As mentioned in the introduction, your speech should consist of a beginning, a middle and an end. As the Father of the Bride you will probably start by welcoming the guests; talking fondly about your daughter, her husband and marriage; and finishing up with a wedding toast. We’ll consider the beginning and end afterwards, but for now we need to get some ideas down for the main body of the speech.
With a sheet of paper and a pencil you should brainstorm some ideas for the middle section of your speech. The things you need to cover are your daughter and how important she is to you; her new husband how he is the ideal partner for your daughter; you might also like to talk about marriage and what it means to you, but you can include anything you feel is appropriate here.
To get you started think about the following:
First of all, think of your daughter and what she means to you. Who is she, apart from your daughter? What are the proudest moments of her life? What are you most proud of her for? What kind of relationship do you have with her now?
Who is her husband, what qualities does he have, what do you like about him - depending on your relationship with him, what don’t you like him, but be careful about offending both him and his family.
What have you gained from marriage, why is it important to you, what do you think your daughter will gain from it?
Write down ideas as soon as they come to you, without considering whether they are any good or not. The point behind this exercise is to get down as much as possible so you can truly exhaust all possible ideas and then pick the best of them. While some of what you may write down may seem like nonsense when you write it down initially, it may trigger another idea, so don’t just anything yet.
Depending on how used to you are to brainstorming like this you may be able to do it in 5 or 10 minutes. Don’t worry if you struggle to begin with; you may find you can only get the obvious ideas out to begin with, but if you return to the exercise later you may have more to get down.
Once you’re happy that you have enough - or probably more than enough - material for your Father of the Bride speech you’re ready to go on to the next stage - writing the welcome and the toast.
Is the thought of giving the father of the bride speech giving you sleepless nights?
If you are feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of having to speak at your daughter’s wedding, here is the information you do not want to miss. Detailed info to help you plan for all aspects of the speech to help you deliver it flawlessly. Click here to learn more
