Mother of the bride speech examples

"I want to say something I have never said to her directly, which is that she taught me more about being her mother than I taught her about being my daughter.

She was stubborn before she could walk. She had opinions before she had words. Every stage of her childhood that was supposed to be simple was not, because she had a very clear sense of what she thought was right, and she was usually correct.

I spent a lot of years trying to point her in directions. She spent those years deciding her own.

And then she came home one Sunday and told me about Jamie. She said it so carefully. Like she was presenting evidence. I did not say anything. I just watched her face.

I knew right then.

Jamie, she chose you on purpose. That is the highest compliment this family knows how to give.

To Emma and Jamie."

"I have been her mother for twenty-nine years. I have watched her cry over things that did not matter and be brave about things that did. I have watched her fail and get back up. I have watched her become the person standing in this room tonight.

And I am not sure I have the words for how that feels. But I am going to try.

There is a moment I keep coming back to. About a year into their relationship, she was dealing with something genuinely hard at work, and I watched how he handled it. He did not try to fix it. He did not offer opinions she had not asked for. He just stayed. Quiet, steady, interested in exactly who she was.

I raised her to be independent. To know she could build a life exactly as she imagined it. And then she found someone who made all of that feel like permission instead of armor, and I understood for the first time why I wanted that for her.

To my daughter and her husband. I am so glad you found each other."

"When Sophie was little, she used to tell me exactly what kind of person she would marry someday. She was very specific. She had a list. I found that list recently in a box in the attic. James, you need to know: you are almost everything on it.

I say almost, because nine-year-old Sophie had some very particular requirements about the number of dogs and a somewhat alarming opinion about kitchen counter height. We will call that a work in progress.

What was on the list, and what you have in full: someone who listens. Someone who makes her laugh, specifically at herself, which is hard to do. And someone who is, in her words at age nine, genuinely nice.

You are genuinely nice, James. I mean that in the most serious possible way.

Her father and I have been married for thirty-two years. I can tell you that genuinely nice, on the hard days, is worth more than anything romantic the movies ever promised her.

To Sophie and James."

"I do not give speeches. I give instructions.

So I will keep this in my lane and simply instruct everyone in this room to look at my daughter and take note of what pure joy looks like on a person's face. Because I have been looking at that face for twenty-seven years and I have never seen it look quite like this.

To her partner: she chose you with the same deliberateness she brings to everything. You should know what that means. It means she looked, and she waited, and when she was certain, she was certain. She did not doubt her way here. She decided.

What I want for her is simple. I want the ordinary days to be good. I want someone who stays in the room during the hard conversations, who finds her funny when she is not trying to be, and who sees her clearly even after the newness fades.

I think she has that.

To my daughter."

"I have been thinking about this speech for a long time. Writing it and deleting it, mostly. What I kept coming back to, every time, was the same sentence: I could not be more proud of who she became.

She did not become this person because of anything I did perfectly. She became this person in spite of the things I got wrong, and because of the things she figured out for herself. That is not false modesty. That is something I have watched happen in front of me and learned to be grateful for.

I have been looking forward to this day and dreading it in equal measure, and I think anyone who has raised a daughter will know exactly what I mean. Not because of loss. Because of weight. Because some moments carry everything that led to them, and this is one of those.

Her partner, Michael: thank you for being someone she chose on purpose. Thank you for making her more herself, not less. That is the only thing I ever needed.

Please raise your glasses. To Emma and Michael."

"I raised her to be independent. To not need anyone. To know that she could build a life exactly as she imagined it without waiting for someone to hand it to her.

She did exactly that.

And then she called me one evening and said, in the tone of voice she uses when she is being careful, that she had met someone.

I did not ask questions. I just listened. And somewhere in the middle of that phone call, without anything dramatic being said, I understood. She had found someone who made independence feel like a choice rather than a defense. That is a very specific thing and it is not easy to find.

Ryan, welcome to the family. She does not give trust easily. You have it.

To my daughter and her husband."