Maid of Honor Speech Guide, Examples, Tips
Dear bridesmaid, congrats on your courage to take the microphone in your hands to deliver a maid of honor speech! After all, you know the bride best, and the uplifting speech you are about to deliver must be heard!
Here is a complete guide that will help deliver the best maid of honor speech on your friend’s or sister’s special day.
How to write a maid of honor speech
It is not always easy to find the right words when writing a maid of honor speech. Even if you are the bride’s sister or her best friend and you have known her for a lifetime, you could get lost and have difficulty finding your words.
You might think dozens of times before putting a sentence on paper. Don’t worry; many bridesmaids find themselves in such a position when they have to prepare the speech. Plus, fear of public speaking is a known fact.
Toast Guide
That is why we have prepared a list of helpful tips to get you started on that magnificent speech.
Introduce yourself to the guests and tell them what kind of relationship there is between you and the bride.
Tell them a short story or two from the bride’s childhood (if you knew each other at that time) or from a period a little further away from the present.
Be careful to mention both the bride and the groom in your speech. Although most of the speech is directed at the bride, do not forget that you must congratulate them both.
Say thank you to the bride for choosing you to be the bridesmaid.
Talk a little about the couple. How did they meet? What were your first impressions? When did you realize they were meant for each other?
Start in the past and finish in the future. Start talking about your history with her and end by mentioning her bright future with her new husband.
Use a quote or poem from someone famous for relationships
End the speech on a happy and optimistic note and express good wishes for the couple.
Write as you speak. This is not the time to follow certain rules about how to write an essay. The speech must be natural, without pretentious words. Although it would be much easier for you to have the whole speech sheet in front of you, it is much better if you write down only a few main ideas on something, which will help you remember the whole speech.
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Special Concerns
If you don’t feel really comfortable talking in front of a big audience, discuss this with the bride. The speech of the bridesmaid should not be a reason for fear but joy.
There seems to be a trend of maid of honor speeches being given the night before at the rehearsal dinner. Perhaps, this would be an opportunity for you to speak on this occasion where the audience is smaller.
A Great Toast
While most maids of honor speeches are good, only a few are truly legendary. If you’re looking for inspiration, here’s a great example of a maid of honor speech that broke the internet, gathering more than 1 million views and lots of happy tears.
Memorable Maid of Honor Speech Video
Tips for delivery
When you decide to take this task on your shoulders, you are not just a speaker ready to give a monologue in front of guests. Moreover, YOU have an important story to tell! Embrace this moment with grace and maturity.
Drink water before speaking. You wouldn’t want to feel like your throat was dry before speaking, and you certainly wouldn’t want to start coughing before you start speaking.
Don’t forget to smile! After all, a wedding day is a happy event for the bride and groom and wedding guests.
Look at the guests, but don’t miss the bride either. If you are addressing the bride and groom directly, move your gaze to them.
Watch out for too many hand gestures. You can gesture if that’s what you usually do when you talk. If not, keep your hands close to your body, or hold the glass in your hand, etc.
Be Confident
Raise your glass as a toast! Even if you don’t drink champagne or wine, you can still have a glass ready for the end of the speech. Thus, in the end, you can raise the glass in honor of the bride and groom, and in this way, the guests will know that the speech is over, and they will clash their glasses to honor the marriage of the two.
Timing is everything. Usually, the toasting moment takes place as soon as everyone has sat down to eat and serves champagne, but the bride and groom may want it to happen between two dishes. Ask them for their opinion and if they have no preference, the choice of the moment depends only on you and the best man. When you are ready, approach the microphone and ask the attention of the entire audience. You can use the traditional gesture of hitting the glass with a fork!
Keep calm and carry on! Take a deep breath and think of beautiful things. You could have a glass of wine shortly before, but don’t overdo it. You need a coherent speech, not tangled words! Speak slowly, and no one will notice that your hands are shaking!
How to End a Maid of Honor Wedding Toast
When you’re almost done with your speech, don’t let the audience hanging. Close the wedding speech with an uplifting toast to the bride and groom. Here are a few wedding toasts ending quotes to choose from:
All, please raise your glasses in honor of Bride and Groom!
Join me in honoring our Bride and Groom!
This is the beginning of your journey together! To you!
Cheers to the happy couple! May your love grow stronger each day!
Please join me in raising a toast to the happiness of the Bride and Groom!
Best wishes and years of love to the new couple!
You might like Good Irish Toasts.
Inspiration for your Toast
Remember, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Look what others have said and written for ideas. And then, personalize the message to the couple and your relationship with them. Here are some resources to consider.
Speech Example
Usually, the speech of the knight of honor tends to become slightly funny, with parodic references to marriage and living together. This does not mean that the bridesmaid must deliver her speech in the same register! Nor that, for the sake of contrast, it be sentimental or poetic.
If you also have a flair for comedy, the guests will have a great show. If not, they are ready to shed a few tears of emotion. Regardless of the style you choose, your speech must characterize you and be as honest as possible!
“Hello! I believe you can tell just by looking at my dress that I am one of the bridesmaids, but most of you know me as a good friend of the bride. That said, we go way back, and we have shared many memories (some embarrassing, I must admit). And today is another wonderful day to add to our countless memories together.
Enough about me (laughter). Today is all about them: [bride] and [groom]!
[bride], you look stunning and [groom], you look as handsome as ever. You’ve both really outgrown yourself.
But while this is the [bride’s] and [groom’s] day, I want to give a shoutout to their parents.
From raising a wonderful daughter, who was one of my best friends in the world, to occasionally getting us out of trouble and playing the role of the second set of parents, I want to thank you both.
You are all amazing people, and I feel so lucky to participate in this day with you.
I feel lucky to know [the groom] too, he is a wonderful guy who fell in love with a wonderful woman, and I can’t wait to see what their future holds.
Let’s all toast to [the bride] and [the groom]!”
Quotes on Love to Include to Your Wedding Speech
If you don’t know how to start and end the wedding speech, here are a few beautiful quotes on love and marriage that will come in handy when preparing the maid of honor speech for the big day.
“To understand the true value of happiness, you must have someone to share it with.”
Mark Twain
“A happy marriage is a long conversation that always seems too short.”
Andre Maurois.
“To love another person is to see the face of God.”
Victor Hugo.
“Where there is love is life.”
Mahatma Gandhi.
“To be truly loved by someone gives you strength, while to truly love someone gives you courage.”
Lao Tzu.
“Happiness is true only when it is shared.”
Jon Krakauer.
“Love has nothing to do with what you expect to receive, but with what is expected of you to give, that is, everything.”
Katherine Hepburn.
“One word frees us from all the weight and pain of life. That word is love.”
Sophocles.
Check out Best Wedding Quotes.
Love is in the Air
“The more you invest in a marriage, the more valuable it will become.”
Amy Grant.
“There is only one joy in life: to love and be loved.”
George Sand.
“Who is poor if he is loved?”
Oscar Wilde.
“You know that you are in love when you can no longer sleep because reality is more beautiful than a dream.”
Dr. Seuss.
“Marriage is not a ritual or an end. It’s a long and intimate dance together, and nothing matters more than your balance and choosing a partner.”
Amy Bloom.
“There is no cure for love other than to love more.”
Henry David Thoreau.
“A successful marriage means falling in love many times with the same person.”
Mignon McLaughlin.
Quotes on Friendship
A wedding day is a perfect time to celebrate your bestie and your strong friendship. Add these friendship quotes to your maid of honor speech to show how much you appreciate them and what they mean to you.
“True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.”
David Tyson.
“Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.”
Thomas J. Watson.
“A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.”
Arnold H. Glasgow.
“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
Aristotle.
“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”
Muhammad Ali.
“The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.”
Hubert H. Humphrey.
“When the world is so complicated, the simple gift of friendship is within all of our hands.”
Maria Shriver.
“You can always tell a real friend: when you’ve made a fool of yourself, he doesn’t feel you’ve done a permanent job.”
Laurence J. Peter.
“A friend is someone who knows you and loves you just the same.”
Elbert Hubbard.
“Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.”
Khalil Gibran.
“Friends are the siblings God never gave us.”
Mencius.
“Where there are friends, there is wealth.”
Titus Maccius Plautus.
Quotes on Sisterhood to Add to the Wedding Speech
Celebrate the great bond between you and your sister with these heartfelt quotes on the power of sisterhood. Make sure to add them to your maid of honor wedding toast.
“A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life.”
Isadora James
“A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost.”
Marion C. Garretty
“There’s no better friend than a sister.”
Mary Engelbreit
“So distant yet so close. So different yet so similar. That’s why I love my sister.”
Maxime Lagacé
“Sister is our first friend and second mother.”
Sunny Gupta
“Brothers and sisters are one of the constant things in the lives of many people.”
Richard Branson
“A sister is everything you wish you could be and everything you wish you weren’t.”
M. Molly Backes
Funny lines for maid of honor speech
Don’t be afraid to sprinkle your wedding speech with a little humor. Here are a few smart and funny lines from Hollywood stars and other famous people you can use for guaranteed success:
“Before you marry a person, you should first make them use a computer with slow internet to see who they really are.”
Will Ferrell.
“There’s only one way to have a happy marriage, and as soon as I learn what it is, I’ll get married again.”
Clint Eastwood.
Married men live longer than single men. But married men are a lot more willing to die.”
Johnny Carson.
“An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have; the older she gets, the more interested he is in her”
Agatha Christie.
“Marry a man your own age; as your beauty fades, so will his eyesight”
Phyllis Diller.
What you Shouldn’t Say in a Maid of Honor Speech
Remember, you are not a comedian, so stay away from making awkward jokes that would end up embarrassing the bride or the groom. Don’t talk about:
- The bride’s or groom’s past dating or sexual experiences.
- The bride’s or groom’s divorce (if any).
- Yourself too much. Rather, focus on the bride and groom. It is their day, after all.
The order of toasts at a wedding
Traditionally, the wedding speech order starts with the father of the bride speech, followed by the best man, and then the maid of honor.
FAQs about the Maid of Honor Speech
Are you still wondering how to craft the perfect maid of honor speech? Don’t worry; we got you covered. Check out these top frequently asked questions and answers.
The best advice we can give is to keep and short and sweet. Draft your ideas to flow naturally and keep your speech under 5 minutes. This way, you ensure your crowd is still paying attention, and your speech will win everyone’s hearts.
There are many ways to start your speech, depending on the time of the day, the setting of the wedding, and your relationship with the bride and groom. Here are a few examples:
– Good morning/afternoon/evening, everyone.
– Welcome to [bride and groom] wedding!
– First, let me introduce myself. I am [name], the bride’s sister/ best friend.
Don’t learn your speech by heart because the chances are that you might forget parts of it right when you are on stage with all eyes staring at you. Draft your speech at home and write down the main ideas that you will touch upon. Practice your speech at home and again once, at least 5 minutes before, so you have it fresh in your head. Be natural and embrace the moment.
Final Words
Do you feel that a speech is old-fashioned and does not represent you? Astonish your audience!
Dance, recite an original poem, and greet everyone in the way that seems most comfortable to you and that best represents you.
That being said, if you are planning to deliver a truly extraordinary speech, it would be a good idea to talk to the bride before making any big decisions!
Good luck with your speech, and remember to be yourself! There’s a reason the bride picked you.
By Anne Matea
With a Master’s degree in Management and Communication in Business and over two decades of experience writing content for the digital world, Anne loves to play with words and create content that is fun and engaging.
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