Father of the Bride Speech Etiquette

by Alex Thornton on July 26, 2010

Here are some tips about father of the bride speech etiquette that will help you prepare for your upcoming wedding. Etiquette is an overlooked topic for most father of the brides and you won’t want to miss these tips.

Often times, father of the bride etiquette is the last thing on the mind of most men.  The attitude is usually “I paid for the wedding so I can pretty much say whatever I damn well please.” Most men spend the majority of their time on the speech structure or outline and not enough time on etiquette.

Here are a few tips to ensure that you do not embarrass yourself with poor father of the bride speech etiquette.

First of all, it is important to keep your speech within the proper time frame. Traditional etiquette means that you should only speak for about five minutes which is about 650 typed words. If you ramble on and get off points you will not only annoy some of the guests in the audience but you will also be taking away time from the other speakers.

Of course you will want a little bit of humor in your speech but you should tread carefully with embarrassing stories about your daughter. Her wedding day is a sensitive time and she wants to look good in front of the groom’s family. You want to make sure that your embarrassing story about her past is not something that she is sensitive about. The best bet is to double check your material with your wife.

Finally, my last tip for father of the bride speech etiquette is to warmly welcome the groom into the family. Even if you absolutely despise the groom and you are severely disappointed that he is marrying her you still must welcome the groom and the family. It is the gentlemanly thing to do. I have been at weddings for the father of the bride has neglected to welcome groom into the family and guests were talking about how the father of the bride is unhappy about his daughter’s choice of spouse.

If you’re looking for more tips about the father of the bride speech and wedding toast etiquette our guidebook has dozens of great tips.

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Best Man Toast

by Alex Thornton on July 26, 2010

The easiest way to understand what you need to write for your best man speech is to break down a few examples of a Best Man Toast.

There are four major parts of the best man toast. The introduction, stories about the groom, jokes about the groom, and funny quotes or toasts to finish the speech.

I am going to give you a best man toast example for each section.

Example Of Introduction:

“Good evening ladies and gentleman, I am (your name). I have been given the privilege of being the best man for my dear brother (groom name)’s wedding tonight.

Part of my duty as best man is to say a few kind words about my brother. As I was preparing this speech I realized that I have never said anything nice about him. It is not that he is a bad guy; it is just the nature of our brotherly love. Since I’m not looking to get beaten up in the parking lot I will only mention the good things. Yes, I am that scared of our mother!”

Best Man Toast Example Story

“I remember when we backpacked through Europe one summer. We rented mopeds and John thought that it would be a good idea to try and ride the moped on the beach. Of course anyone with any sense knows that you can’t ride a moped on sand. He revved the engine and front of about 20 beautiful bikini clad girls he tried to maneuver the moped on the beach. He was wobbly like a drunken sailor and eventually fell flat on his face, the moped crushing his leg. He then couldn’t lift the moped out of the sand and needed the assistance of five strange men from Greece who were laughing at him hysterically. In fact the entire beach was pointing and laughing at him.”

Best Man Toast Example Joke

“From now on, Tom won’t have any more chances to get himself into trouble as Sherry is reported to be a strict disciplinarian. She will ensure that he wakes up at 5 a.m to do 100 push-ups and sit-ups each day if he even forgets to take out the garbage. I think that if he messes up the first dance, he’ll be washing dishes by the end of the night.”

Best Man Toast

“There is an old couple that used to live near my parents. They were ninety years old and still madly in love after 65 years of marriage. I asked the woman for the secret to their marital success. She said, “I learned to agree to disagree with my husband.” I asked her husband what the secret was and he said “whatever she said – I agree.” Sounds simple but it’s not. To my dear friend Robert and his new wife Nancy if you can master that simple lesson you too will be madly in love in 65 years.”

You should read this article if you are unsure if your funny best man speech material is suitable for a wedding.

You can download more examples of best man toasts that will speed up your writing process considerably.

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Funny Best Man Speech

by Alex Thornton on July 26, 2010

Funny best man speeches are what every best man wants to deliver. As best man, you are expected to lighten the mood of the reception during your speech. The audience expects you to razz and roast the groom. This is a wedding tradition that is at least 100 years old.

To make your best man speech funny you need good content and proper delivery.

For content you would include funny memories you shared with the groom or funny one-liners and quotations. If you are worried about what not to include in your humorous best man speech

To write a funny best man speech I would like to first focus on the topics that are not funny. The most common mistake is for the best man to talk about the groom’s womanizing past. A great rule of thumb for writing the funny best man speech is that you should never mention another girl that the groom has dated. The only exception might be a crush that the groom had in second-grade.

You should also tread carefully with stories of public drunkenness. Most often these types of stories are not appropriate for wedding speeches.

In writing your funny best man speech the other area that is off-limits our jokes about the bride. Some men can deftly make a gentle joke about the bride but most men are simply too clumsy in order to pull this off with tact. Stay away from jokes about the bride and focus on roasting the groom.

Your choices for humor will largely be either stories from the grooms past or quirky character traits or flaws. Read this article to help you come up with ideas for your funny best man speech. For examples of funny best man speech content, you can start with this article.

Delivery of your funny best man speech requires that you pause and give the audience a chance to laugh. Often, people are nervous and they rush through the speech. As the audience catches the punch line and starts to laugh the best man is already on to his next joke. Pause and let the joke soak in before you move on.

You can download more best man speeches that will speed up your writing process considerably.

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Order of Wedding Speeches

July 23, 2010

The wedding speech order is a historical tradition. It is important to understand the customary order of the wedding speeches and the modern changes to the wedding speech order in order to understand wedding etiquette. The formal order of the wedding speeches is: 1. father of the bride 2. the groom 3. the best man [...]

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Wedding Speech Jokes

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Funny Wedding Speech

July 23, 2010

Creating a funny wedding speech is a little bit more effort than a standard speech.  Most of us get quite nervous at the thought of adding humor to a wedding speech. What if you tell a joke and nobody laughs? When writing a funny wedding speech try to focus on humorous stories rather than jokes [...]

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Maid of Honor Wedding Speeches

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Father Of The Bride Wedding Speeches

July 23, 2010

Father of the Bride wedding speeches is a great launching pad for your wedding speech. Personalize a template by entering your unique information where you see (brackets). If you want a breakdown on the five different parts of a father of the bride speech, check out our post on how to write a father of [...]

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Father of the Bride Toast

July 23, 2010

Father of the bride toasts are one of the most eagerly anticipated speeches of the evening. The structure of the speech is similar to matter what type of toast, you plan to deliver. You can view an example of a father of the bride toast that follows a traditional structure. You will first welcome all [...]

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Father of the Bride Jokes

July 23, 2010

You might want to add some father of the bride jokes to your wedding speech. Jokes and comedic stories are excellent ways for ending your speech. The father of the bride speech is about 5 to 7 minutes meaning that any long jokes will not be well-suited. You should focus on witty one-liners in order [...]

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