Maid of Honor Speech Essentials – Maid of Honor Speeches Made Easy

Maid of honor wedding speeches are often the most enjoyable among all the wedding speeches given at wedding receptions by various speakers. When writing a maid of honor wedding speech, as with all speech writing, can come with a fair amount of trepidation. For most people, it’s nerve-wracking to have to stand up and speak in front of a crowd of people, especially when many will be relative strangers. Just remember that this is not an obligation, but an opportunity to make a meaningful and heartfelt statement to loved ones on a very important day for them. Write your speech well, keep it simple, and rehearse until you’ve mastered it and everything will go smoothly.

Let’s start with some general guidelines for maid of honor wedding speeches, then move on to the things you should avoid.

Guidelines for Maid of Honor Wedding Speeches

The best maid of honor wedding speeches try to give a bit of insight into the relationship between the people getting married. Just be honest – honest in a focus-on-the-positives sort of way. Tell some stories from your past, either with the bride or with the two of them as a couple. If you were there, often the best thing to do is tell the story of how the bride and groom first met, or the progression from first meeting to happy relationship. Try to make him seem like a good guy, and her a good woman. It can be a good idea to compare and contrast life for the couple before and after marriage, (remember, positives) and say how much the two of them being together has brightened their lives and the lives of those around them.

You can describe your first time meeting either the bride or her husband, how much fun they have had together, and what good people they are. If you’ve known the bride from childhood, describe how she was when both of you were young, and how you see that being with this man has changed her (as always, focusing on the positive). In addition, or alternatively, you could mention some things that haven’t changed but have carried through into their relationship. Remember, these are the little details that make maid of honor speeches so special.

while making maid of honor wedding speeches, it’s good to tell funny anecdotes or stories of things that happened between you and the bride or you and the groom. Let the humor come from that. People love to be ‘let in’ on private moments, especially between siblings. Set them up so the audience is right there with you. Exaggerate the stories a bit if you need to (but make it obvious you are doing so). Did you and the bride get into trouble? Make sure to place the blame entirely on her, in an ironically ribbing sort of way.

People at weddings like to hear a speech with some humor in it, but only if the speaker has some natural talent for it. You can make a couple of jokes at their expense, especially the man’s, but don’t embarrass them. Anecdotes work much better than one-liners. Welcome the groom into the family. Are there any family traits you can warn him about or inform him that he will now acquire? This can be another source of gentle humor.

It’s always good to be spontaneous. Be open with how you’re really feeling inside on this momentous occasion.

Now, on to the things you always want to avoid while giving maid of honor speeches

• Don’t drink 4 or 5 shots of hard liquor before dinner and then decide to wing it.
• Don’t talk extensively about yourself, talk about your relationship with her/them.
• Don’t list their qualities.
• Don’t mention any previous marriages or old boyfriends.
• Keep it short and light. Anything over 5 minutes and you risk losing the interest of the crowd. Throw in some sappy stuff, but don’t make it the focus.
• Make a couple of jokes at your own expense, but don’t self-deprecate too much. It’s a wedding, not a roast. Keep it classy and avoid any and all crass sex jokes – they can easily be taken the wrong way.
• Don’t use any cliche’s, except ironically, and try not to be too cheesy.
• Tie your last anecdote into your heartwarming final statement.

Pause for dramatic effect. Ask everyone to stand and raise their glasses to toast the couple. Wish them a lifetime of harmony and love, in your own words of course.

You’re done. That’s it. Note that the speech is wrapped up by toasting the couple. It’s traditional and a nice way to end maid of honor wedding speeches. I personally like simple, straightforward maid of honor toasts but if you want to recite a short poem you can do it. Good Luck!

If you want perfection then the role of Pippa Middleton as the Maid of Honor at the Royal Wedding is the best example of a maid of honor. She not only looked fantastic, she didn’t outshine the bride, nor did she make any mistakes. A perfect example of how a maid of honor should be.

Deck out in a form fitting, elegant dress by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen, Pippa blended in with the wedding party like she’s done it before. Pippa, who herself is a party planner, steered the bridesmaids into Westminster Abbey before helping her sister, the bride, with her bridal gown.

Throughout the wedding, Pippa behaved exactly as a maid of honor should. She performed her duties will panache and lots of style. The bridesmaids wore dresses by Nicki Macfarlane and were the picture of innocence with the maid of honor. Both the bridesmaids and maid of honor enhanced the beauty of the new Duchess of Cambridge.

Although, most maids of honor don’t wear white because it competes with the bride, however, Miss Middleton carried off the white gown with flair without taking over the spotlight. Her hair sported lily-of-the-valley flowers to match the brides. She defiantly knew her duties as maid of honor.

Fashion experts all over the world are still commenting on the maid of honor dress worn by Miss Middleton. Twitter was abuzz with tweets about her dress and the fact she was maid of honor.

Apparently, all Royal weddings have several younger girls as bridesmaid but the Middleton sisters broke tradition by Pippa being maid of honor and wearing white. Pippa also planned the after wedding bash at Buckingham Palace complete with deejay and disco balls. Also part of her duties as a maid of honor.

Being the maid of honor is not as easy as Pippa made it look. There are hundreds of duties attached to the honor. You have to help the bride with the location of the ceremony, choosing the time and dates for before wedding parties, and choosing the wedding invitations, plus help mailing them out. There’s also helping with decorations and the shower, hen parties and of course, the choosing the bridesmaid and maid of honor gowns.

You also work with the bridesmaids and help the bride and groom with registering at various places. You can also help with seating at the reception and the settings for the dinner and much more.

So, if your time is coming up as the maid of honor for your best friend, look to Pippa Middleton as an example of the maid of honor.

Philippa Charlotte Middleton a.k.a. Pippa Middleton was born on September 6,1983 in England, UK. She is an English party planner, socialite and sister of Catherine Middleton, the now Duchess of Cambridge. At the Royal Wedding of April 29, 2011, she was the maid of honor when her sister Kate (Catherine Middleton) got married to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, son of Prince Charles (Prince of Wales) and the Late Princess of Wales – Diana.

Read the Pippa Middleton Bio

Somewhere between the first public introduction of the couple and the drive off in the limo, there is that time at the reception where the maid of honor toasts the beautiful bride. Now the maid of honor speech will vary wedding to wedding, but normally they have the same basic flow, a few funny stories or memories about growing up together, or meeting in college, followed by a teary eyed best wish to the new couple.

However, if you want your toast to stand out in the many maid of honor toasts wedding goes will hear over the years, you need to make it one they will enjoy. To often maid of honor speeches get caught up in the inside jokes and college party memories that seem to bore the crowd, they weren’t there; they don’t know how funny it was or the back-story. Yes, it’s good to have a little humor and get them laughing, but make sure it’s more common knowledge or something that is easily followed. These stories and memories should also be kept to just a few. There is a lot going on at the reception, the guest nor the couple really wants to hear you give a play by play of the last 20 years of your friend ship. And remember, she might be doing the same speech for you one day; you don’t want it all out on the table!

Next it’s best to more on to a challenge or advice to the new couple. However be wise about these if you are not married, do not give personal advice based on your last relationship. What is only worse that this is to give canned advice off the internet. Too many maid of honor speeches are composed of a quotes about love found of the internet. The couple has probably already heard these same quotes for years. My advice is to make you toast more personal is to talk to the bride’s parents or grandparents and get a pearl of wisdom from them to include in your speech. Not only will it be based on fact it will make you toast one of the best maid of honor toasts the guests will ever here.

Many maid of honor toasts forget this next part, yes your maid of honor speech is geared a lot towards the bride, but in all honesty it is to the couple so don’t forget about the groom. You might not have known his as long as the bride, but you surely have heard all about him and his qualities from her. You are her best friend, there has surely been a long phone call or emails about their first date, the first kiss, and how they met. Try to keep it all positive and upbeat and just let him know that he must mean the world to her because of all the great things she has said to you about him.

In closing, always thank the couple for allowing you to be a part of their special day and giving you the time to give your maid of honor toast. And remember this is a maid of honor toast; in closing ask all those to raise their glasses in celebration of the new couple. Very often at weddings this major part is forgotten and the microphone simply passed off!

So your sister is getting married and she has asked you to give a maid of honor speech at her wedding. When it’s a maid of honor speech for your sister, the good thing about this is that unlike other maids of honor, you can go to your mom and discuss good ideas for the speech. It can be very fun taking a trip down memory lane to remember all the neat things that you two got up to as kids.

It might be a good idea to get out the family photos and sit and have a look through them. You  might be surprised to find how many things you had forgotten that you used to get up to together.

As the maid of honor, your speech will very likely come after the best man speech, or may even be after the groom’s parents speeches. So you could start your speech off by thanking them for their wonderful toasts to the happy couple. This is good because often it is hardest the write the beginnings and ends of speeches.

When giving a maid of honor speech, even if the bride is your sister and almost everybody seem to know you, it is still best to firstly introduce yourself. This really works well, because it is a direct lead in to the rest of your speech. You can say something like: “Hi everybody, my name is Veronica, and I am the bride’s sister, I remember when…” and then go straight into your anecdotes.

Now, as the sister of the bride, I think we will all appreciate that you may have a great deal of material to use in your speech. You have grown up together after all and you will have a thousand memories. A good idea is to pick five or six of the best ones and include them in your speech. Little girl stories always work very well because it introduces a lovely contrast between the blushing bride of today and the sweet little girls you both used to be. Did she dress her dolls up in diapers when she was little? Or did she have pretend weddings between her dolls?

Your maid of honor speech can include all sorts of funny stories. You can even mention times when your mom would get cross at you both or when you blamed her for something you did.

It is not a good idea to talk about any old boyfriends at this stage, unless it is a really funny story and commonly known. It is certainly not the time to bring up any new information. Gentle teasing makes for good speech material, but do not say anything too embarrassing or you will hear a deathly, uncomfortable silence descend in the room and you do not want that!

Find out if there will be a microphone there. It is good idea to find out also where the video camera is set up, so that you do not stand with your back to it for the whole speech. Make sure that you are in the room when the speeches start. You do not want people to have to come looking for you to give your speech. Practice it well beforehand by talking out loud and in front of a mirror. Be yourself.

The maid of honor speech is becoming more and more common these days and many more brides are asking their friends to say something at their weddings. Because this is quite a recent phenomenon, there are no set rules to follow. Basically, you have the opportunity here to say whatever you would like.

Your maid of honor speech will probable be third or fourth in the running order of the evening so you will get to see the father of the bride, the best man and maybe the groom’s parent speak before you. Depending on how stressed you are feeling about it, this may help you or make you feel a little more nervous. Just think of it like speaking to a room full of friends. Everyone will know you or at least know about you from the ceremony itself, so it should be alright.

Aim to speak between two and five minutes. Believe me, when you are standing talking, that will seem like long enough and a lot can be said in five minutes. In order for you to prepare for your maid of honor wedding speech, you can think back to how you know the bride. Do you remember how you met each other? Sometimes great friendships start off with unusual situations.

Because there is no set wedding etiquette for maid of honor speeches, this is also a great opportunity for you to gently tease your friend on her big day. You can have anything you like in your speech. ‘Teasing’ is the correct word because anything else will be construed as mean. Try to think of some funny anecdotes. Did you play at getting your dolls married when you were six? Or has she always dream that her Prince Charming would come along and sweep her off her feet?

This is also a good time for you to give some sage advice and opportune words of wisdom to your new friend-in-law, the groom. If you like, you can give him a quick care guide for your friend. How to cheer her up when she is down. What to do when she comes up with wacky ideas etc.etc.

Above all, be yourself and speak from your heart. If you do take notes, do not try to write down every word and then speak them out robot-fashion on the day. People will really warm to you if you jot down a few bullet points and then add to them in your own words. This also allows you room to deal with any one who shouts out. In a fully written speech, there is no way to stop and laugh at someone’s comment and then go back to reading out the same sentence.

The main thing is to have fun, it is a wedding after all. Do not drink too much before your maid of honor speech, the floor may be slippery and you will be in your heels after all. Speak out slowly, but not too slowly. Keep breathing it will be over before you know it – and smile!