Speeches and stuff - a bit urgent!

Gumbyman

Howdy,

Of course I have left this to the last minute but could somebody tell me what is the running order for the speeches? I have speeches from father of bride, father of groom, best man, myself (groom) and bride.

Also how long is too long? My speech is just under 10 minutes (but it feels a lot faster when I say it - very odd). Is this ridiculously long?

I have two days to get this right. Yikes!

Thanks,
Gumby.

gollem_1975

typically the best mans speech is delivered last in my experience

10 minutes is not too long.

good luck!

emc2

Usually it's

Father of the Bride
Father of the Groom
Groom/Bride
Best Man

10 minutes seems like a nice lenght of time. Good Luck

smelltheglove

As above, best man last, maybe let the bride go first, not sure on that one, it isnt often the bride does a speech.

10 minutes is a nice amount of time but just make sure the best mans speech isnt going to be much shorter than yours, mind in our case the best mans was 20 minutes.

Clareman

As above, I believe the reasoning behind this is...

Father of the Bride - To welcome everyone to the day, "traditionally" he would have paid for the day and wanted to thank everyone for coming on the day.
Father of the Groom - To welcome the bride to the family.
Groom - to thank everyone.
Best man - As master of ceremonies it's up to him to mark the end of the formalities.

I would put the Bride after the father of hte groom and before the groom, not only does it break up the 1 side of the family speaking 3 times in a row, but it's an automatic "quip" for either the Bride or the Groom's speech (after all, the Bride always comes first).

As things change the running order can be changed to suit the needs as well, I was at a wedding where the Bride's brother was best man, he made his speech first and had a combined Father of the Bride/Best Man speech as the Father of the Bride didn't want to speak, then the Bridesmaid spoke and then the groom spoke, everything went off great and was a nice change from the norm.

As with everything, it's the Bride and Groom's day, it's a happy day not a stressful day so once everyone is comfortable with what they're doing that's all that matters

dlambirl

Got this from a hotels website who do weddings:

Toasts & Speeches
Toasts and speeches would normally take place at the end of the meal. The
following is the usual order of proceedings:
Bestman asks bride & groom to cut the cake
Bestman asks bride’s father or family representative to say a few words
Bestman asks groom’s father or family representative to say a few words
Groomsman reads some cards & faxes
Bestman asks groom to say a few words followed by a toast to the bridesmaids
Bestman says a few words followed by a toast to the bride & groom
Bestman asks clergyman to say grace after the meal

antiskeptic

Gumbyman wrote: »

Howdy,

Of course I have left this to the last minute but could somebody tell me what is the running order for the speeches? I have speeches from father of bride, father of groom, best man, myself (groom) and bride.

Also how long is too long? My speech is just under 10 minutes (but it feels a lot faster when I say it - very odd). Is this ridiculously long?

I have two days to get this right. Yikes!

Thanks,
Gumby.

I wouldn't get too legalistic about it - whatever is comfortable is best. Our order of speeches went

Father of the Bride - before the meal (so that he could enjoy him meal without worrying about the speech afterward)

Bestman

Grooms mother

Groom (me)

Bride - on the spur of the moment.


No one gives a cobblers about the order of things. Partly because they don't actually know the order of things themselves. Because there is no order of things in fact.




Enjoy it in any case.

Gumbyman

Hey! Thanks for the tips here. All went well. Had a great day. Pity the honeymoon wasn't three months.....