Best Father of The Bride Speech Examples, Jokes & Tips
Your daughter is finally getting married. There are quite a few emotions that you are probably feeling right now and the last thing on your mind is what you’re going to say for your father of the bride speech.
Not to worry, there are plenty of options for you as the day gets much closer. You will want to have a great speech so make sure that you are fully prepared to share it with all of the guests at your daughter’s wedding. You can use jokes to help lighten the mood. The possibilities are endless when it comes to saying just the right things at your daughter’s wedding.
In order to give a very tasteful speech at your daughter’s wedding; you can follow some simple steps. The guests have filed in and they are probably talking loudly and walking around the reception room, how do you get their attention so you can start your speech?
Generally, it is tasteful to tap on your champagne glass to grab everyone’s full attention. If this doesn’t work for, which it may not, stand up and say “excuse me ladies and gentlemen” into the microphone. Usually the reception room is big enough that you will need a microphone so that everyone will hear you.
Once you have gotten everyone’s attention, you can begin your speech. Make it count and make it genuine. Show off your love for your daughter and celebrate her happiness on this incredibly joyous day.
The Perfect Speech for your Daughter
You will more than likely be the first person who speaks at your daughter’s wedding reception. This can mean quite a lot of pressure to give a winning performance.
The best father of the bride speeches generally will be short and sweet. They will run about 7 to 8 minutes and you will want to make it the most amazing and loving speech that you have ever given.
Write down your ideas first. Create a notecard or a piece of paper that has all of your brainstorming on it. If you can think of any subheadings, write those down as well. Once you have all of this written out, you can begin thinking about how you will begin the speech. You can open it up with some quotes if you are nervous and want to break the tension up a bit.
Here are a few examples of how some fathers have opened up their wedding speeches:
Here are some father of the bride speech examples. Start with an introduction and a welcoming such as, “I would just like to say welcome to all of you and thank you so much for being here on my daughter’s most important day. I cannot begin to say how grateful I am for all of you being here to help support her and her husband on this day. It honors me to have just given her away to the most wonderful man that I have ever met. I know that these two love birds will be happy for many more years to come. I am so glad that all of you are here to see this bond happen.”
There is the perfect introduction to get the guests to give you their undivided attention for what is next.
Keep Your Speech Sentimental or Add Humor
There is quite a lot that you can bring to the speech. For the introduction, you must make sure that you start it out in the best way for you. If you are generally funny, open up with a joke. This can be an icebreaking for the guests that don’t quite know you very well.
There are plenty of one-liners that can really get the wedding guests’ attention and they will be very excited to listen to your speech. Examples of funny father of the bride speeches vary and you can start out like these celebrities did.
“The secret to a happy marriage remains a secret.”
Henny Youngman
“Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.”
Phyllis Diller
“I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.”
Andre Maurois
When you decide to add in some humor, make sure that it is tasteful humor. There will be plenty of guests at the wedding that you do not know and probably some children, so you need to make sure that you keep it clean. You can always use these one liners or any others that you may know to open up your speech. The more relaxed you seem while you are speaking, the more likely people are to give you their full attention.
Keep your speech as friendly as possible. You don’t want to come off as if you don’t like the groom or if there is any family drama with you and your daughter. This will intrigue the wedding guests, but it’s not the right place or the right time to bring that kind of thing up. Pretend each and every guest at the wedding is a very close friend and not only will you have a friendly tone; you will also be much more relaxed if the champagne isn’t doing its best for you.
Make Observations about the wedding
One part of some short father of the bride speeches makes observations about the wedding.
You can say something like this: “This has been quite the wonderful occasion and I can see how happy everyone is to finally see this beautiful couple join each other in marriage. The bride and groom look extremely happy on this day and I am so happy that we all get to share this moment with them. The events that have led up to this day have been up and down, but the bride and groom finally met and found the right fit for both of them.”
After this part of your speech, you can start to discuss just how beautiful your daughter looks. You can say things like “Let’s focus on my daughter and just what a beautiful bride she makes. I never thought I would see her look so beautiful and so grown up. I remember when she was chasing dogs around the neighbour and catching frogs with her big brothers. I never thought she would wash that dirt off of her face and become such a lady. I am very proud of her for taking the plunge and finally finding a man that will put up with her the way her mother and I did. I am very proud of her. She has grown into one of the loveliest and amazing women that I have the pleasure to know and I take all of the credit for turning her into this beautiful lady that you see before me. My daughter and I share a very special bond and it is my great pleasure to give her away to her wonderful groom today.”
By inserting a small little joke about her, you can lighten the mood and the guests will realize that you are happy to be there and you love your daughter very much.
Share Your Love For The Couple
There are plenty of father of the bride jokes that you can use when you start talking about the happy couple. Here are a few jokes that many dads have used at their daughter’s wedding. These quotes come from a lot of celebrities who were very open about their feelings on marriage.
Begin this part with how they met, then go into the day you found out that they were engaged and your reaction. You can talk about when they first started dating and what you remember about it. Also, talk about the first time that you met the groom, how did you feel and what did you think about him?
Remember to keep this part as nice as you can. You don’t want to offend him or his parents. Share with the guests about how you knew when your daughter was in love and the feelings that you felt when you first noticed. There is so much to cover in this section of the speech and you may get a little teary eyed. It will happen, don’t worry about that part too much. During this part of the speech, you can also point out how great of a pair your daughter and her husband are.
You can talk about their love for each other in a great way. This part of your speech can go something like this:
“I remember when this beautiful bundle of joy came into my life. Yes, my daughter was the highlight of that year for her mother and me. I took to her in a way that I never thought I would. She was our first and as scared as we were to be parents, I think we did a pretty good job with this one. I remember watching her grow up and I said that I hoped the man she marries will treat her better than I did. After seeing the two of them together, I have no doubt in my mind that he treats her thirty times better than I ever will.
About three years ago, she started acting really funny. Funny in the way that puppy love makes people act. I knew then that she was in love. This was scary as hell to me. I knew my baby was growing up and I knew that at some point, I would be giving this speech. I was hoping it was later than sooner though. I inquired about this guy who has been making her act so funny. She told me all about him. They met at college and she knew instantly that he would be the man she would marry. I have heard this before, so I thought it was just a fleeting thought. Then I saw them together. I think I got that funny feeling just watching the two of them together. They were made for each other. The way they looked at each other reminded me so much of the way my beautiful bride and I would look at each other when we first started dating. I knew that she was happy and this was real love. He was nothing but a gentleman to her and when we met him, he was kind and considerate. I couldn’t have picked a better man for her to be with let alone marry. This is a celebration of them and their true love.”
The Father of the Bride Toast
If you thought that the speech was a great idea, now it is time to end the speech and give your daughter and her groom a toast. This will close your speech, but you have to make sure that you go out with a bang. You want people to remember every part of your speech, but the toast is what really pulls them in.
You can use examples from celebrities or from other weddings that you have been to. A toast is important because this is the way that you lead your daughter in the right direction. This is when you say you are happy about her spending the rest of her life with her new husband. Here are a few quotes that you can use to segue into the toast for your daughter.
“It’s a funnny thing that when a man hasn’t anything on earth to worry about, he goes off and gets married”
Robert Frost
By adding some more humor, the toast can start out in a happy and positive light. There will be tears shed once you are finished with it, so it is important to have the happy parts of it first. The toast can be a way that you tell the bride and groom that you are happy for them and their journey.
An example that you can say is: “I could literally go on and on about how perfect this couple is for each other. I could share embarrassing stories about my daughter for hours, but I will not put her through anymore trauma since she is now all grown up and ready to start a brand new phase in her life. In life, we find people that aren’t perfect, but they end up being a perfect match for us. They love all of our flaws and imperfections. They appreciate every little thing that we have to offer. When these two found each other, I knew that they were that perfect match for each other. Here are my words of wisdom for the two of you. When all of life gets stressful and you both are working so hard, don’t forget to thank each other for the little things. Remember to look at each other the same way you did when you discovered you were madly in love. Make time for dinners together and for each other. Don’t go to sleep mad at each other, talk it out.
Communication is key and you will hear people say that every day of your married lives. So this is my toast to the two of you. To the past, present, and future. Love each other with all of your hearts, take every day that you have together as a blessing, don’t get mad over silly things, and never go to bed mad. Follow these steps and your marriage and life together will go on for as long as you two shall live.”
There are many different ways that you can write the best speech. These are all just examples of some the ways. Take from these examples what you can and you will be able to write the best father of the bride speech possible.
Your daughter’s special day will be something that goes down in her history and she will remember it for the rest of her life.
