Kaitlyn & Tristan

The first time I laid eyes on you, it felt like a deer in headlights, not just because you tried running me over with your car, but because your most amazing smile could light up the darkest of nights. I knew from that day I needed you in my life forever. I just needed to get the guts to talk to you. Well, that day I also found out three whiskey old fashioneds is too much.

To this day, I still question how and why you said yes to me. Especially after what you saw and heard on our first date. The banana hammock pictures on my Snapchat hunting vlogs. My dirt bike talk and my river stories. Can't forget my crazy conspiracies and my crazy stories.

Let's be honest, we know you're not here for my wealth. Maybe for my looks, LOL, JK, we know that's part of it. It has to be the joy and the smile I bring you with my comedy. Because if you ever open your eyes between laughing and smiling, you might realize that you want to change your mind. But it's too late now for returns or refunds, even if you have the receipts.

The oath we are taking today is much, much more. It is a bond for life. I am yours. You are mine forever. And like Cardi B says best: you are up on the priority list. (Kaitlyn: "Top three.") But you're up there.

It is a bond for life, forever, through thick and thin. All of the future birthdays missed due to hunting season. To me dragging you to all our fishing, hunting, and dirt bike adventures. You are now mine, on the top of my priority list. But now you are also stuck with me forever.

Tristan, I'm so grateful that today you get to become my forever. For years, there was a little girl who grew up with fairy tales and happily ever afters, always dreaming of what this day would be like. She didn't know what her dress would look like. She didn't know the ceremony would be in the meadow, which, that didn't happen either. Or that she'd fall in love with a guy who'd rather be chasing elk over doing anything else. The only thing she hoped for was that one day she would find someone who loved her. And then I met you.

Our story started out like something I would read in one of my cheesy romance books, where the girl waves to a guy she's never met in a parking lot and they fall in love. I've always said stories like that never happen in real life. And yet somehow it happened to us, and I couldn't be more lucky.

T, you came into my life at the most unexpected time. As you've come to know, I like to make plans and have my life planned out months in advance. So at the time, I thought I had everything figured out. Then you came along, and all the plans I thought I wanted didn't matter anymore. You were everything I never knew I was missing, and I wouldn't change a thing.

You have taught me what it means to love and to be loved unconditionally. When I look back on that little girl with the big dreams, I know she would be so happy. Not only because she finally gets to have the wedding she always dreamed of, but because she gets to marry the man she always dreamed of and prayed for.

You have loved me every day, even when I've tested your patience and pushed your last buttons. You've never stopped caring for me. You love me when I'm at my best, but also when I'm hangry, grumpy, tired, or all of those at once, which we all know can't be easy. You never walk away. You always choose me. You give me comfort, you make me feel safe, and you make me laugh like no one ever has before.

I love how you light up when you talk about all the things you love, and how my favorite thing has become watching you do those things. I love that we can not only be each other's biggest supporters, but that we can tease and mess around with each other. I love how you have the biggest heart for everyone you meet. But more than anything, I love your laugh.

I hope we never lose the love we have for each other, and that no matter how much time passes, we always remember how we feel in this moment. I hope that we can fill our lives with many adventures and experience so much of this world together.

Tristan, I promise to love you more and more every day. To put you first and to stand by you through every high and every low, and to support your dreams and be your safe place. I promise to keep choosing you, even on the hard days. I promise to listen to all your hunting stories, even if I have no idea what you're talking about. I promise to be your biggest supporter and to always cheer you on, even if that means sharing you with the mountains and not getting to see you for weeks at a time because you have to chase the biggest elk.

Tristan, you are not just my other half, you are my whole world. Thank you for loving me the way you do and for choosing to build this life with me. I vow to walk beside you forever, to laugh with you, to grow with you, and to love you for the rest of our lives. No matter where life takes us, home will never be a place. Home will always be wherever I am with you. Thank you for choosing me to be your today, your tomorrow, and every day after.

Hello, friends and family. First, I want to thank everyone for making the journey up here to Bucks Lake. Today is a wonderful day. It's the joining of two families. I've known Tristan's family for a long time, and they are a wonderful family. As with everyone here, you want the best for your family. You try as a parent to teach your daughter and sons to make wise decisions, lifelong decisions. Well, I can say honestly, Kaitlyn, you chose the best. So if everyone will raise a glass: Tristan, welcome to the family. Kaitlyn, I'm very proud of you and love you so much. Cheers.

Before I start my two pages (sorry, I'll make it fast), I want to shout out to every single one of you for helping make this possible today, especially everybody that went up there. The DJ, the caterer, the wedding planner, Jason from Lakeshore, we could not have done that without you guys. That was just amazing.

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for being here with us today as we celebrate the marriage of Kaitlyn and Tristan. Thank you, Shelly and Tim, for everything you've done to help make this day possible, for raising such a wonderful son, and for loving and welcoming Kaitlyn into your family.

Today's one of those moments that feels like it came in the blink of an eye. I can still picture you as a little girl: full of curiosity, fearless, adventurous, and just a little feisty. I could probably stand here all night telling stories, but there are a few that always make me smile. Like the time you almost cut off your best friend's ponytail in preschool, Makayla, thankfully you kept your beautiful hair. The preschool teachers caught Kaitlyn with the scissors, holding Makayla's hair, about to make the cut. I don't know if a week ever went by that we didn't get a white slip about you from preschool.

There was also the time when you were five years old and Grandpa was watching you, and he asked you what he did to the TV remote. You looked at him and you said, "I don't know. You f*ed it up now, Grandpa." Or when your dad said he wouldn't bring back brownies and cookies if I made him go to the kindergarten parent night, your response? You looked at him and said, "Well, that's bull**." Those are the moments that still make me laugh today.

But beneath that fiery personality has always been the most beautiful heart. Kaitlyn, you have so much kindness about you, a heart full of love. You love so deeply, and you give without ever expecting anything in return. You show up for the people you love. That kind of love is rare and beautiful.

It feels like just yesterday I was holding you for the first time, praying over you, wondering who you would become. And now you're here, standing before us, beginning this beautiful new chapter in your life. From the very beginning, you have been one of the greatest gifts God has given me. You brought a kind of love into my life that I did not know was possible, a love that's unconditional and forever. Watching you grow into the woman you are today has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. You're strong, compassionate, independent, and never afraid to chase after what you want.

You were also always my little daredevil. You always wanted to ride the biggest rides, the fastest roller coasters, and when you were too short, you were absolutely heartbroken. I probably won't mention the time that you and your dad were scheming about how to get you on those rides. But it happened, stuffing your shoes with paper towels in the Disneyland bathroom. You've never been afraid to take chances, dream big, or embrace life with your whole heart.

And Tristan, you came into her life. As parents, we spend our lives hoping that someone will love our child as much as we do. Not in the same way, of course, but with the same devotion, respect, kindness, and commitment. And I know she has found that in you. Thank you for loving her, supporting her dreams, making her laugh, and standing beside her through her ups and downs.

Together, the two of you are beginning one of life's greatest adventures. My prayer is that your home will always be filled with faith, laughter, patience, forgiveness, and unconditional love. May you continue to grow together, encourage one another, and always remember that the greatest blessing in your lives is the person standing beside you.

I want you both to always remember: marriage isn't about finding the perfect person. It's about choosing each other every single day. It's about extending grace when life is difficult, celebrating together when life is joyful, forgiving quickly, laughing often, and never forgetting that you're on the same team. There will be moments of great joy, and moments that test the hell out of you. And I have no doubt that the two of you have what it takes to build a life full of love, strength, and joy.

Kaitlyn, you will always be my little girl. No matter where life takes you, how much time passes, or how your life grows, that will never change. Tristan, I don't just welcome you into our family today, I thank God for bringing you into our lives. I am grateful for the love you have for our daughter, and I am happy to call you my son-in-law.

So please raise your glasses to Kaitlyn and Tristan. May your love grow with every passing year, may your hearts remain forever connected, and may your lives be filled with endless blessings. Cherish every moment of unwavering joy, and may your greatest adventures always be the ones you share together. To the happy couple: cheers.

Well, like everything in life, I'm just going to wing it. So here we go. It might be a disaster, it might be the greatest thing you've ever heard. We'll see.

In the nineteen, almost twenty years of growing up with Kaitlyn, it's been memorable. I've been the butt of many of her jokes, like the one time she duct taped me to the wall at my aunt's house. Thank you, Ash, Nick, and Hannah, for going along with it. But it's also been a great time growing up with her. She's taught me a lot. I've learned from her, mainly from many of her mistakes. No offense, but thanks for being the older child. I learned a lot from your mistakes.

Growing up, she was an outdoors child. She always wanted to be like Katniss Everdeen and shoot a turkey with her bow. But after a few short years, she turned away from that, toward the girl she is today: in love with Disney, always chasing her dreams, and loving her family unconditionally.

And then she meets Tristan. And I go, huh? You're going out with this guy? I thought you wanted nothing to do with guys like this, guys who hunt and are outdoors. But then, as I saw them together, I realized that the love they have for each other is endless. It'll never end, and they will always love each other. So I realized, after a couple of short years of them being together, they really are the perfect couple.

My only wish for you guys is to wake up and love each other unconditionally, like you are right now. Wake up and look each other in the eye and realize that this is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. I hope that you guys grow old together. I hope that you have many memories together. And Tristan, I hope that you enjoy growing old with my sister as much as I did growing up with her. So let's raise our glass to the bride and groom, the new Mr. and Mrs.!

For all of you that don't know me, I'm Trevor. I got the role of being Tristan's best man, I'm very honored for that, by the way. Thank you very much. I'm not a speech kind of guy. I'm more of a go-off-the-top-of-my-head kind of guy... actually, just kidding. I made two. Also, if I mess up or stutter, I need you all to drink for me.

With that being said, ladies and gentlemen: I tell you, there is a time in everyone's life when you get to meet someone special. Someone who is going to love you and know you for who you are and be with you the rest of your life. And that moment was about ten years ago, Tristan, when you met me.

From that moment on, I knew we were going to be best friends. And eventually, I knew you were going to grow up to be my brother. I love you very much, bud.

Most of you know that Tristan is a hunting kind of guy. And like most great hunters, you win some and you lose some. Well, Tristan finally got his tag. I didn't know they were years in advance, I thought this one was just seasonal. And guess what? That's his beautiful wife, Kaitlyn.

Congratulations, guys, on a beautiful wedding. Also, one last thing, if I could have you guys play along. Kaitlyn, can you put your hand on the table? Tristan, can you put your hand on top of hers? Tristan, I just want you to remember this moment. This will be the first and the last time that you have the upper hand over your wife. And with that being said, guys, raise a toast to the bride and groom. Cheers!

My name is Makayla. If you don't know me, I grew up with Kaitlyn since we were like three years old, something like that. Getting into trouble, always. I mean, getting written up multiple times a week. I'm surprised we were still in daycare together. Cutting each other's hair, getting into all kinds of trouble we probably shouldn't have. Anyway, I've known her for years. I don't know much about Tristan, but I just know that he came into her life at a great time, and he makes her very happy. And yeah, I'm very happy for you guys. So congratulations. I hope you have many years of marriage. Raise a toast!

Good evening, everyone. I'm Hailey, Kaitlyn's maid of honor. I haven't known Kaitlyn for a very long time, but somehow it feels like I've known her my whole life. I met Kaitlyn about two and a half years ago through working at Renown. Our very first interaction actually happened in the break room, where she was watching Grey's Anatomy on full volume. I remember thinking: who watches TV this loudly at work, let alone in their first couple of days at a new job? But somehow that conversation, "Hi, I'm Kaitlyn, is my show too loud?", turned into another, and then another. Before we knew it, we were pretty much inseparable.

Thank you both for trusting me with your life when I invited you guys on a camping trip shortly after I met Tristan for the first time. It was so off the grid, Tristan probably thought I was going to murder him as we drove down a five-mile dirt and rocky road at dusk. But sure enough, that weekend was one for the books. It was filled with laughter and memories we will tell our kids one day.

I've had the privilege of watching them go through major milestones together, from becoming first-time parents to their fur baby Nordic, and then Ghost, to purchasing their first home together. I am so excited to see what comes next as they enter this new chapter of marriage.

One thing I learned very quickly about Kaitlyn is that she has always been a hopeless romantic and a believer in fairy tales. Long before today, she was planning her future wedding and dreaming of this day to come. Honestly, it became one of our favorite things to talk about at work. I just know how much this beautiful moment right here means to her. But as beautiful as she imagined it would be, I don't think either of us could have pictured just how perfect today would turn out.

If I had to describe Kaitlyn in one word, it would be selfless. She has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I've ever met. She's the person who celebrates your biggest accomplishments like they're her own. She was there celebrating birthdays, graduations, and all of life's exciting moments with me. But more importantly, she has always been there through the difficult moments too. She shows up with the same compassion, love, and support she gives so freely to everyone she cares about.

Kaitlyn, you have this incredible ability to make everyone around you feel like they matter. I know everyone here has experienced that in one way or another. You make people feel less alone simply by being there. That's who Kaitlyn is: she loves deeply, gives endlessly, and makes everyone around her feel important. If you've ever been lucky enough to have her in your corner, you know exactly what I mean. I guess TikTok was right, you really do meet some of your best friends at work.

Kaitlyn, thank you for every laugh, every late-night conversation, every celebration, every shoulder to cry on, and every reminder of what unconditional friendship looks like. Standing beside you today is one of my greatest honors, and you're truly the older sister I always dreamed of and wanted.

Tristan, thank you for loving Kaitlyn so well. The way you look at her, the way you encourage her, and the way you both bring out the best in each other is something truly special. The most beautiful part isn't just the flowers or the decorations, it's seeing you marry your best friend. As your friend, there is nothing I could wish for more than to see you this happy. Knowing you has shown me what a beautiful friend you are, and seeing you today shows all of us what a beautiful wife you are going to be.

I hope you continue to choose each other through every season of life. I hope your home is always filled with laughter, patience, and the comfort of knowing you found your person. And I hope that years from now, when you look back on today, you still feel the same joy that's shining on your faces right now.

So if everyone could please raise a glass: to Kaitlyn and Tristan. Thank you for reminding all of us what love, friendship, and partnership truly look like. May your marriage be full of laughter, endless adventures, unwavering support, and a lifetime of choosing each other. Here's to the life you've dreamed about, the love you found, and the forever that's just beginning.

Alright, well, my name is Caleb. I am the brother of the groom. I almost stood up when they said "brother of the bride," but it was a little confusing. (There are two Calebs!)

Well, this is a very exciting year, 2026. This is the year we're going to get two new additions to the family. For those of you who don't know, my beautiful wife and I are pregnant, so we'll be having a little one. My wife and I also live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, so we flew all the way across the country to be here for you guys, and we wouldn't have done it any differently.

I also want to say that this is an exciting day, along with it being an exciting year. July 18th: not only is it your guys' wedding, this is the day that you commit your love to each other. This is the day that you start your family. We are very excited, but this is for you guys, Tristan and Kaitlyn, to now start what you want for the rest of your life. You're committing to loving each other. And it's a 100/100 marriage.

Kaitlyn, I haven't known you very long, and I can't wait to get to know you more. It's been wonderful growing up with Tristan. What I can say, Kaitlyn, is you're marrying the most emotional brother. But with that, you're probably also marrying the most loyal one, the one who will bend over backwards for you and do whatever you need him to do.

With that being said, I just want to say: happy July 18th. Today will forever be known as Tristan and Kaitlyn's wedding anniversary. Welcome to the family.

Well, thank you all for coming and being part of this special day for our family, and for being part of the bride's family now.

Kaitlyn, you put a spark in my son's eye that just lights up a room. The smile you put on his face is breathtaking. You've become his missing half. I see the love and admiration he has for you.

Tristan. Oh, we've been through a lot. We've been through a lot. I've been your life preserver and the one that talks you off the ledge. Now I hand that over to Kaitlyn. But don't forget: your mom's still here. You wear your heart on your sleeve, and that is what I adore about you the most. After you met Kaitlyn, you told me, "Mom, she's the only one that I can be myself around. She's the one for me." I knew then that she was the one for you. Your missing half. I thank God that you guys found each other.

We are so blessed to have Kaitlyn and her family in our lives. I wish you guys all the love and happiness life will bring to you. Remember, there will be good times and bad times. Communicate and work through them together. Ask for help when you need it, we are there for you. I love you guys to the moon and back and beyond. Congratulations to Tristan and Kaitlyn.

Alright, first thing, I want to thank everybody for being here. And all of the caterers, and Jason, for getting all this set up, we need to give him a big round of applause. Welcome to Tristan and Kaitlyn's wedding.

For those who don't know me, I am Tristan's father, Tim. Kaitlyn, you're taking my hunter away. The two of us have been through a lot over the years. I've been there for every animal he has taken. Now it's for you to start your hunting journey together. But I'm here for when the kids come around. I love you guys. Congratulations. Everybody, hold up a glass for Kaitlyn and Tristan. We love you. Welcome to the family, vice versa. We love you all. Thank you.

Kaitlyn: I just want to start by saying thank you, everyone, for being here today. We asked a lot for you guys to come out here and drive from however far you came, especially Florida! It really does mean a lot. You are all our family, whether you're extended family, cousins, or best friends, you are all family to us. I want to give a huge shout-out to everyone who helped us make this day possible. I know we had a little hiccup in the road today, and for everyone that kept me calm, thank you. This day is exactly how I dreamed it, and I couldn't have asked for anything better. Thank you to all my bridesmaids for putting up with my shenanigans these past couple of months and making my day great.

Tristan: Basically what she said. Thank you guys for all coming out. She had seven pages; I had two and a half. Just kidding. But thank you, everyone. Thank you to Valerie right there, she did a lot. And Jason, Barry, and Paul, I know they're not here anymore, but everyone, thank you.