A good wedding toast can make the happy couple and their guests laugh and cry in a matter of minutes, so you want each speaker to have enough time to share their heartfelt message while moving the evening along. When you see eyes glazing over, you know that the wedding toast has drug on way too long. So who should give a toast, and how long should each one be?
You can call upon several guests to give toasts including:
√ the best man
√ maid of honor
√ father of the bride
√ father of the groom
√ the mothers
√ additional family and friends designated by the bride and groom.
The more toasts, the more concise each one should be. The reason is self-evident: if you have 4 different people each give a ten-minute toast, that’s forty minutes your guests could have spent on the dance floor.
On the other hand, if wedding toasters each give a three minute toast, that’s just twelve minutes, which will sit just fine with your guests.
According to The Knot, the entire speech portion of your wedding should be less than twenty minutes long. On the other hand, if wedding toasters each give a three-minute toast, that’s just twelve minutes, which will sit just fine with your guests.
Any individual toast longer than ten minutes can really, really drag. A well-written and rehearsed three-minute toast is a toast your guests will greatly appreciate!
Additional Toasting Advice From The Knot
The Knot has a few other interesting observations on toasting:
- Traditionally, the couple’s parents speak before the maid of honor and best man.
- No one in the wedding party should feel obligated to make a toast.
- Just 1 mention of an ex-partner is considered too many.
- Feel free to read a toast from notes rather than memorize.
So from Big Daddy Walker’s view, three minutes is the perfect length of a wedding toast for your Cincinnati wedding celebration.
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