Wow. What a great time in life. If you’ve been selected to give the Maid of Honor Speech at a friend’s wedding, you’re likely trying to get some ideas. Allow me to attempt to provide you with the best of what I know from my years of experience as a professional speaking consultant.
Planning is important, and you’ve done a great thing by looking for information ahead of time. You’d be surprised how many people ignore the fear they have about public speaking and tell themselves “I’ll figure it out the couple of days beforehand,” “the night before,” or God forbid “in the car on the way to the wedding . ” By the way, if you’re not feeling nervous, I might be a little worried. What I’m trying to say here is that it’s completely normal to feel anything from a bit jittery to completely panicked at the idea of giving a maid of honor speech. It’s totally normal. I still get nervous every single time I prepare to speak, whether at a professional engagement, or even a casual dinner. Okay, now that you are assured your nerves are normal, let’s take a look at the maid of honor speech itself.
The technical aspects of the Maid of Honor Speech:
First, you might consider starting by telling the audience who you are, and thanking them for coming. Then, consider a story or two. Everyone on Earth likes to hear a story. The first might be something about what you thought of the groom when you met him. This usually seems to be a good topic to use , because it’s totally acceptable for you to just slightly poke fun at him, as if to say “I wasn’t too sure about Jim when he first started dating Laura. He drove this old beat up car and had a slightly strange craving for French fries after midnight.”
Hello! In case we haven’t met in person yet, my name is _________. I’m the maid of honor , and I’m so happy for _______ (the bride). First, I want to say congrats ________(bride & groom). Also, special to _______(the bride’s parents, who probably put on the wedding) and everyone who came from far and near to be here today with ________(bride and groom) on their very special day.
Keep any pokes you might be thinking would be funny for the groom in your maid of honor speech to a low level. As you will probably be sensing just thinking about your past experience, at a wedding, people place the parts of themselves that might be frustrated about the “darker side” of humanity on the back burner. They are there to experience feelings of love, joy and happiness. They really don’t want to be reminded of the nasty things that can come out in people, like greed, lust, pain, etc .So keep from telling jokes that might hint at this sort of things. A slight , ever-so-slightly negative comment about the groom is usually okay, but only once, and try to make it very light.
When I first ran across ____ (groom), I remember wondering whether things would work out. I recall him coming to the door [or hearing about him coming to her door if you didn’t live with the bride] one night at midnight asking for _____(bride). He was wearing this old flannel shirt, and I think asked ____(bride) if she wanted to get some french fries.I had my doubts, but as I got to know him , I began to see he was an easy person to talk to, he has a good sense of humor, and eventually I came to the conclusion he was a great match for ______(bride). I want to be the second to say welcome _______(groom) to the family. We hope we can show you the same outgoing and open spirit as you have shown us.
To continue with this exact speech example, see this site: with an example Maid of Honor Speech.
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