A Toast to Jennie and Joe.

I start a little nervous and sound like my "teacher leader" self. But it gets better I think, and actually looks better than I remember it. I was the first toast of the night... (If you'd rather watch than read, click over here. My sister did a nice job with the iPhone camera.)

It's so good to be with you tongiht and be celebrating Jennie and Joe. I have confirmed this, and I am Jennie's oldest friend that is here tonight. Not like in age, but we've been friends the longest (Andrea later contested that fact.) And to really set the stage for the beginning of our friendship, you should know that we met in middle school. I did the math and 1996-1997 is the like the first official year of our friendship. That's 8th grade.

Jennie, in 8th grade, was very pretty and very nice. When I was in 8th grade, I was about this tall and had glasses, braces and a terrible fashion sense. Terrible. (I wanted to say I wore overalls a lot.) But Jennie, being very pretty and very nice, still wanted to be my friend. We met doing something really really cool, our first official thing as friends together was competing in the National History Day Competition in the 8th grade. I may not have been as pretty as Jennie, but I did beat her in that competition. I think it's because I am a pretty convincing Eleanor Roosevelt if you can imagine in the 8th grade.

So Jennie and I are at this competition and someone takes a photo of us - Jennie, very pretty, me, Victoria in 8th grade - and we're huddled up next to each other. Jennie took the photo and cut it out in a circle and put it in a frame and above it she wrote "Forever Friends." Right there in the 8th grade she picked me to be friends with for the the rest of our lives. I feel pretty lucky, still, all these years later,  that she picked me to be her forever friend.

We were set from there. We were friends all through high school; college took us to different parts of the country - I stayed in Kansas, Jennie went to California where I got to visit her several times. We have done a lot of different things together. And one of the things we love to do together is plan, and we have been planning things forever, and we will  probably still be planning things forever. And we are definitely meant to be forever friends.

I made Jennie a list for her wedding of all the things we have done side by side. Planning, traveling, and the list goes on. I came up with over 70 things Jennie and I have done side by side. It covers the map and over 15 years of friendships. We have traveled, laughed, cried and planned together for a long time. Planning side by side is actually really fun for us.

When I met Joe, it was a very big deal and I think that's because I was the forever friend meeting the one that could be forever. And Joe was kind of nervous and I was kinda nervous It happened on a snowy day in Bucktown. And I really liked him, and I knew that Joe was the one who would make Jennie happy forever.

It has been an absolute delight to plan with Jennie AND Joe for this special day. Joe is the perfect guy to stand side by side when I can't stand next to Jennie. I look forward to being side by side, even from Kansas, for the rest of their lives. It has been an absolute honor to stand by your side today as the maid of honor. Please raise your glasses and toast to the two of them and FOREVER.