First comes love, then comes marriage — then comes the best man to steal the bride away from the groom at the wedding?

Like a story from an early 2000’s romantic movie, a best man at a wedding in Illinois confessed his love for the bride in a drunken speech as he dished out to toast to the newlyweds. The two were long time friends, having met in High School and even were each other’s wingmen by setting each up with dates. But in the midst of all this, the bride to be Desiree White did not know that her friend Bryant, harboured feelings towards her.

After showing him a picture of her boyfriend at the time, Bryant immediately recognized the kid as someone who shared the same lunch time as him. The three formed a tight buddies bond shortly thereafter.“Bryant and my ex-husband became best friends and, because they were guys, they did a lot together. They did everything together,” White said, insisting that she did not harbour any romantic feelings for her now-husband during their formative years.

He said, ‘I remember the first moment I saw Desiree, I loved her. I fell in love with her. I knew she had to be mine. I thought she was the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life,’” White, from Illinois, told Kennedy News and Media of Bryant’s best man’s speech during her 2010 matrimony.

“He said, ‘She’s the best person I’ve ever met. I’ve never met anyone like her. Then I found out she already had a boyfriend and I thought I needed to find out a way to get her, but then I met [White’s ex-husband] and we became friends,’” she recalled.

But she and her ex sat side by side, slack-jawed, as Bryant poured out his heart in front of them and their 200 wedding guests. There was quite a bit of embarrassment after his admission. A wave of awkwardness then overcame the room, White remembered, saying, “Everyone was kind of laughing — and then it got quiet.”

But Desiree remembers the moment he walked in and saw her in her wedding dress, “On the wedding day, I walked into the living room, right when I was done getting ready with my wedding dress on and my hair done. Bryant came into my parents’ house and froze and stared at me,” she recounted.

“I said, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ He said I looked beautiful. I’d never had a moment of him looking at me like that.” That was probably the moment that he finally needed to do something I guess.

After this whole fiasco, the bride eventually realised he was the obvious choice for her and after her marriage fell apart, for entirely unrelated issues, the two eventually got together and now are married with four kids.

This is to give hope to all those still in the Friendzone, THERE IS STILL HOPE!