This was a question that ran through my mind right up front, “When do I have to give my father of bride speech?” Perhaps it was just a carryover from my grade school days where I always wanted to be the last one to give my oral report.
However, my wife was also giving a wedding speech, so I needed to coordinate content with her to avoid duplication. I was informed that it was traditional for the father of the bride to give his speech first, so I swallowed hard and took it like a man!
Since I was going first, I decided to do a little research on the internet to help me decide what I should include. I searched under “wedding speeches father” and found some helpful information, but nothing really comprehensive.
To be truthful, I’m not an overly emotional guy, or at least not one who feels real comfortable openly showing a lot of emotion.
So, as you can imagine, I was really stressing over this speech which, I thought was going to have to be real emotional. I’ve since learned that “from the heart” doesn’t necessarily mean something that will choke you up and bring a tear to the eye.
One thing I did take care of up front was to make sure that the Master of Ceremonies knew that I was going first and how to introduce me. It was a little tricky since technically I’m my daughter’s step-father. She calls me Dad, since I’ve been around since she was very small, but has just recently reconciled with her birth father, who will also be attending the event.
Since I was going first I thought I would start off with a bang and then just let my daughter know how I felt about her and her new husband. But, it ended up being my wife that did the emotional “heavy” lifting as she followed up my father of bride speech, a touching tribute to a special daughter and new bride.
When I researched father of the bride wedding speeches, I found that there were all different styles. So I did a little more research to try and determine which one might be good for my circumstances. Since I married my beautiful wife, my relationship with my daughter has been one filled with laughter, silliness and general kidding around. It actually is how we get around those tricky subjects between a father and daughter, like the fact that there was even a groom at all.
Since her biological father will be in the audience I wanted to steer clear of long drawn out stories about her mother and I getting together etc… Instead of starting at the beginning, I decided to just jump into the middle and regale the audience with some non-embarrassing, but cute and funny stories of adventures that my daughter and I have shared.
Since I’m quite the clown I decided to start with a joke and then let the father of the bride toast lead into a humorous sort of “poking fun” type of theme. I even included my new son-in-law and his parents. Sort of a “Boy, we’ve had some good times and I’m sure we will be looking forward to many more years of good times to come!” type of theme.
Quite honestly, I wouldn’t have had a clue where to even start preparing my father of the bride wedding speeches and toasts until I discovered this wedding speech guide that proved invaluable to me.
I searched the Internet under “speech father of the bride” and found this great resource. If you are struggling like I was, perhaps you should check out this helpful speech writing guide that is specifically for fathers of the bride.
If you are wondering what a father of the bride speech should contain, you are not alone! I didn’t have a clue until I got my hands on a little resource that made it all perfectly clear. So, this is what I learned from this guide as far as the basic parts of a successful and well written father of the bride wedding speech:
1) Since the bride’s father is traditionally the host of the event, it will be up to you to warm up the crowd. I did this with a little joke that I picked up from my research. I was quite happy that I thought of a way to personalize it which made it a big hit and got the audience laughing.
2) Welcome all of the guests to the reception and pay special attention to those guests who had to make that special effort to attend. We had a few guests that really made that extra effort to get to my daughters wedding. I think that they really appreciated the little call out that they got and recognition for their efforts.
3) It helps put everyone at ease if the father of the bride can include a few words about what to expect next in the program and a brief schedule of events for the evening. I just gave a little quick and dirty run down of what was coming.
4) Any personal comments are included at this point in most father of the bride speeches. I took this part of my father of the bride speech to acknowledge by fabulous wife. Since I’m technically a step-father I wanted to make that extra effort to thank my wife for bringing our wonderful daughter into my life.
5) The most important part of the father of the bride speech comes next and that is delivering a heartfelt few words about your special daughter. As always I accomplished this reach out to my daughter on her wedding day with humor. Since humor has always been our special way to communicate and has always accompanied the good times and helped us communicate during the not so easy times.
6) A little wisdom for the new happy couple comes next. I dialed down the humor during this segment since, as we all know, a marriage is not all fun and games. I did wish them much love and laughter in their new life ahead.
7) Wrap up your father of the bride speech with a toast to the bride and groom. I just did a real short traditional toast.
I found this video and thought it was a great father of the bride speech, so watch how the bride’s father covers all the components nicely:
I’m glad that I took the time to do some research on bride’s father wedding toasts and father of the bride wedding speeches. I read a lot of articles, made lists, took notes and developed an outline. But it wasn’t until I found a wedding speech guide online that it all came together for me.
With the help of this valuable resource, I then fleshed out my outline by adding personal antidotes about my wonderful daughter and a little married wisdom for the happy new couple. I wished them well and asked them to have patience with each other as they get adjusted to their new life.
Being the Father of the Bride is tough to say the least! To walk your little girl down the isle and then give her away to her new groom is very emotional. You know that she is happy, but yet you feel that you are losing a little part of her. Now she has her new husband to rely on and maybe that’s a take away from you. On top of all of that emotion, you get to look forward to giving father of the bride speeches directly after the wedding at the opening of the reception. You are the one breaking the ice and warming up the crowd.
If you take the time and effort to find the resources that you’ll need to get started and follow the step by step process, you can craft the perfect father of the bride speech. This is it all eyes will be upon you and you will have your daughters full attention. This is your big moment to let her know how much having her in your life has meant to you and that her continued happiness is really important to you. Giving your blessing to the new happy couple in front of all of your friends and family will be a lasting tribute to your daughter’s new marriage.
Making sure that you have all of the components covered and that nobody is forgotten is also very important. Knowing that there is a business end and a story telling or joke telling end to the speech is important and certainly is something that the proper outline and resources will walk you through.
My name is Ben Watson and when my daughter, Cheryl, recently got married, I was tapped to give the father of the bride speeches. Like most fathers, I found that writing my wedding speech started out as a traumatic experience. Lucky for me, I found these helpful tips and resources that made it a breeze and wanted to share them with other fathers-of-the-bride!
Since I was going first, I decided to do a little research on the internet to help me decide what I should include. I searched under “wedding speeches father” and found some helpful information, but nothing really comprehensive.
