Anna Holdbrook
Now it should be Anna Holdbrook Jenkins.
I am ready to marry my best friend.
I'm excited to marry these two beautiful people,
this beautiful couple
who deserve this day.
William, will you have this woman to be your wife?
To live together in the covenant of marriage.
I will.
Wait, wait.
Yes.
Just edit that, edit that from the tape.
We've come together today to celebrate
the love that Anna and William have for each other.
And, could we be in a more beautiful place?
Right? This is awesome, this is beautiful.
This is just what they need, right?
Because as we all know, Anna and William love nature.
Love going on excursions out into nature.
Exploring nature.
And just being together in nature.
This weekend is magical.
Its magical, this moment. Its magic.
Anna and William, you will travel to many places.
And have many adventures.
But this place now, here, is unique.
My family has been going here since,
since mom was just an infant.
Right, Lexie?
Yeah
So, we have been coming up to
North Carolina ever since.
I mean mom's family started the tradition.
But its funny, dad's family, like, they lived up here.
You know, we'd come up here Thanksgiving.
And y'all are saying how I was never, back in high school,
I was never in home for the summer.
It's 'cause we were here.
Or for Thanksgiving.
We were always here.
It's like this is our home.
And that's why we wanted to get married here.
Most of me and Anna's childhood
memories stem from right here in Cashiers and Highlands.
Generally, around thanksgiving times, when we were kids,
Anna and I, when all the adults were at the table,
we decided to go on a walk up the hill.
And to us, we were just wandering around,
talking as if nothing was wrong.
But to our parents, we were more than lost.
I realize my days getting lost with Anna are over.
But, her days of getting lost with
William are just beginning.
I hope for the rest of your lives,
you get lost in nature in your adventures.
And most importantly, lost in one another.
If I were to summarize how
Anna and I feel in one word, it would be grateful.
Anna and I are eternally grateful.
Me especially to Anna's family for raising
the beautiful, intelligent, fearless and loving woman
whom, tomorrow, I will call my wife.
Anna, you are fearless and you are beautiful.
Never before had I met someone with such love in their heart
who was completely unafraid to be themselves
one hundred percent of the time.
Like, it is so comfy.
First time we met William
was in Saint Martins.
Anna, our wild flower,
our free spirited.
You know, we're going to Saint Martins.
And she says, "hey mom and dad, can I bring a friend?"
We're like "yeah, sure."
Never, one time, has she ever showed up at
our house or anywhere with a boy.
He makes it to Saint Martins, you know,
in the spirit of meeting him for the first time.
Our beach was a nude beach.
And if that not pretty of a sight to see
his future daddy-in-law running around naked on the beach.
And he stuck with us, so.
I get so scared to open these things.
I wanna hit it. I'm trying.
Do like a little dance.
It was easy to see how smitten
Anna was with William from the start.
I have never seen Anna so at ease as she is with William.
Nor, have I ever seen her so happy.
I honestly don't know if I've ever seen two people
more perfectly suited for each other.
They share a common love for adventure,
wanderlust, nature, and exploring the world's complexities.
In the time we have been together,
we have never stopped dreaming.
I remember coming home one Friday from work,
and we immediately decided to take a road trip
to visit the bad lands of South Dakota.
And in the seven hours it took us to get to Black Hills,
we already planned a whole new life together.
Convincing ourselves that we'd buy a school bus,
renovate it into a home for us to travel
the back roads of North America.
We went so far as to interrogate a group of school
children whose bus had broken down in the snow in Wyoming.
They were huddled in a rest stop and needed help.
And all we could think about was that our
bus would need four wheel drive.
We decided to test this theory the following summer
when we logged four thousand miles in an RV.
And as everyone has probably heard by now,
that's a good thing we didn't buy that bus.
Okay.
Hey Will.
Hey.
I've never closed my eyes so hard.
Oh my god, you look gorgeous.
Oh, I love you.
You look handsome.
Look at this dress.
You like it? What do you think?
Look at this.
What do you think?
It's gorgeous.
I can drink as many beers as I want.
I love it.
You are beautiful!
Thank you, babe.
Come here, bud.
If you spend any time with them
at all, it's contagious.
Come here, hi baby! Hi, my little friend.
It fills your heart and it makes you wanna
have a relationship like them.
Hey.
Something about the past few days,
I feel like I've seen something in Anna that's so
amazing, that I finally just get it.
I've lived away from William for a year and a half
in a foreign country on the other side of the planet.
And every time I talked to him on the phone,
I know within three seconds whether
or not you were in the room.
You could hear the smile on his face when he was talking.
Thank you for sharing your life with my brother, so far.
And for giving him the space to be the
wonderful, beautiful person he truly is.
'Cause that was the one measure that I had in my mind,
is to whether or not William would be happy in his future
and I see his true self with you.
You look gorgeous.
Let me see. Wow.
Looks great!
Let me see your yellow shoes.
I love 'em.
You have a good day?
I had a great day.
What makes William exceptional
is his uncommon degree of humility.
At 26, you are the kind of man I someday hope to be.
Anna, you have huge kindness and consideration.
I feel so blessed that William has found
such a beautiful, charming, kindred soul in you.
Anna, will you have this man to be your
husband, to live together in the covenant of marriage?
Will you love him, comfort him, honor, and keep him?
In sickness and in health.
And forsaking all others, be faithful to him
as long as you both shall live?
I will.
Now, will you love her, comfort her,
honor and keep her, in sickness and in health,
and forsaking all others, be faithful to her
as long as you both shall live?
I will.
I heard.
In the name of god
I, Anna,
Take you, William,
To be my husband.
To have and to hold
From this day forward.
For better, for worse
For richer, for poorer
In sickness and in health
To love and to cherish
Until we are parted by death.
Anna, I have loved being your
big sister everyday of my life.
And you are the best gift our parents ever gave to me.
William, thank you for loving my sister with your
whole heart and thank you for loving my family as your own.
Having friends and family, it is
really heart felt when you're standing right here
and looking out at everybody.
And, and,
the feeling inside is incredible.
If you know Anna,
you know she lights up every room she walks in.
From her big blue eyes to her radiant smile
to her loving hugs.
This girl loves with her entire heart,
and its been so sweet to watch her
fall in love with William.
I can't wait to watch them dance through life together.
William, promise you will always take care of
our girl and encourage her silly.
Now that William and Anna have
given themselves to each other by solemn
vows and the joining of hands and the
giving and receiving of rings,
I pronounce that they are husband and wife in the
name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
And now, introduced to you, Mr. And Mrs. Jenkins.
Raise the roof,
scream as loud as you can for Anna and William.
I hope that you can take this love
that they have that's just so
very, very special and take it into your hearts.
And then, go up on the mountain tops,
like they do.
Explore the world.
Sleep in tents out in the freezing cold.
Use them as an example of how to live your life.
No matter how old you are,
just live the life that they're living.
It's a beautiful example.
And, we love you.
You seriously are one of a kind.
Thank you, Siri.
Siri!