TROY
initially i'd like to address some administrative issues. they include the three questions i've been most commonly asked in the past 36 hours.

first, my name is troy.

second, i met steve in college.

and third, no, i am not a doctor. steve got the brains and i got the body.

(uproarious laughter, of course)

shortly after meeting steve, i, like all who meet steve, saw that he was an exceptional human. the unspoken burden of all exceptional people is finding another exceptional soul for them to share their life with. then along comes rachel. bounding confidently down the lane. beaming everywhere she goes. lighting up any room she enters. soon after meeting rachel i thought, game over. i knew we would all be here today...well, not here specifically. i've never been to _this_ place before...and, i guess i didn't know it would be this actual day either in that i obviously didn't know _when_ they would decide to marry. but, i knew we would be together to celebrate a wedding between these two.

(gratuitous laughter)

every time i saw steve after he met rachel he was smiling. well, except for the time rachel invited my wife and i on their honeymoon, both honeymoons actually. steve wasn't smiling then.

(fire up laugh track again)

but, ultimately it is this kind of contemporary thinking that will allow steve and rachel to thrive in these modern times and it is their traditional adoration for one another that will allow them to survive the tests of time.

(arm raised)

to steve and rachel and the journey ahead.