I am so pleased to welcome you all to the rehearsal dinner for the wedding of dear Colin Copeland to my daughter, Jennie Renner-Yeomans. With me here are my lovely wife Laura Yeomans, and Colin's delightful parents, Michele Gross and Roger Copeland.

Weddings are one of those generational moments that give us pause to reflect on the great arc of life. Myself, I am remembering a day two decades ago before the wedding of my brother Steven and his wife Deb. The rabbi gathered the wedding party together and he told us that the wedding day is a special day for the bride and groom. It is their day. They are king and queen and we do what they want to make it the day that they want.

For those of us who were at the rehearsal, I think it is clear what Colin and Jennie want. They have planned a short service with a long period of silence. The vows and readings are scripted, and the reception has no speeches whatsoever. Now I have some smarts, and I think I have figured this out. This here, the reception dinner on the evening before their wedding day, this here is our last opportunity for free speech.

I can also understand why Jennie and Colin would want their wedding day to be this way. I have met Roger. I think anyone who has met both of us will recognize that one of us is a tad too familiar with that line between what is appropriate and what is not. And I don't mean the type of familiarity that comes from getting way too close to the line. I mean the type of familiarity that can only come from fully exploring all the area on both sides of the line. And the other one of us, well what can you say, he's a professor at Oberlin. Do we need to say more?