Brian Daniel Kapustka

Brian’s Official Script for Michael and Ginny’s Wedding – 8/31/18

Welcome, family, friends, and loved ones. We are gathered here today to celebrare l’amore, or celebrate love, as we carry on with our Italian romance theme for Michael and Ginny’s wedding. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Brian. I am Michael’s cousin, and now, a very close friend of Ginny’s, a cousin, if you will! We are here to offer our love and support to their union, and to allow Michael and Ginny to start their married life together surrounded by those most important to them. Michael and Ginny want to thank you for being here to share this moment with them today, as it is one they will cherish for the rest of their lives. Before we begin, let’s take some time to capture this moment. Everyone please take out your cameras and phones and use the next minute or so to take your pictures…… [everyone takes their pics]

Michael and Ginny kindly request that you put your devices away and fully enjoy the rest of the ceremony. [everyone puts everything away) Now that everyone is ready to take in the moment, I want to give that opportunity to Michael and Ginny. Take a minute to be fully present. Look out and see all those here who love and support you. Now look at each other and remember this, for there will be no other moment exactly like it.... (Silence for approximately 30 secs)

This is a day that has long been anticipated by the couple and those gathered here today. While this day marks the first day of the rest of their lives together as husband and wife, Michael and Ginny committed themselves to one another long before this day. We are here to not only celebrate the new beginning of this marriage, but to celebrate their continued love, effort, and commitment to their relationship for the last 8 years to this exact day. 8 years ago, Michael and Ginny met….

For those who don’t know their story, the summer prior to Michael just beginning his junior year of high school at 16 years old and Ginny beginning her sophomore year of high school at 15 years old, the two met at a mutual friend’s camping party. Immediately they were drawn to each other. For those who know Ginny well, you know she is never short of words, and that night was no exception, as they stayed up the entire night talking and laughing over a campfire. This evening lead to an invitation from Michael to join him and his entire family on a trip to the renaissance fair in Wisconsin. It was love - at a first date in a different state with your now in-laws’ family. What a way to start off a relationship, and now, today, I am here to help start off this marriage…! It is crazy to think that precisely in two months, you will be celebrating your first Halloween as a married couple, shortly followed by Thanksgiving, Michael’s birthday, Christmas, New Year’s, Ginny’s birthday, and so much more…

I am honored to be here to officiate this wedding and to be part of this special day in your lives. It has been very intriguing for me to see Michael and Ginny’s relationship grow. Of course, not only has their relationship together blossomed, but mine with them, individually, and as a group has developed in ways that words cannot describe. These eight years have flown by. From our fun and hilarious trips to and from Missouri, Steak and Shake, McDonalds, Michael and Ginny’s’ houses, cousin John Ayala’s house or even mine, family parties and get togethers, sociology class with Dr. Thibodeau (or also better known as Dr. Tibz), dancing at bars and clubs in Chicago - I especially will never forget the night when I brought John Ayala and you guys out for his 21st birthday to a ritzy and bougie club/bar downtown Chicago. The looks on your faces were priceless when you first saw me dance in front of a large crowd of strangers, little did you know I would glow the night away and marry you two today! I promise, there will be more wowing and glowing in the future, starting tonight!

Let’s not forget our endless sleepovers, late night convertible cruises to Medusa and scary places when we were younger.. Oops. Maybe I should not have shared that! I would like to take a second to express something in Spanish, Italian, French, and German (español, italiano, français, and Deutsch), or as I like to call Espitalifrançeutsch.. I know one of your favorite things is when I speak to you guys in a foreign language you don’t understand! Here goes.. Ustedes se amarán per tutte le vostre vite et vous saurez que ce mariage sollte immer sein. This multilingual sentence in English means, you will love each other for your whole lives and you will know that this marriage was always meant to be. Through thick and thin, our memories spent together will be treasured forever. Nonetheless, I always knew that this day would come. Perhaps I suspected this before Michael and Ginny even did! With that being said, today is a beautiful day not only to acknowledge Michael and Ginny’s love for each other, but to truly celebrate it. Here’s to innumerable memories and adventures to come!

Michael and Ginny, today you take the next step in your journey together and enter into marriage. Marriage is the promise between two people who love each other, who trust that love, who honor one another as individuals in that togetherness, and who wish to spend the rest of their lives together. It enables the two to share their desires,

longings, dreams, and memories, their joys and sorrows, and to help each other through all uncertainties of life. A strong marriage also nurtures each of you as separate individuals and allows you to maintain your unique identity and grow in your own way through the years ahead. It is a safe haven for each of you to become your best self while together you become better than ever could be alone.

French philosopher Simone De Beauvoir believed that love allows us to reach beyond ourselves. That love is the desire to integrate with another and that love infuses our lives with meaning. She said that to love better, we need to love authentically. She defined authentic love to be the recognition that each partner has their own freedom that is to be respected and encouraged to be sought after, and to grow to be one’s own true self, and that together, with these independent freedoms, you would share values and perspectives to encourage and challenge one another, and ultimately enhance one another’s lives. Something I personally like to preach is what is in the form of an bracelet on my wrist that I wear every day. It says “P, L, U, R.. “The word ‘PLUR’, stands for Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect. I would like to show you a little gesture that is used in the Electronic Dance Music scene. Hold out each others’ hand. Join each others hands forming peace signs as a symbol of peace, now both of you use your hands to create half of a heart to make a whole one, which symbolizes love, now fold your hands over each other to symbolize unity, and lastly, and just in a little bit, you will exchange rings as a sign of respect. Normally bracelets like mine are exchanged, but I think rings are just a bit more fancy ;) ) I can only wish that with this ceremony and celebration you will be able to carry out all four of those key components for a happy life and marriage together. As you make this commitment to each other today, make this commitment with the intent of loving one another authentically. I thank you two for allowing me to officiate this wedding and to be a special part of your lives.

I would now like to allow Michael and Ginny to share their personal vows with each other. (wait 2 minutes or so…)

Those were very heartfelt and sincere. Thank you for sharing those, Michael and Ginny.

Official Legal Vows Part

Do you Virginia Leigh Meglio take this man Michael Ryan Drews to be your lawfully wedded partner, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, for richer or poorer, for as long as you both shall live?

*(Wait for confirmation)*

Do you Michael Ryan Drews take this woman Virginia Leigh Meglio to be your lawfully wedded partner, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, for richer or poorer, for as long as you both shall live?

*(Wait for confirmation)*

Virginia Leigh Meglio and Michael Ryan Drews will now exchange rings as a symbol of their respect, love, and commitment.

*(Ring Exchange)*

By the authority vested in me and the State of Illinois, I now pronounce you husband and wife!