In the spirit of "Throwback Thursday", I thought I would write about that time I was my sisters Maid of Honour.
Almost a year ago, I had the privilege of being my sister's MOH. For two years, I helped plan the wedding, planned the engagement party, bridal shower and bachelorette. I created & designed invitations, thank you cards, posters and anything else I could. I was very busy but I loved every moment of it.
Nothing had me more nervous or excited than delivering my MOH speech at the reception though. I decided very early that I wanted to do something unexpected. Although, if you really know me — it actually seems very expected, but I digress...
I wanted to "WOW" my sister. I have always been somewhat of a closet ham but on the flip side I get paralyzingly nervous when I have to speak in front of more than 5 people at a time.
So the struggle is real.
Ten months before the wedding I started writing. I wrote down all the nice things I wanted to say knowing it needed to be REALLY nice because after having seen a MOH somewhere in the States perform her speech to the beat of "Without Me" by Eminem, I had found my performance inspiration. I knew my sister LOVED that song, as did I, and I decided I would do my own version. Keep in mind I used her chorus and a few of her lyrics but I promise at least 80% of the verses are all me.
So for the final 6 months before the big day, I practiced and practiced my rap. On the way to work, for my colleagues (those who would let me), on the way home from work, in the car, in the shower - EVERYWHERE.
As a comfort, I created a video of the lyrics to play behind me. It was intended to help me as back up so the audience didn't miss any words in case I did.
I had the wedding party in kahoots with me, along with the day-of coordinators, photographers, audio/visual guys and the MCs. A LOT of prep and planning went into this delivery.
SO the big day finally came and aside from the time I was doing everyone's makeup (yes, I did that too), my mind was on my upcoming speech. Dinner came and I couldn't even eat. I told the staff to keep bringing it but don't take it away because I was just so nervous I would eat AFTER my speech. They laughed at me.
My name was called to come up and ten months of preparing, planning and practicing was about to be summarized into 7 minutes.
Before you watch, if you haven't seen it before, here is my disclaimer;
For 3 minutes prior to where the video starts I had been delivering all those nice things I had previously mentioned I wanted to say. It went flawlessly. However, rapping fast while you're nervous makes it REAL easy to get out of breath. At one point during my rap I started sounding more and more like a goat because of how shaky my voice was and how hard I was pushing to get my breath in/out. You can't notice it too hard in the video but it's the one splinter I have left over from my performance. Either than that — I am proud and satisfied. I also give "cred" to the MOH who was the original genius to use this song.
So, as I say in the video, without further ado...
After I performed, I walked straight to the bar to catch my breath and forget about my goat-esk voice.
The bar has been set for her speech at my wedding.
Love & Guts,
