As wedding planners, we hear lots of toasts every.single.weekend. As you can imagine, this makes us (obviously) the very best folks to go to for advice on how to give the best toasts. We’ve heard some wonderful toasts, including ones that rhyme, were sung by the person giving the toast, involved props, video or photo support and much more!
On the other hand, we’ve been in the room for some real doozies: speakers who were so drunk they were slurring their words, speakers who could not keep it together enough to get through their first two sentences without bawling, speakers who were downright insulting to the couple or their families, and of course, speakers whose soliloquies lasted longer than the movie Titanic …and even some that lasted longer than the actual sinking of the actual Titanic. No one wants to experience the bad toasts, while the best toasts allow everyone to walk away feeling all warm & fuzzy inside.
To make it foolproof for you, here’s a simple step-by-step formula for bringing out the best in your audience and honoring your task to toast the happy couple:
- Introduce yourself: be sure tell everyone who you are in relation to the couple.
- Share a sweet memory or story with the group. Moderately embarrassing is fine. Mortifying is not. If you are unsure where that line is, skip that story and choose another.
- Say something funny about the couple. Same as above here: do not make the couple look bad on their wedding day!
- Wish something sweet & poignant directly to the couple. (Pro Tip: Look at THEM when you say this!)
- Wrap it up with your final well wishes, raise your glass & say “Cheers.”
- Keep it to 5 minutes or less. Practice with a timer if you must.
- Sit down and bask in the glory of a job well done. Now you can have another drink if you like!
That’s all! Simple as can be, right?? Tell us in the comments below about the best/worst toasts you’ve heard!
