Groom speech opening lines
The first sentence of a groom speech is doing more work than most people realize. Before you get to the thank-yous, the stories, the moment you knew, you have to earn the room's attention. A weak opener and the room settles into polite waiting. A strong one and they lean in.
The 12 openers below are organized by tone. Read all of them, even the ones in categories you do not think of as yours. Sometimes the right line is in a different register than you expected.
These openers get straight to the point. No apology, no preamble, no warm-up joke. Just the thing you actually came here to say.
“I had a whole speech prepared. And then I saw her at the end of the aisle this morning, and I can tell you honestly: I do not remember any of it.”
“I want to thank everyone for being here. And then I want to stop thanking people and just say the thing I actually came here to say, which is: I am the luckiest person in this room.”
“I wrote about a hundred drafts of this. Most of them started with a joke. I kept cutting them because they were not the point. The point is this: I choose you. In front of everyone here, I am choosing you.”
“There is a version of today I imagined for years. Standing here, in front of everyone, saying these words. And in every version I ever imagined, it was her.”
These openers lead with feeling rather than facts. They are grounded, unhurried, and set up a speech that the room knows is going to be honest.
“I have been trying to figure out what to say to you in front of all these people for six months. The problem is that the truest things I want to say to you, I want to say to you alone. So I will say the truest public version: you changed what I thought was possible.”
“My brother told me the best thing about being married is that you always have someone in your corner. My dad told me it is having someone who makes you better. My mum told me it is finding someone who sees you clearly and loves you anyway. I think they are all describing the same person.”
“I am going to be honest with you, which is something I have always tried to be: I was not ready for you when we met. I did not know that then. I figured it out somewhere around month three.”
“I want to say something in front of everyone that I have said privately, in the dark, on ordinary nights, more times than I can count: I am so glad you are mine.”
These openers earn a laugh before they earn a tear. Use one of these if humor is part of your natural register, but make sure the sincerity arrives before you sit down.
“I am not someone who believes in fate. I am a data person. I think things happen because of choices and timing and probability. And then I met her, and I started to question all of that, because there is no rational explanation for someone being exactly right for you.”
“I have three stories ready. I am only going to tell you two of them. She knows which one I am leaving out, and I think we can all agree that is the right call.”
“I spent about six months writing this speech. The version you are about to hear is the one she approved. The others were better. I say that with nothing but love.”
“Everything I know about love I learned from watching this woman handle a delayed flight with more grace and competence than anyone I have ever met. I figured: if that is how she handles chaos, I want to be the person who causes it.”
What the best openers have in common
They skip the apology
No "for those who don't know me," no "bear with me," no "I'll try to keep this short." Every opener above assumes the room is already interested. That confidence is earned by being interesting immediately.
They are specific to the speaker
The data-person opener only works for someone who actually thinks that way. The delayed-flight opener only works if there is a real story behind it. Before you borrow an opener, ask whether the rest of the room would believe it came from you.
They create a question
The best opening lines make the room think: where is this going? "I wrote about a hundred drafts" is a promise that something real is coming. The speech then has to deliver. Make sure yours does.
They are one sentence, or close to it
The opener is not the speech. It is the reason to keep listening. Get in, make your point, and move on. The longer an opener runs, the more it starts to feel like a warm-up act for something that never arrives.
A great opener needs a great speech behind it.
SpokenVow interviews you the way a speechwriter would, then builds a complete draft around your stories and your voice. The opener is already in there. You just have to start.
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