The Speeches
H2b and I were talking about the speeches and he dared to joke about them. He joked (I hope) that he was going to stand up and say, ‘Doesn’t my wife look beautiful?’ and then sit down. There are certain things that it might be a good idea t
Who Goes First?
Now, you could have whatever you want for your wedding, what I’m going to type here is the traditional way of things in your average British wedding.
The father of the bride goes first. As the host of the wedding (traditionally) it’s his job to introduce the new couple as Mr and Mrs. He may tell a few stories about the bride as a young girl, how proud he is now and how he knew h2b was the man for his little girl. Typically, the father of the bride introduces the new Mr and Mrs.
Next up is the groom. He thanks the father of the bride for introducing them and for anything else he may have said that was nice. Then the groom proceeds to thank the bridesmaids for being gorgeous, the groomsmen and ushers for being so helpful, any guests who have travelled far or put in some special effort for the wedding, he hands out any gifts that need to be handed out. And finally, or maybe firstly, he thanks his new wife for being so beautiful on this wedding day, for making him the happiest man alive, for actually agreeing to marry him and for many other things that he should be thanking her for.
Finally, it’s the best man’s turn. He thanks the groom on behalf of the bridesmaids for saying they’re gorgeous, he thanks the groom on behalf of the groomsmen and ushers for saying they were helpful. Then he proceeds 
My Advice
More recently, brides have started making speeches and in addition to a best man, a best woman has made a speech. It’s entirely up to you what you’d like to do. Just remember, if you do your speeches before your meal, your guests will be getting hungry! If you do them after your meal, remember some people might be busting for the loo. Don’t make your speeches too long.
I was thinking of doing a very short speech in Chinese thanking the guests from abroad for travelling so far. I know how to do it in slang Chinese but I’d have to ask someone to teach me how to say it properly. I think my guests would appreciate that effort, and I’d keep it short as to not alienate the guests who don’t speak Chinese.
Useful Links
If you’re stuck for ideas, the ever helpful world wide web has a few useful websites. Here are some of the best:
- Hitched.co.uk – the ever helpful hitched gives advice on how to present your speech as well as some useful sample speeches.
- Charge Your Glass – this website offers free help to those nervous grooms, best men and fathers of the bride who need a bit of help creating their speech
- Confetti – I always recommend Confetti because I think they’re brilliant. Have a read of their useful advice on wedding speeches
- How to Write Wedding Speeches and Toasts: Everything You Need to Build a Successful Speech – have a look on Amazon at this book, it looks good! I bought the Confetti speech writing book, they are all much of a muchness in my opinion.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment so that I can get back to you as quickly as possible.
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