Good afternoon everyone. I'm Dave Riordan and I have the distinct honor of being Matthew's best man. Thank you to all of you who made it here today.
I'd like to extend a tremendous thank-you to the parents of the bride and groom, Lee and John Zhang, and Laurie and Larry Eichenfield for being so wonderful and so generous. In fact the second time Matt went to visit the Zhangs for Christmas, they were generous enough to let two of his college buddies sleep on the floor for christmas-eve-eve.
I'm especially happy to be here on this occasion to celebrate this wonderful day with Matthew and his brilliant and beautiful bride Dawn. Doesn't she look stunning today?
Matthew and I first met at college, Hamilton, a small school in the middle of nowhere; upstate new york. Matthew could have gone anywhere, but he went there. Not for the idyllic campus, the world class education, but because he wanted his parents would always have a connecting flight.
Matt always did things differently. Most people at Hamilton lived on the part of campus that looked like a tony New England prep school; 'The Light Side'. Matt spent four years living on 'The Dark Side'; a complex of concrete bunkers that looked like they could have been home to an east-german artists colony. Most people attend college to open doors to the real world. Matt's friends would remove the door to his room and Matt would enter and exit through the window.
This is normally the part in the speech where the best man regales the wedding guests with embarrassing stories of nights out with the groom, but the truth is, when matt was having those wild nights out, I'd be in the Library.
Matt came up with countless schemes and most of them somehow found their way into reality. He and David Moroney decided to win over the campus by founding the coolest new group on campus: the juggling club. Then Matt started to build his media empire.
Matt ran a longshot democratic campaign to become the head of all media on campus, and won on a platform of unity, participation, and a promise to spend thousands of dollars on indian food.
How was Matt able to pull this off? Was it simply bribery by biryini? I don't think so.
It's this potent combination of Matthew's optimism, loyalty, dedication and ability to see things through that makes him unstoppable. With his goofy sense of humour it's easy to underestimate him, and yet no matter what he sees things through.
That's the thing that he has that can convince you to drop everything for a cross-country road trip only to find out that the plan consists only of "drive east", and still make it cross country in one piece.
And It's why in Dawn he's met his perfect match. Together they see the world at its best. Life is simply too short to not enjoy it. They accept each other for who they are. And I'm pretty sure that's the recipe for a lifelong marriage of commitment, love, and happiness. From the first time Matt started talking about Dawn, you could hear the excitement in his voice. It was something more than the usual excitement that's always in his voice. And I knew he was right from the first moment that dawn and I met, that she was just as funny, just as weird, as brilliant, and beautiful as Matt had said and how important they were to one another. They're perfect. And I'm so tremendously fortunate I can call them both my friends.
And so I ask you to please raise your glasses to a lifetime of love, commitment and happiness for Dawn and Matthew!