we all are today to celebrate!
Andrew and Heather, we are all so happy to be part of this first chapter of your story. There is so much more to come, and we are all wishing you tons of happiness and praying for God to bless you and always be the center of your marriage.
So now let’s all toast to Andrew and Heather. We love you guys! To your happily ever after! 

The end....