Many people worry and labour for hours over how to compose their wedding speech, don’t! The wedding speech can be handled easily and well delivered with confidence.

A well structured wedding speech will have three main areas; an opening comment, the main speech, a closing comment and toast. When you are writing your wedding speech it is easier to make a list of items that you will include for each of these three main areas. Each speaker at a wedding has a small number of items that protocol suggests should be included within their speech, so these are always a good place to start when making your list of items for inclusion in the speech.

A good wedding speech will be neither too short nor too long. The former suggesting that you don’t have enough to say in celebration of the wedded couple’s special day and the former creating a risk of becoming boring or repetitive. An acceptable average time for a good wedding speech is seven minutes - which will give you the opportunity to say about 1,000 words at an even pace of delivery.

To compose your wedding speech, take a blank sheet of paper and divide the page into three sections (beginning, or opening remarks – middle, or main speech that you will give – end, your concluding remarks and proposed toast). Under each of the headings note those items that your speech is traditionally expected to include (leave space between to insert other items of choice), we’ve listed the items below for each of the main wedding speakers:

FATHER OF THE BRIDE:

Thank the guests for attending

Thank those who contributed to arranging or the finances of the wedding

Compliment the bride on her looks and her choice of husband

Welcome the groom to the family

Toast the bride and groom (at the conclusion of the speech)

THE GROOM:

Thank the father of the bride for his kind comments

Thank the guests for attending the wedding

Thank both the bride and groom’s parents (in particular, the bride’s parents for raising such a lovely daughter)

Thank the best man for his performing his duties at the wedding

Toast the bridesmaids (at the conclusion of the speech)

THE BEST MAN:

Thank the groom on behalf of the bridesmaids for his toast

Congratulate the bride and groom on their marriage

Read messages sent by those unable to attend the wedding

Toast the bride and groom (at the conclusion of the speech)

When you have listed the essential items for your speech you can then start to add those things that you choose to include in what you propose to say. For example, the father of the bride may wish to include special thanks to others who have made the wedding day a success (caterers, minister, etc), relate a couple of anecdotes about his daughter growing up and offer some advice to the couple on married life. The groom can include special praise for his bride, make special remarks about those who have played an important role in arranging the wedding and take the opportunity to introduce and say a few special words about the best man. The best man may wish to include a few, tasteful, light hearted stories about the groom, an anecdote or two about the bride (if you know her well enough) and to relate some humorous stories about marriage in general – ensuring that the best man’s speech remains tasteful and tactful, even if light hearted, throughout.

When you have made your list of points that you will include in the wedding speech, you can go through the list and start to formulate what you will say on each item. By the time you have reached the end of your list you should easily have written about 1,000 words, which will fill the time that you need to be speaking at the wedding reception. You may even be faced with the dilemma of what to take out of the speech because it became far too long!