Wedding Speeches and Toasts Editing and Proofreading Services

The father of the bride stands up and delivers eight minutes on how proud he is, how beautiful she looks, and how he is not losing a daughter but gaining a son. Every father of the bride at every wedding this year will say some version of the same three things, in the same order, and the guests will clap because the alternative is not clapping. Nobody in the room learns anything about this particular daughter that they did not already know walking in.

We edit what people write for the speeches surrounding a wedding that are not the best man's or maid of honour's — speeches from the father or mother of the bride or groom, speeches from the couple themselves, speeches from a sibling, close friend or officiant, welcome remarks at a rehearsal dinner, toasts proposed by a guest, and the shorter remarks given at a smaller or second wedding. Our editors work on the moment right before a room full of people raises a glass.

The particular relationship, not the occasion, is what a wedding speech should actually be about, and its failure is a speech built entirely from the vocabulary of weddings — proud, beautiful, gaining a son — that could be delivered at any wedding with the names changed. A father's speech should describe his daughter, not describe fatherhood. We work through these so the speech is anchored in one or two real memories that show the relationship rather than assert pride in general terms, since "I am so proud of the woman you've become" is a sentence guests have heard at every wedding they've attended and a specific memory is not; so the new spouse is spoken to directly at some point, not only about, given that a speech that only addresses the room leaves the person marrying in feels like they are being discussed rather than welcomed; so humour comes from something true rather than a stock joke about losing a daughter or gaining a bar tab, because a joke everyone has heard removes any sense that this speech was written for this wedding; so the speech acknowledges the two families or two lives being joined specifically, particularly where the couple met later in life, come from very different backgrounds, or bring children into the marriage; so exactly one thing is asked of the guests at the end — raising a glass, standing, a specific toast line — stated clearly rather than trailing into applause; and so it is timed to what a room holding drinks and canapés can absorb, which for most speeches in this category is under four minutes. Speeches written this way are the ones the couple keep a recording of.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including family details, drafts and anything you would rather handle carefully. We are editors rather than speechwriters composing your relationship for you, and we offer no view on the couple or the families involved. What we can do is help you find what is actually true about this marriage rather than what is expected at any wedding.