Wow. What a time in life. If you’ve been selected to give the Maid of Honor Speech at your friend’s wedding, you are very likely trying to get some ideas. Give me the chance to try to provide you with the best of what I have learned 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 would be amazed at how many people pretend the fear they have about public speaking isn’t there and tell themselves “I’ll just put it off until the couple of days beforehand,” “the night before,” or God forbid “in my car on the way there. ” By the way, if you’re not feeling nervous, I might be a little worried. What I’m trying to convey here is that it’s completely normal to feel anything from a bit jittery to utterly panicked at the idea of having to give your 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 know your nerves are normal, let’s 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 loves to hear a story. The first might be something relating to what you thought of the groom when you met him. This usually seems to be a great topic to use , because it’s perfectly 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 tattered, old beat up car and had a little bit of a strange craving for French fries after 12am .”
Hello! In case I haven’t had the chance to meet you in person yet, my name is _________. I’m the maid of honor today, and I’m so proud of _______ (the bride). First, I want to say congrats ________(bride & groom). Also, special to _______(the bride’s parents, who likely sponsired the wedding) and to everyone who came from far and near to be here with ________(bride and groom) on their very special day.
Keep any pokes you might consider aiming at the groom in your maid of honor speech to a low level. As you will probably be sensing just remembering your past experience, at a wedding, people place the parts of themselves that might get a little miffed about the “darker side” of humanity on hold . They are there to experience feelings of love, joy and happiness. They don’t want to be reminded about the nasty things that can come out in people, like greed, lust, pain, etc .So hold short of telling jokes that might hint at this sort of things. A tiny ever-so-slightly negative comment about the groom is okay, but only once, and try to make it very light.
When I first met ____ (groom), I remember wondering if 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 second thoughts , but as I got to know him , I started to see he was an easy person to talk to, he has a great sense of humor, and eventually I realized he was a perfect 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.