Nail your nerves and craft a groom’s speech that’ll blow your wedding guests away.
As a groom, what makes the perfect wedding speech? Should you be funny like the best man? Emotional like the maid of honour? Or pull the heart strings like the father of the bride? Well, the answer is, a little bit of each would be ideal! With some admin thrown in. Unlike many of the other wedding speeches being given on the day, the groom’s speech is basically one big thank you. There’s no set things you should say, no style it has to be written in, or reaction it needs to receive. Essentially, you just have to praise and complement those closest to you for all their hard work (and money), while thanking the assembled guests for being there. Easy, right…?
How to write a Groom’s wedding speech
If you’re not used to speaking in public, or you’re unsure of exactly how to lay out your speech, don’t worry. We’ve put together some easy-to-follow tips that’ll help you write the perfect groom speech for your wedding day.
The people you need to thank
As mentioned, the groom’s speech is all about thanking friends and family who were involved in putting the wedding together. Alongside that, it’s nice to also welcome the other side of the family, as well as remembering those who couldn’t be there on the day. Suppliers too, if you feel they played a really significant part in your day being a success, share the ones who deserve a special mention. You never know, it could lead to one of your loved ones hiring your wedding photographer for their big day.
Give your speech structure
It could be tempting to just run head first towards all those thank-yous, desperately trying not to miss anyone out. This approach, although potentially fun to watch, will seem quite chaotic and almost certainly lead to you missing important members of the wedding party out. Instead, organise your thoughts, and create an outline. You don’t need to write your groom’s speech out and follow it word by word on the wedding day. But you should have bullet notes you can (mentally) tick off as you go.
Here’s a simple outline that will work for most groom speeches:
· Introduce yourself, and say a few words about the day so far.
· Welcome everyone, and thank them for coming
· Thank specific people involved in the wedding.
· Share a personal anecdote or story about your wedding planning journey, or relationship.
· Share how you feel about your spouse.
· Thank everyone for coming again and let guests know any information the venue has given you. Food or bar times, when certain events will be, that sort of thing.
· Raise a toast.
Keep it light, but don’t force humour
We’re not all blessed with a funny bone. If you’re someone who’s never been the joker in the pack, the wisecracker in the group. Don’t force yourself to be one during your groom’s speech, on your wedding day! Your guests know you, they love you, and they want to hear a speech that sounds like it came from you, not Seinfeld.
However, if making a joke here and there is part of your personality, by all means, use humour in your speech. But it’s important to strike a balance between laughs and sentiment. Guests should get a sense of how serious you are about the day, and feel your emotions. And they can’t do that if you’re just delivering a stand-up routine. Keep wedding guests interested and engaged in your groom’s speech by bouncing back and forth between playfulness and sentimentality. Jokes, interspersed with more serious, and emotional parts, is the key to a successful groom’s speech.
How long should a Groom’s wedding speech be?
The secret to any good speech is to keep it short and sweet. However humorous, or emotional your groom’s speech is, wedding guests will soon start to nod off if it goes on too long. Likewise, if you only share a couple of words, there’s no way loved ones will get a sense of how you feel about the day, or their contribution.
Recite, or practice your groom’s speech ahead of the wedding day, multiple times, so you know how long it is. And remember that nervous energy will potentially take over on the day, speeding up the whole speech, and shaving off 30 seconds from the total time. Another reason why it’s important to practice. Overall, on your wedding day, aim to keep your groom’s speech around 2–3 minutes long. In that time, you should be able to convey just how delighted and thankful you truly are. Without sending any older relatives off to sleep!
We hope we have inspired your groom’s speech, and hopefully settled some nerves ahead of the wedding day! It would be a pleasure to guide you further, and introduce you to our lovely wedding venue in Co Kildare. The Abbey is only an hour away from Dublin, and has an 18th century chapel on-site, a stunning ballroom, multiple events spaces and 38 contemporary style rooms. You are welcome to have a browse of our wedding venue online, and if you like what you see, please get in touch via our contact page to book a viewing. And while you wait for your visit, you can find out more about us via our online brochure.
