If you are a bride and you plan on delivering a speech on your wedding day, or if you are coordinating the people delivering speeches at your wedding, then this is for you! Today we’re sharing amazing wedding speech tips for brides!
A massive thank you to this week’s wedding expert, Melanie from Instanza – check out her tips below.
Episode breakdown
Decide who’s giving a speech
Who traditionally gives a wedding speech and roughly what should they cover?
The traditional order of speeches is quite outdated and doesn’t account for brides delivering a speech, mixed gender wedding parties, same sex couples and so on.
The traditional order is:
- Father of the Bride
- Father of the Groom
- Groom
- Best Man
Here’s a more modern way of doing things:
- Parents of the couple (together or separately)
- Friends or siblings of the couple (could be a variation of your wedding party)
- The couple (either together or separately)
Here’s what they should cover:
Parents:
- Welcome guests and thank them for coming
- Welcome their child’s partner into the family
- Compliment their child
- Share why you feel the couple is so well paired
- Toast the newlyweds
Friends or siblings:
- Compliment the rest of the wedding party
- Compliment the couple and share stories about them
- Read out messages from absent friends and family, where appropriate
- Lead a toast to the happy couple
The couple:
- Thank guests for attending
- Thank both sets of parents
- Say a few kind words to the wedding party and siblings
- Toast your partner’s parents
- End by saying something sweet about your partner
Work out when you’d like to have your speeches
Different options – some before mains (but after starters) then the rest after mains (before dessert).
Timing – how to get everyone to stick to the time limit.
Communicate clearly and ahead of time – some speech givers like to prepare photo montages or songs and these special items take time to prepare.
Things to communicate to everyone before the day:
- Is there anything that each person should cover in their speech? You can refer to the list of traditional speech content or create your own!
- Tell each person when they will deliver their speech. They’ll want to know who’s going before them and which portion of the night is designated for speeches – and we advise that they hold off on drinks until after they’ve given their speech.
- Let them know about the equipment that’s available to them – a microphone on a mic stand? Or just a microphone? A lectern for their notes? If they are preparing visual aids, will there be a projector and screen?
- Tell them how long their speech should be! This may be different for each person, but we recommend aiming for 3 minutes and definitely not going over 10 minutes!
Tips for brides delivering a speech
A huge thank you to Melanie from Instanza for sharing her very practical wedding speech tips for brides:
- If the thought of making a wedding speech makes you feel nervous, that’s ok! Make your decision and then stick with it.
- For those who want to make a speech, you can set the pace.
- Plan your speech well in advance – start thinking about this 4-6 weeks beforehand. Tick the box before the other things become a priority.
- If you don’t know where to start, hire a professional.
- Practice, practice, practice.
- On the day, steady on the liquor!
- Take a big breath, start your speech and hold the microphone like an ice-cream, talk how you normally would, look at the wall at the back of the room and just relax.
