Who should speak at a wedding? Most people would say nobody, especially the Bride & Groom, their wedding party and more especially the wedding venue manager / coordinator. The speeches can take up to 30-60 minutes. Some wedding guests have witnessed speeches that take up to two hours to complete and no matter how good the speeches are this is simply not acceptable for many reasons. These many reasons (obvious to us all) have the potential to ruin a wedding evening / night and leave the speeches as leaving a negative memory of the entire wedding. At the most common of weddings, there can be up to nine people speak (in no particular order):
- Celebrant 1
- Father of the Bride
- Father of the Groom
- Bridemaid/s
- Groomsman/men
- Bride
- Groom
- Bestman
- Celebrant 2
If each speak for five minutes (which is a very short speech) and that is excluding interruptions like applause and banter between speaker and the audience, that can be a total of 45 minutes. Acceptable, but rear that all those speakers would only take that short period of time to speak (and I never included the Master of Ceremony, Bestman speaker introduction / thanking time). If you ask any wedding venue manager / coordinator, most will officially say that there should only be three people from the wedding party that speak, namely:
- The Father of the Bride
- The Groom
- The Bestman
The Father of the Bride can be usually the person who is funding the wedding day (this has changed in the last number of years due to challenging times, though most would still contribute in some way to the wedding venue costs). He and his wife are the people who brought the most important person of the day into the world all those years ago and are responsible for taking her all the way to her wedding day. ..The Bride. So, it is only right that they deliver a speech that:
- Thanks everyone for attending
- Thanks the wedding venue manager / coordinator and their team
- Wishes the Bride and Groom every good health and fortune for the future and toasts them
The Groom, the second most important person of the day, is probably footing the main wedding costs along with his wife, has probably taken part in preparing the wedding invitation list and is the spokesperson on behalf of himself and his wife. So, the Groom too have to have some time speaking to their wedding guests to:
- Talk about his beautiful Bride
- Thank the Bride\’s and his own parents / family
- Thank the people who had a significant role to play in the wedding
Finally, the Bestman should speak. He is seen as the Master of Ceremonies for the day, the person who is supposed to keep everything on track (especially the speeches), the person the audience are watching the most (after the Bride & Groom) and the person who will bring a giggle to the audience (no pressure!). Their speech should include:
- His relationship to the Bride and / or Groom and how proud he is to be the Bestman
- Speak equally about the Bride & Groom
- Toast the Bride & Groom
Who should speak at a wedding? At the end of the day, if people want to speak, we cannot stop them. It is this person\’s only opportunity to stand up and speak about the Bride & Groom in public, it will probably never happen again…