Honouring Your Daughter With Your Father Of The Bride Speech
What Should You Include?
- Introduce Yourself & Thank The Guests For Coming
- Share Some Memories Of Your Daughter Growing Up
- What Was She Like Before Meeting Her Husband & How Has She Changed?
- How Do You Feel About The Bride?
- Offer A Toast To The Bride & Groom
You must be so proud, you have watched your daughter blossom into a beautiful woman and today you have the pleasure of giving her away to her husband, the man she loves and the person who will love and cherish her as much as you do.... If that is possible....
The father of the bride will normally kick off the speeches. Start by introducing yourself and welcoming the guests to the wedding. You may take the opportunity to list some of the places people have travelled from, your wedding guests may have travelled a great distance for the wedding and they will be especially happy to have their efforts acknowledged. This will also get the audience involved in the proceedings early and you will command their attention and laughter more easily.
You will have many fond memories of your daughter growing up, far too many to fit into a speech that should be around five minutes long. The difficulty many fathers will have is getting your true emotions down on paper and being able to deliver them honestly to your wedding guests. A good starting point is to get a pad and paper and note down any memories that come into your head about your daughter. You can return to these notes later and refine the ideas to help building your father of the bride speech.
You will want to give the audience a funny, witty and entertaining speech but you will need to be careful not to humiliate the Bride. This is her special day and she should only be viewed in the most positive of terms. Some of the wedding guests, particularly from the groom’s side, may not know too much about the bride and telling them a little tale from your daughters past will make a great ice breaker and give them a little more information about her. If you can link this to the person she is now, great your speech will flow beautifully. It is always refreshing to hear how the bride has changed as she has grown; an example would be a dentist who would scream bloody murder as a child when being taken there. You will know better than anyone that your daughter has particular qualities that have defined who she is today.
Think about you daughter before she met her husband and how she has changed as they have grown to love each other. You may want to talk about the wedding preparations but are advised to steer clear of any of the negatives associated with the preparations. Everyone knows that planning a wedding can be taxing and there may be some tough times but the wedding day is here and the past can be forgotten. The wedding day is a gift and that is why it is called the present!
How do feel today? You will understandably be proud, honoured to give your daughter away to her husband and welcome a new son into the family. Why not tell the bride how you fell, how beautiful she looks and how happy you are for the bride and groom? The hard part is over, now, as is customary the father of the bride finishes with a toast to the happy couple.
Check out the links below for further information on preparing and delivering that special Father Of The Bride speech.
Wedding Speech
Best Man's Speech Guide
The best man’s speech is often the final and most anticipated speech at the wedding reception. Guidance on what you should say, and what you should not to ensure your speech is truly fantastic and you make the Bride and Groom proud.
