MITCH'S FATHER OF THE BRIDE SPEECH
After giving away his youngest daughter, Mitch wanted to give a memorable father of the bride speech. Here is an excerpt from Mitch's speech:
About a week ago I told my wife Jenny that I was starting to feel a certain anxiety; more and more I was filled with stress. I said to her, “I think all of this wedding planning is starting to get to me.” She looked at me and said, “Mitch! You have had absolutely nothing to do with the wedding planning!” Okay, so she had a good point.
Well, about an hour ago, when I was standing at the top of that aisle with Sasha, it started to become clear where this emotion was coming from. Although you spend a lot of time thinking about and preparing for this day, there is really nothing that will prepare you for how you will feel as you get ready to walk your daughter down the aisle.
When I first saw her in that beautiful wedding dress, I had flashbacks of her running around as a little girl with her curly hair flowing behind her. She always enjoyed wearing cute little dresses that flared out like a flower, and she would spin and dance everywhere she went.
And now here she is in another beautiful dress, all grown up. She truly has become an amazing young woman, and now she is about to start a new family with this wonderful man who was waiting for us at the other end of the aisle, Joel Harper.
I swear it was just yesterday that she was a little girl, playing with her two brothers and her friends. Some of our favorite times were spent enjoying the long, warm summer days by the lake in Idaho; the kids looked forward to it every year. And every year as the summer would wind down, our boys would complain as the start of a new school year loomed on the horizon, while Sasha would eagerly ready her supplies in anticipation of the upcoming year. After taking her temperature to make sure she was feeling alright, we finally figured out that she just authentically liked school. I assure you that she did not get that from her father.
And now, years later, you could say that much of this hasn’t changed in a sense; she still loves her brothers dearly, some of her childhood friends are here with us today, and, true to her passion for learning, she is still in school. Despite her education still being sponsored by the everlasting “Peterson Family Scholarship,” she is on her way to a career in a field she’s been passionate about since middle school. For this, and much more, we are so very proud of her.