Speeches are a part of every wedding, but one officiant’s speech to a groom ahead of a ceremony in Santa Inez, California, has the internet aghast.
When Danielle Hatten finally got her hands on the video from her October 2024 wedding, she anticipated getting to relive the touching moments of their special day. What she didn’t expect was to come across the protective, heartfelt words of her uncle, Jerry Roxas, to her groom, Ryan Hatten, just before she walked down the aisle
“Listen to my uncle (our officiant) threaten my husband right before our wedding ceremony,” she wrote in a post on TikTok showing the moment her future husband stood at the end of the aisle next to her uncle.
Both stand shoulder to shoulder as they wait for her and the microphones catch what’s being said.
“So from this moment forward, you’re not going to refer me to you as ‘The Funcle’ or ‘Uncle MC’ anymore,” Roxas can be seen uttering in the clip. “I want you to refer to you as the executioner because …”
Spotting some wedding guests, Roxas stops to instruct Ryan Hatten to multitask while listening.
“Oh look, wave to the crowd, say ‘hi’ to them, here come your parents,” he says with a bit of cheer before dipping back into his warning. “If you ever, ever hurt my niece, physically or emotionally, I will hunt you down, cut off your manhood and drag it behind my motorcycle, all right?”
“I literally had no idea this conversation happened,” Danielle Hatten tells TODAY.com in an interview. “I found out about it when we got our videography back a week ago. My husband and I were sitting here watching our highlight reel, and then we saw the full ceremony. The first thing I hear is this little spiel from Uncle Jerry, and I was like, ‘What the heck is this?’”
The “spiel” now has 3.6 million views and thousands of comments on the platform.
“I lost it when he told him to wave,” one user commented. “My coworker said he did the same thing to my fiancé, but he said that people would never find his body.”
The moment stirred up plenty of laughs, with a few objections.
“Seems like a bad time to have the conversation it’s bros wedding day (too),” another replied.
To this, Roxas tells TODAY.com that the moment was all in good fun and, while improvised and a surprise to his niece, not actually a shock to Ryan Hatten or the videographers. Roxas explains that his relationship with Ryan Hatten is often one where they share a laugh, and his speech was a chance to keep things lighthearted while also expressing his love and protectiveness for his niece.
“I told Ryan ahead of time, ‘Hey, we’re going to be miked up, and I’m going to say something. Just roll with it,’” Roxas explains. “He didn’t know exactly what I was going to say, but he trusted me to keep it fun.”
He added that his speech was all about being a little playful and wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary for members of his family.
“I have a close relationship with all of my nieces and nephews, but Danielle and I are especially close,” he said. “I wanted to have that ‘protective uncle’ moment in a way that reflected our family’s sense of humor.”
Danielle Hatten says she vouches for this part of her family’s dynamic.
