my best friend's wedding

 in only 12 days, my best friend is getting married...and i'm her maid of honor! (squeal of excitement)

here are some photos of us and how much fun we've had together over the past 7 years:

 

sorority sisters at our first date party! winter 2004. (see the puffy moon face? thanks, prednisone.)

breckenridge ski trip, winter 2005. we can do cool tricks on skis.

lazy eyes are funny. this one goes down in history as my favorite picture of us, ever! spring 2004, i think.

northwestern football games. we went to ALL of them. fall 2005.

"sun" tanning in wisconsin. this is how it's done! summer 2005.

 

sig ep's golf pro's and tennis ho's party? whatevs, we had fratitude. fall 2006.

blair and melissa's wedding in laguna nigel, CA. summer 2006.

wonder woman & mighty mouse. one frightening duo. IV Greek Conference winter 2005.

steak 'n shake, discussing christina aguilera. she's discuss-able. fall 2007.

nu alumni football fans! we still got it. homecoming, fall 2007.

line dancing for my bday, spring 2008. birthday bootie!

carrie underwood & keith urban concert in some far away chicago suburb. summer 2007?

castle bouncing on new year's eve. happy 2008!

courtney & nick's wedding in dallas, TX. 2007. fyi anne, marriage = "going to the pool" x a million.

misbehaving at katie & jared's wedding in minneapolis, MN. late summer 2008.

loving ketchup in d.c. summer 2009.

brewers game in milwaukee, WI. summer 2010.

so as you can see, this girl is awesome, and her wedding? it's going to be awesome, too.

here's the link so you can see how pretty the wedding will be:
http://www.projectwedding.com/ourwedding/mattandanne/welcome

they are getting married on september 4th (labor day weekend!) at the morton arboretum outside chicago. i'm so excited for it! it's going to be nature-y and super classy. and EVERYone will be dancing. as MOH, i will make it my personal goal.
http://www.mortonarb.org/

here is her wedding party (including her really overly nice bio about me. i'm 99.9% sure i'm not as cool as she thinks i am) : http://www.projectwedding.com/ourwedding/mattandanne/wedding-party

so now i have to think about my maid of honor speech. i'm nervous and i don't know what to say! how do i put all those wonderful memories (in the above photos) and everything we've experienced together, plus all of anne's awesome qualities and then how perfect she and matt are together into one couple minute long speech? yikes!

i figure the typical wedding-speech format should go something like this:

           1. introduce yourself. no one likes to listen to strangers.
           2. compliment the guests to get on their good side
           3. tell a funny story to hook them and get them really interested in what you're saying.
           4. then...bam! flood them with awesome things to say about your bff to make them cry
           5. and then end with a toast to the happy couple!
sounds simple, right?


well, it's not. this is where you give me pointers. any must-have's for maid of honor speeches??