Birdman's Best Man Speech for his younger brother.

I had the honor of being my younger brother's best man. An absolutely amazing experience! Being there for Justin and Addie was special as they worked through their marriage preparation journey months leading up to the wedding and setting up an amazing bachelor party for the young king Justin is. My favorite part, of course, was spending time writing the Best Man Speech for my brother! I started out asking myself, "How do I fit 30 years of brotherhood and friendship into a maximum 10 minute speech...while also keeping an audience of about 175 people engaged and feeling different emotions?" It took me a few months of bullet points, rough drafts, and eliminated paragraphs but I had finally put together the words I had been searching for. I hope you enjoy :)

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Hello, everyone. My name is Chris, Justin's older brother, and I have the privilege of being his Best Man. First off, thank you to everyone who helped make this such a wonderful night, including all of you who were able to attend and celebrate this amazing couple!

So, I crunched the numbers, Justin and I have been brothers for our whole lives. But I was skeptical at first even as a 2 year old. Because the first time I met him, believe it or not, he spent 30 minutes trying to sell me health insurance. As a child, Justin was a typical younger brother. Always knocking over my army men, legos, and anything else I had been meticulously building that day. It's exactly what you'd expect out of a menacing younger brother, as he'd run away smiling and laughing. I was never happy about it, but I hardly ever relatiated as I went back to rebuilding, while of course filing those instances away in the back of my mind to eventually get my revenge. Once I reached my teen years, the time had come. I picked up this fun new hobby called "boxing!" And, of course when our parents weren't home, I would replace the red boxing bag with, you guessed it, my little brother. "Here Justin, put these boxing gloves on, it'll be fun!" 

For me being 2.5 years older than Justin, he naturally looked up to me as I navigated through life's moments 3 grades ahead of him. From seeing what it took to succeed in school and athletics, to building a strong foundation of friendships and social life. But our brotherhood and friendship eventually evolved into looking up to one another. Becoming peers. I am so lucky to have such a close bond with Justin and awfully fortunate to be able to call him my best friend. We both know that we are always there for one another, helping each other provide advice through life's smallest and biggest moments.

When I bought my house in 2017, Justin moved in and was once again a great roommate. We have always had some similar hobbies including playing sports, adventuring outdoors, studying the vastness of space and time, and of course never getting into trouble ... Justin's other hobbies have always been fascinating to me. He is always looking to pick up something new. These hobbies would include making foods like Mississippi Pot Roast, homemade tortillas, and Big Mac eggrolls, to name a few... sometimes I would walk downstairs and see him knitting blankets by the crackling fireplace while watching Bob Ross paint a masterpiece... he can't seem to decide if he wants to be a pilot or a firefighter and studies actually show that 60% of people who can't decide between being a firefighter or pilot, end up selling health insurance... as one of his favorite past-times, he has always loved watching info-mercials at 5am waiting for people to wake up so he can tell us all about these sweet new kitchen knives that we have to buy ASAP... and he once randomly joined an Orange Theory for one day before being kicked out immediately. Okay, maybe I made up 1 of those, but I'm not going to tell you which one.

Justin is one of the best guys I know. He is smart, kind, has a great work ethic, and would do anything for the people he cares about. I am so happy that Justin found the love of his life in such an amazing, talented, and beautiful woman, Addison! Addie, you are now my favorite sister without a doubt. In areas where Justin is not known to be the greatest, like math and legible text message writing, Addie comes in. Addie is fantastic at math and I can always understand her text messages. Addie is the type of person that immediately brightens any room she walks in, just look at that smile! She is an extremely selfless person and she always wants to know everything that is going on in YOUR life. She has a way of making every person feel incredibly valued and her genuine love for family and friends is so apparent. I have learned quickly that there are 3 things you need to make Addie's day. Ask about her dog Charlie, take her out for oysters, and ALWAYS make sure that you have plenty of "hot gossip" to share.

Finally, Justin and Addie are both spontaneous decision makers especially when it comes to traveling. They have been known to plan a vacation and flight faster than I can decide which cheese to buy at a local Wisconsin cheese shop. Justin will call me on a Wednesday afternoon "Can you drive Addie and me to the airport?" "Sure, when?" "Right now, our flight leaves in 30 minutes, we just decided to go to Cancun an hour ago and just booked everything 45 minutes ago." "Wow, okay..have you guys tried Uber?"

Addie - We are so lucky to have you joining our family today, in fact, after we had a family meeting recently, you have officially been placed one slot higher than Justin on the consensus family rankings list. Congratulations!

But in all seriousness, you're joining a family that will love you more than you can imagine. Watching you 2 together, I see the same qualities that made Justin such a great brother: loyalty, compassion, and this ability to make everyone feel loved. So, let's raise our glasses to the happy couple. May your love continue to grow stronger with each passing day, and may your life together be filled with endless laughter, joy, and adventure.

To Justin and Addie!