Sample speech: Straight and sentimental

A wedding speech for you to adapt, if you want to keep yours traditional with just the right amount of emotion

I’m so pleased you could all be here on this wonderful occasion, which Lisa and David have gone to so much trouble to make absolutely perfect. It’s a wonderful start to their married life together, which I know we all hope will be as successful as today is proving to be.

Success in marriage is more than finding the right person -- it is being the right person -- and I am proud to be here celebrating the marriage of these two lovely people, who are not only amazing in their own right, but are also the right people for each other.

Lisa, over the past ten months when you have been planning this wedding, your mother and I have had plenty of opportunities to observe you demonstrating all those fantastic qualities you have possessed since you were a girl. You have been creative in your planning, patient when things went wrong, generous and helpful to others, intelligent when dealing with difficult situations and a delight to be with. You remind me of your mother.

In short, Lisa has been everything you could want in a daughter, and I can only wish that she and David will be as happy as Mary and I have been during the past 34 years.

Ladies and gentlemen, please charge your glasses and join me in a toast. I give you... the bride and groom!