a beautiful day for a wedding. [tribute from my brother.]

background:  i have one sibling, a brother, who i love with all my heart. growing up we were the best of friends, and we still are.  earlier this year he left to serve a mission for our church, which means he will be gone for two years.  derek and i first talked about getting married shortly before my brother left.  i told derek that there was one requirement i had:  that he talked to my brother about marrying me before he left.  i remember the moment derek told me that he had, i was in tears, over something dumb i'm sure.  derek turned to me and said, "just so you know, i talked to your brother today ash."  it meant the world.  
we got to talk to my brother on the phone on mother's day.  he mentioned that he would be sending a package to me for the wedding.  every day i would ask, "did it come yet?"  "did addison send anything?"  every day the answer was the same, "not yet."  i asked the day before and the answer was the same.  i was a little bummed, but figured it would just come later.  little did i know, that addison had sent my dad an email the day before.  
at the luncheon it was a wonderful surprise when dad stood up and said he had something to read from add.

letter:

DAD,
i wasn't able to send ashley her package for various reasons and i wanted to do all this stuff that fell through so i will just send you a letter that you can read at the lunch in or something.

ASHLEY

I was sitting hear thinking about you and getting married and i am so happy for you!! I just realized that i wouldn't get to dance with my sister on her big day and if i said i didn't cry i would be lying!  I hope you know how much i love you and how much you mean to me!  You are the best big sister in the whole wide world and God was nice enough to give me one of his choice spirits as a big sister! Someone who would lead me by example and would teach me about things that are truly important in life!  Someone who would teach me what true beauty is!  Someone who would love me for all my faults.... and pranks :) Someone who would laugh with my and cry with me!  Like that one time at the TRAX station when i was crying because of something and you were crying because you didn't know if you could marry derek!  Ya those were wasted tears on your part!  Someone who would love me for who i am!  I will never be able to fully express my thanks and love to you but here goes  "I LOVE YOU" .....hope you felt it. 

DEREK

I'll warn you now... it is going to be hard always being second best but I promise you will get used to it!  Now that I am 19 years old I am almost used to it!  I'm just grateful I have someone to go through it with me  :)  I'm grateful my sister found such a great guy and i know that you are worth the wait and well worth the crappy other dates hahah  I'm proud to call you my brother!  I love you!  Thanks for getting me through the MTC!

Your brother,
Elder Walter

Asay fam and friends:  Hope to meet you all one day!
PS  I forgot to say congrats hahahahaah
end of letter dad hahahahahahahah
so hope everything goes well tomorrow! good luck!  Make memories, enjoy the moments, laugh off the stress!
Love you
Elder Walter