So finally, the wedding day is here. Your little darling is getting married, and heart is whirling with mixed emotions. On the one hand, you are happy that your daughter is off to start her own family. On the other hand, you feel some sadness because  your little angels’ flying away to another nest from today for a completely new life, without your protection, care and comfort.

To make things simpler for you we created our Father of the Bride Speech E-Book. We created 20 sample speeches and some helpful pointers for writing the speech. We like to think that our speeches and guidance only helps you put your best foot forward in front of your friends and family.

Of course, for every father you want to fit into the archetypical strong father mold. Your daughter has leaned on you for years and years. Now, as her wedding day approaches it is important to retain that image of strength and guidance.  So shed away all those nervous feelings and ignore the flying butterflies.

Your job on her wedding day is to happily hand over your daughter’s hand in marriage to your deserving son-in-law. This Father of the Bride Speech E-Book aims at providing you with solutions for a classic speech for your lil’ darling. Some of the aspects covered in this E-Book are speech samples, body etiquette, overcoming your emotions, and other related issues.
From nervous amateur to seasoned MC, this Father of the Bride Speech E-Book provides you with the needed insight on how to structure your speech. The right openers, hilarious one-liners and touching toasts. You will be amazed at how the book brings out the best in you, no matter what style is.

Like all-important things in life, your daughter’s wedding needs pre- planning and adequate preparation. Sometimes it is better to start planning months before the event so that you are well prepared. While going through the various sections of this EBook, you will notice that you are preparing yourself as an individual for a grand celebration, well in advance.

A wedding ceremony is incomplete without wedding speeches and toasts. Wedding speeches form a part of the many traditions that a wedding ceremony must follow. Though it has been mandatory for the men to make all the wedding speeches on the D-day, these days even brides and brides maid’s go on to give their wedding speeches. The first one to start a series of wedding speeches in a traditional wedding ceremony is always the father of the bride.
The father of the bride raises a toast to the newly weds and guests and gives his speech which is followed by the groom who must thank him for opening the wedding speeches at the wedding ceremony. Writing a father of the bride wedding speech is not as difficult as it seems though. A little research and creativity can land you with a father of the bride wedding speech that is sure to leave everyone with a smile on their faces. A winning shot at the wedding of your darling angel assured. Remember, that the father is the pillar of strength and a source of constant guidance for the bride. It is therefore of particular importance on how he conducts himself before and after the ceremony; how he mingles with the crowd; how he addresses the gathering. In a nutshell, everything, just everything to make the grand wedding grander can be done with the help of a simple speech.

One thing that you need to do here is imagine Steve Martin in the classic movie ‘Father of the Bride’ and you would realize how much you could empathize with that character. However, it is the day when your darling would be waiting to put her arms
around you after the speech, and cry tears of joy. The emotions of happiness and parting have to be merged in an ecstatic combination in the speech.

I received an interesting question last week.

“Alex, how do you write a wedding speech for a wedding that stems from an office romance? Is it a sensitive issue?”

First of all, most office romances are kept secret. Every corporation has a different policy about office relationships but most parties like to keep the romance away from the prying eyes of coworkers. Usually, everyone in the office knows that there is a relationship and the two lovebirds still try to keep it a secret.

However, when we’re dealing with a wedding speech, it is obvious that the relationship is out in the open. There is no need to tip toe around the fact that two colleagues met and fell in love while on the job. Happens all the time.

However, there are some landmines that you should look out for.

First of all, if the relationship was kept secret for a number of months, do not mention it. It adds little to your wedding speech and it will only make it seem as though the bride and groom were doing something dishonest. You do not want to paint them out to be some sly lovers having a rendez-vous in a cheap motel room.

Secondly, office colleagues have a tendency to tell inside jokes in their wedding speeches.  Remember that you are speaking to an audience that for the most part does not know you.  Stay away from office jokes unless you can frame it as interesting and relevant anecdote.

Here’s an example of how one might incorporate a work story into the wedding speech. Notice how the story is relevant because it highlights a personal characteristic about the bride (witty) and it also talks about the first time that the bride and groom met.

The first time Tom saw Liz she was over at the water cooler talking to some of the secretaries, and Tom assumed she was one of the new hired secretaries. We had both been nervous about the new department head who was due to begin work that day and we wanted to make a good impression. It turns out, Tom did make a good impression on our new boss.
It was just after lunch when the boss’s secretary asked Tom and me to come into the office. We both felt we had our chance to get in a good first impression and score some much-needed points for possible promotion. I had the nerve to enter first and saw that the boss’s chair was facing away from us, so I blurted out, “It’s great to finally meet you, sir.”
To my horror the chair suddenly swung around and in the chair was Liz. Her immediate words, in typical witty Liz style, were, “And it’s likewise nice to meet you, ma’am.”
Tom obviously played his initial meeting with Jane much cooler than I did, which I suppose is one reason that we’re honoring the two of them tonight.

And in the end, my best friend Tom and my spectacular boss Liz– yes, Liz, I’m completely sucking up right now – are ready to start their new lives together as husband in life.

In this post, I’m going to break down a sample best man speech into the individual components to give you an idea of how a simple best man speech can be written quickly.

The first part of the best man speech is the introduction. The introduction is similar for every type of wedding speech.  Basically, you want to identify yourself as half of the people in the audience will not know you.

Here’s a sample introduction from a best man speech:

“Ladies and gentleman, I’d like to take a few moments of your time to first thank all of you for being here to share this wonderful day with Robert and Sophie. I must pause to say that the bridesmaids are looking wonderful, and are only outshone by Sophie, who I’m sure everyone agrees looks stunning  today. What a beautiful bride!
Actually, I’m still trying to figure out what Robert did to deserve this beauty.
It’s been a huge privilege to be asked to be the best man, and I couldn’t say no, since a few years ago I conned Robert into doing the honors at my wedding, where he had a lot of fun telling embarrassing stories about my childhood. So, now it’s my turn. Revenge is sweet, my friend!
For those of you who don’t know, Robert and I grew up next to each other, and I really can’t remember a time when we weren’t best friends. We’ve been through everything together, from pre-school, to the horrors of kindergarten, middle school and braces, to high school, college, and now even weddings.”

As we can see from the opening few paragraphs of this best man speech, a few things have been accomplished:

1. the best man complimented the bride
2. the best man introduced himself as the best man and explained his relationship to Robert – (childhood friends)
3. he established the tone of the wedding speech which is light hearted

“I couldn’t have wished for more from a best friend my entire life, and he’s always been there for me. Sophie, I know he’s a rock solid man who will always be there for you now.
For all of you who don’t know, John and Sophie actually met in a very unique way. They both happen to frequent the same gym, and the first day that he saw Sophie walk in the door of that gym, he sort of walked, or fell rather, right off the back of the treadmill. So, I guess you can say he’s the one that fell first.
For some reason Sophie actually said yes to that first date, and things just progressed from here. In fact, ever since that first date, I haven’t stopped hearing about her. I have to say, Sophie, you’ve made my best friend a better man, and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather see in his life today.”

In the body of the wedding speech, the best man tells a relevant story about the bride and groom.

1. he tells a quick story (only 30 seconds) about how the bride and groom met and fell in love. The audience cares about this type of story as most people have no idea about how the bride and groom met.
2. he compliments the bride again with a warm hearted comment about how the bride has made the groom a better man
3. the best man has stayed consistent with the tone of the speech which is short and sweet

“So today, it’s my extreme pleasure to ask everyone to stand once again and raise your glasses to Robert and Sophie. I wish you well, my friends. May your life be one of laughter, joy, and love together – forever!”

Finally in the last part of the wedding speech, the best man gives a toast to the bride and groom. It is a simple toast that wishes the couple well.

As you can see, when you break down a best man speech into 3 simple parts (intro, story, toast) it is an easy task. If you’re nervous about public speaking, using a short speech like the one above is a great strategy.

I wanted to share a free best man speech with my loyal readers. Please click on the banner if you want to see 20 more best man speeches.

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I cannot think of a time when I’ve been more terrified of saying the wrong thing. You see, Mark is my best friend, and this is the biggest day of his life so far. That’s a lot of pressure for me not to screw this up. I have already been threatened with the “beats” in the parking lot if I say anything inappropriate.

So if I seem nervous, that’s because I am. I’m over here sweating and Mark and Melissa are just laughing and having a good time.  The expression on their faces says it all. These two are totally in love, aren’t they?
Believe it or not, these two have always had that expression on their faces, whenever they were around each other from the day they first met. I remember that night vividly. Mark and I were down at our favorite bar for the night, and spotted these two girls sitting by themselves, so we stroll over and sit down next to them and start talking—don’t worry the story gets even worse. So we’re going through the usual small talk and the girl I’m talking to is clearly not that interested in me. It was Sally, in case you’re wondering, she’s over there with the other bridesmaids. Don’t worry Sally, I’m not bitter. As a matter of fact you and all of the bridesmaids look stunning in those outfits.

Back to the story – so I struck out with Sally, but John and Melissa just clicked. The bad part came when the girls’ dates came and chased Mark and I off–but not before Mark got Melissa’s phone number.
From pretty much that night on, they were inseparable. You could see it in their eyes that they were absolutely in love with each other, and you can still see that today. Just look, aw come on, don’t look away Melissa. See those beautiful smiles everyone? Those are the smiles of two people completely in love.

It is my duty to leave you with a little bit of advice about marriage.  “Love one another and you will be happy.  It’s as simple and as difficult as that.”

So on to the part I’m sure you’re all looking forward to, the drinking and the dancing! But before we start the celebration in earnest, first please raise your glasses high for my best friend Mark, and his beautiful new wife Melissa.

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If you enjoyed this free best man speech and are looking for more best man speeches, click on the banner below!

An effective technique for opening your speech is to use a quotation about love and marriage. The opening is the hook of your speech. It is what draws in the audience. It is absolutely crucial that you nail this part of your speech. You want to spend the majority of your time writing and rehearsing the opening and the conclusion. The reason is that after a few days, the only parts of your speech that will most likely be remembered are the opening and conclusion.
There are three primary objectives to any opening. Firstly, you must grab the audience’s attention. The second objective is to give the audience an idea of what you will be speaking about. Finally, the opening also sets the tone for the speech. The tone might be humorous, sentimental or anything else but you do want to set the tone. It can be difficult to follow a speech that bounces around. I remember reading one speech that was hysterical and then shifted into some serious philosophical thoughts on love.
However, a well placed quotation can be used in the body or even in the toast of the speech. The reason quotations are usually found in the introduction is because the speaker does not want to disrupt the flow of the speech. It is not important that the quotation is famous but rather that the quotation used is relevant. For example, I remember one quotation for a Best Man speech that used
the quotation by an unknown author: ‘Love is a symbol of eternity.  It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end.”

I remember another wedding speech where the speaker actually related the quotation to the couple who was sitting by his side. As they were staring into each other’s eyes he said, Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said, “Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.”

I thought it would be useful to dissect some actual video of a wedding speech. I’ll provide the color commentary of what the wedding speaker has done well, and offer some criticism as well.

In this video we have a maid of honor speech delivered by the sister of the bride.

First of all, the speaker makes eye contact with the bride. This is often a problematic area during wedding toasts. Oftentimes, the speaker will deliver the toast to the audience. The correct protocol is actually to make contact with the person being toasted.

She tells a personal story about the girls used to sing the lyrics from a song about “finding the one.” She then relates this story to the bride finding her husband. Notice how the story is relevant to the wedding? There are a million different stories that a sister could tell about her older sister. However, the story should be relevant to the wedding in order to be effective.

The maid of honor made a light hearted speech that made the audience laugh. However, she was not trying to tell the funniest wedding joke of all time. You don’t need to be funny to deliver a funny wedding speech because the audience wants to laugh. Look at how easy the laughs were. One should always remember that a wedding audience is not a like the audience at a standup comedy club.

She compliments the groom and tells a story about the first time that she met the groom (Vinny). It was genuine and lighthearted.

She finishes the speech with a traditional wedding joke about the bride always being right.

Look at the length of this maid of honor speech – 3 minutes!  I keep harping on this but it is so crucial that your wedding speech stay within the 3-5 minute time slot. This is a concise, heartfelt maid of honor speech that did not require any more time.

Here’s a sample best man speech that is short, slightly humorous and easy to deliver. It was written to be delivered by a still single best man.

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It’s time for the best man’s speech everyone – and that’s me. This is my chance to tell a few old stories about my friend Bill, embarrass him in front of his new bride and her family, that sort of thing.

Oh, and I shouldn’t forget to compliment the bridesmaids, who look so beautiful in those dresses!
Weddings always have a special air about them but this reception has been most festive. An open bar and some of Bill’s rugby friends is most likely the reason.

Now I must say I’ve been waiting almost two years for Bill and Lisa to tie the knot. I mean really, it took you two long enough! You could have gotten married the day after you met and you know it.

I remember the day when Bill first brought Lisa to my cottage. I watched them snuggling on the dock, under the stars and at that point I knew my dear friend Bill was cooked. He’d found his soul mate and it was obvious to me then and it’s obvious to me now.
Well why did they wait for two years? Oh, just to be sure you say. No, you were sure from day one and you know it. You see, that is what’s special about these two. They have always been sure about each other. I have never met two people who were so right for each other. Don’t blush now, you two know its true. You see these two first
met when we were hanging out back in college.
Two years later, here we are. We’re here because they decided they wanted to be here, and they made it happen. And I know that is how their marriage will be… when they decide it’s going to work, then it will. That is
just the way that they are.
So with that mind, let’s raise our glasses high and wish these two a lifetime of happiness. It’s an easy toast to make, because I know they are going to make a lifetime of happiness for each other, no matter what. I cannot think of any two people more meant for each other. Here’s to the new Mr. & Mrs. Thompson!

Writing best man speeches should not be viewed as a daunting task. Most men who have little experience writing best man speeches also have little experience with public speaking. Aubsequently, they experience a lot of anxiety as the wedding day approaches.

Most men cannot even see that being chosen to write best man speeches is actually an honor and not an obligation. After all, both the bride and the groom have selected you among all their friends to deliver heartwarming toast in front of all of their friends and family.

When writing best man speeches the starting point is always the same. You need to brainstorm anecdotes and feelings about both the bride and the groom. The best way to jog your memory for content ideas is ask yourself the right questions.

First of all, why do you think that the groom has chosen you to be his best man? How long have you known the groom and on what basis have you developed a close friendship? You’ll want to describe your relationship as many members of the audience will not know why you were chosen to be best man. For example, perhaps you developed your relationship by playing league baseball or maybe you became friends because you are both members of the same tennis club. You want to include at least one sentence in best man speeches about the nature of your relationship.

The second brainstorming exercise for best man speeches is to come up with at least three adjectives that describe the groom. For example, you might think of the groom as adventurous, generous and fun loving. Chances are that the three adjectives that you used to describe the groom will also be how the audience perceives him. Once you have these three adjectives you can then start trying to remember some stories that help to add further color to your description of the groom. For example, if one of your adjectives is that the groom is generous you would then try and think of one or two stories that display the groom’s generosity. For example, maybe the groom has a tendency to pick up the bar tab after the league baseball game or maybe he donated a large amount of money when you were fundraising for cancer research in university. Of course, most of these stores will not make it into the body of your speech. The idea is only to come up with potential stories that you can tell during your best man speech.

Finally, when writing best man speeches it is important to say a few words about the groom’s relationship with the bride. You might want to comment on the first time that you met the bride or even the first time that you heard about the bride. Usually, you should be able to remember the first time that the groom mentioned that he was dating the bride. Try to remember the specific words that he used describe her.

After you have gone through this brief brainstorming exercise you should have a few pages of notes for your best man speech. You can then start plugging in your these  personal anecdotes into best man speeches examples.

One of the things that is difficult in the father of the bride speech, groom speech or best man speech is how to compliment the bride.

I’ve compiled some compliments for the bride. Generally, you want to have one paragraph of your father of the bride speech pay homage to the bride.

1. To say that Sarah looks radiant, is putting it mildly, but both of your lights burn bright enough to make us hardened cynics believe that love is more than just chemical impulses and emotional responses—it is divine.
2. As I watched Tom and Sarah, it was so easy to see why Tom fell in love with this lovely lady. There isn’t a more perfect match for him in the world. Just watch them together and you can see the way she brings a smile to his face and light to his eyes, and it’s so easy to see how happy they are together. Sarah is a wonderful, beautiful, warm lady, and she deserves the best, and Tom is definitely the best!
3. Sarah, you look beautiful tonight and Tom is extremely blessed to have found such a wonderful friend and lover to spend the rest of his life with.
4. I knew Sarah as well, and remembered thinking, hey, she is kinda cool for a girl. I mean, how many pretty little things do you know of that could climb a tree, arm-wrestle and spit with the best of the neighborhood boys? I tell you, I felt more protected in Sarah’s company than surrounded by my toughest brothers. Then one-day a surprising thing happened—Sarah walked outside of her house on Glendale Drive and she had grown into stunning beauty—and I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
5. Tom started gushing about this new woman he met in a coffee shop.  When I met Sarah, I knew why he was so happy. Sarah, you are a remarkable woman and an absolute doll, a perfect match for my long time friend and partner in business…and crime.

You can use these sample compliments for the father of the bride speech, best man speech and even tweak it for the groom speech. The idea is to find at least one characteristic about the bride in addition to her beauty that you can compliment.  It is important to actually believe the compliment in order to be genuine during your speech. Even if you don’t particularly like the bride, you should be able to find one quality that you would like to mention.  Examples that I commonly use are: generosity, kindness, fun loving, adventurous, warm hearted, intelligent and humble.

One of the major points of anxiety before any wedding is having to deliver a poignant and touching wedding toast. The public speaking components of most weddings is actually viewed as the least enjoyable part of the wedding by the bride, groom and the best man. The reason for this of course is because the wedding toast is the part of the evening that has a tendency to bring up the most anxiety. In this blog post I’m going to give some tips on how to deliver a wedding toast with poise and confidence.

The most important thing that you will notice in most wedding toasts are that this speaker lacks structure in his speech. In other words what you commonly see are different ideas that are stitched together. You rarely see a coherent speech with a beginning, middle, and an end. Even though a wedding toast is a relatively short speech at only 5 min. in duration it still should have a solid structure that the audience can follow.

The first part of your speech should be the introduction. This is no different than writing an essay for college. In this introduction and you will want to tell the audience who you are and what your relationship is to the bride or groom. Even if you are the father of the bride it is likely that only half of a wedding audience will actually know who you are. Thus, it is important to introduce yourself and tell the audience how you are related to the bride or groom.

The majority of your wedding toast will be focused on the body of the speech. You should aim to write for about 3 min. of this part of your wedding toast. The body of your speech will generally include a funny story, anecdotes or some kind words about the person that you are toasting. I generally like to only focus on one story because there is not enough time just tell a specific story and have another story with lots of detail in one short 5 min. speech.

Finally, the last part of your wedding toast will be the actual toast! In modern times, what you commonly see our speakers using a famous quote rather than a formal toast. For example, you might see a speaker deliver quote by someone like Mahatma Gandhi or John Lennon rather than deliver an old 18th-century British toast. It really is all a preference. What is important, is that you end the wedding speech with a toast and have the audience raise their glasses in honoring the bride and the groom or whichever member of the wedding party you would like to toast.