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Wedding Toasts

Like any piece of creative work, wedding toasts require a lot of careful thought before they can be made at a wedding reception  full of eager guests.  At formal weddings,  there are often several people involved in toasts, including the parents of the spouses, the best man and maid of honour, the bridesmaids  and groomsmen, and even the bride and groom themselves.  And although coming up with the content for the toast may not seem too daunting of a task at first, your love and familiarity for whom you speak may not make expressing your feelings any easier, especially because these words may have to be delivered to a room full of guests that you barely know.  Even if all your guests are family, it still may be difficult to publicly express very personal feelings, as well as make a toast that will be both memorable and pleasing to everyone involved.  So if you're shaking in your shiny new wedding shoes  trying to come up with that perfect toast, it's best to seek some inspiration and advice.  Check out the rest of this guide to get headed down the road to speech success.  

Who Gives a Toast?

  • The best man and maid of honour often give a toast of good luck to the newly married couple.
  • The bride and groom can toast to each other as well as to the members of their bridal party.
  • The father of the bride  may want to make a toast to his daughter and then to the new couple as a whole.
  • The hosting parents usually make the first toast to welcome everyone at the rehearsal dinner.
  • The father of the groom can give marital advice  to his son in the form of a toast.
  • Any sisters, brothers or other close relatives who were members of the bridal party may speak during the toasting portion of the reception after the aforementioned individuals have spoken (as is tradition).

Toast Staples

Wedding toasts often offer some anecdotal advice about marriage,  express sentiments of love and committment and may even add a bit of humour to lighten the mood.  And many wedding websites offer advice on how to write and deliver that perfect toast, from practising in the mirror before the big day to using popular quotes as springboards.  If you have a favourite author, poet, movie or song, don't hesitate to borrow some of those insights for your speech--you can take a direct quote for your opening or just use the material to generate some good ideas of your own.  Here are some popular sources for wedding toast inspiration:

  • Emily Dickinson
  • Henry David Thoreau
  • Lord Byron
  • Ralph Waldo Emmerson
  • Jane Austen
  • Robert Frost 

Have a Little Fun

If you're really stumped, just try to have a little fun with the writing process.  

  • Take one minute to write the first words that come to your head when you think of the bride and groom.  Do you see any themes emerging?  Have you been reminded of fun memories that you've shared together?
  • Use a wedding toast generator to get you started.  We don't recommend that you actually use the material they provide--it can be a little impersonal--but it can be a clever way to get your creative juices flowing.

Related Guides

Wedding Vows

First Dancereptile combo-light 

Wedding Ceremony Music

Wedding Reception Music

Wedding Favours

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