Are you having trouble with your maid of honor speech? We have helped craft some good wedding speeches in our time and thought we’d provide some maid of honor toast examples, a maid of honor speech template, and even some maid of honor speech do’s and don’ts so you can go down in history as having one of the best wedding speeches. Writing a great speech can be one of the most challenging duties for the maid of honor to nail, but it is also a huge, exciting opportunity to give one of the wedding speeches, and we want you and the wedding guests to enjoy such an exciting moment! Here are a few tips on how to write a maid of honor speech.
Who Is the Maid of Honor Speech For?
When you give a maid of honor speech, you want to think of who you are speaking to at the wedding reception. All great speeches are written for a specific audience, and of all wedding toast speeches, the maid of honor speech definitely ranks most important. To help you form your maid of honor speech template, we will discuss who your maid of honor speech can be tailored for at the wedding reception. This will help you know the audience you are speaking to.
The Married Couple
Your maid of honor speech can definitely be tailored for both the bride and groom. When you give your maid of honor toast, you are speaking on behalf of the bridal party to the new couple. Make sure your wedding toast focuses on them, complimenting the wonderful day, and honoring any relationship you have with the bride or groom. For example, ‘you’re such a great friend’ or ‘it is an honor to speak at my best friend’s wedding’ so that they know you noticed all these beautiful things. Your expertly curated, ultimate maid of honor speech should absolutely honor the new couple and their love story with funny stories or inspiring wedding wishes.
The Wedding Guests
The wedding day is absolutely about the new husband and wife. However, keep in mind that there may be a little sister, a few guys from college, grandparents, and other young guests in the crowd. Keep your wedding speech tasteful to spare the bride’s younger sister any inappropriate bachelorette party knowledge, and stick to stories from when the couple met in high school gym class instead. Avoid inside jokes, too, so that your speech is fun for more than just your best friend. Wonderful things happen when you can include your whole wedding party in your wedding speech. Your maid of honor speech should include everyone on the wedding day by sticking to appropriate, funny wedding speeches and maybe a bit of lighthearted joking about your good friend’s honor at most.
Musts for Maid of Honor Speeches
Now that we’ve discussed the maid of honor’s responsibilities let’s look at some maid of honor speech outline musts. While you’re busy wedding planning, please take note of little details so they can go into your sample wedding speeches. We recommend running your first draft or two by the happy couple so your maid of honor speech is guaranteed to please them on the big day. Then you can also get tips on how to write your maid of honor speech tips from the happy couple and include some of their favorite details. Maid-of-honor wedding speeches can be daunting, but we promise you’ll have some good ideas with this maid of honor speech examples.
A Brief Introduction to How to Write a Maid of Honor Speech
Your maid of honor speech definitely needs an introduction. It would be best if you let everyone know who you are and why you’re speaking so that they can connect with you and see where your understanding comes from. Some maid of honor speech examples for this are:
"Sorry to stop the party for a moment everyone, I just want to say my congrats to the happy couple. I'm so-and-so, the maid of honor, and I met the bride in high school in drama class. She was a true talent, and we hit it off day one..."
or
"Hey everyone! What a beautiful wedding, the Smith's really know how to throw a party! I'm so-and-so, the maid of honor, and I'm so excited to talk to you guys about the wonderful couple we're here to celebrate today. I met them at work, and saw how driven they both are from the get go. I look forward to seeing their successes, and celebrating with them many more times..."
These maid of honor speech examples quickly bring you into the relationship and help bridge your speech forward. The power of a good introduction is lost on no one!
Genuine Connection
Your maid of honor speech should come from a place of genuine interest and compassion. Speak from the heart! The perfect maid of honor is a good person who wants to thank the couple for a lovely evening and uses their maid of honor toasts to make their best friend laugh and wish the newlyweds the best in their life together. Your maid of honor checklist for this should be about the sweet memories you have, the absolutely spectacular bridal shower you got to enjoy, and maybe even a funny story from when you were kids. The most romantic version of your speech is one that speaks your honest, genuine truth about how happy you are for the newlyweds’ new life.
Lots of Practice
Practice, practice, practice is critical for a great maid of honor speech! Even if you know your own words, practicing a little or maybe even a lot can help overcome nerves. Half the fun of a maid of honor speech is the writing. The other half comes from an easy delivery. All the words you write matter, so make them count. With practice and diligence, your maid of honor speech could be the perfect sendoff to the couple’s new happy life.
Don’ts for Maid of Honor Speeches
There is always someone brave enough to try these don’ts, and it never goes over well. A true best friend, a stand-in sister, or even a true bride’s biological sister should avoid these mistakes when writing their maid of honor speech. Be known as the gorgeous woman who gave the fantastic speech, not the person who made one of these missteps!
Party Hard Beforehand!
Before your big speech, do not get too intoxicated or make a fool of yourself! Keep your heavy celebration for after the speeches, as the night should still be young by then– there’s plenty of time to party. Don’t be afraid to pace yourself early in the day to have the energy to party later and plenty of poise for speech time.
Talk About Exes
Do not talk about the bride, groom, or even your own exes! Focus on the now and the future rather than the past. You never know if you’ll be dredging up some icky feelings or even if you might end up accidentally pulling focus from the current couple and putting it on an old love affair. Try to keep your maid of honor speech focused on current best friends, loves, and family, except in the case of honoring family members who have passed.
Use Inside Jokes
Do not use inside jokes. As mentioned earlier, using an inside joke in your maid of honor speech means that only the best friends in on the joke get to truly enjoy the speech. If you keep the jokes open and fun, you invite the audience into your relationship in a more genuine way. Keep it classy, keep it loving, and keep it moving! Better to be a bit generic than overly specific and niche in this case, anyway.
Prompts for Maid of Honor Speech Examples
We know you might need some help with introductory ideas, or jog your memory about the perfect cute story, so we included some prompts below! This way, you can show your best friend you know how to write a maid of honor speech and maybe even cement your reputation as the funny maid of honor.
Prompts:
- How did the couple meet?
- What is your favorite memory together?
- What was your first impression of the bride’s partner?
- What’s something you admired about one of them that they now share?
- How does the bride demonstrate her best qualities? How does her partner do this?
- Did the bride tell you when she knew she wanted to marry her partner? How did she know they were the “one”?
- What wonderful things do you hope are in store for the happy couple?
- Has the couple overcome challenges together?
- What makes their relationship unique?
- What are a few essential things you’ve learned from them?
- How would you describe their relationship in three words?
- How did the proposal happen?
- What hopes do they have for the future?
- How did you get introduced to her partner?
- How have the two impacted each other’s lives?
- What are they both bringing to the relationship?
- What’s the funniest story you know about their dating history?
Conclusion
We at Clean Origin believe in you! Your maid of honor speech will undoubtedly be lovely, especially because you are already researching your speech and working on it. We want your excitement for the new couple to shine brightly like our stunning lab created diamonds, and with these tips and examples, it surely will!
