Types of Wedding Speeches: Every One Deserves Its Own Approach
A best man speech is not a father of the bride speech. Wedding vows are not a toast. Each type has its own emotional logic, its own structure, its own version of success. Choose yours and we'll help you write something worth remembering.
Best Man Speech
The speech that sets the tone for the whole reception. Funny and honest, with stories only you could tell.
The best best man speeches operate like a late-night set: you establish a character (the groom as you know him), build a rhythm of funny-true-funny, then land on something genuinely moving at the end.
Maid of Honor Speech
You know her better than anyone in that room. This speech is your chance to prove it.
The maid of honor speech has one advantage no other speaker has: depth. You have seen her at her worst and her best. The speech that earns the room is the one that shows the bride as only her closest person could.
Father of the Bride
The speech that makes everyone reach for their napkin. Nobody else in that room has known her since the beginning.
Your job is not to be clever. It is to say the thing you have never quite said out loud. The rooms that go quiet in the best way do so because a father stopped performing and just spoke.
Mother of the Bride
Nobody knows her journey the way you do. This speech lets you tell the room what it looks like from where you have been standing.
The mother of the bride speech draws on a lifetime of watching someone become who they are. The ones that land are never about advice. They are about witness.
Groom Speech
This is the speech that says everything you have been meaning to say. To her, to them, to the people who got you here.
The groom speech covers a lot of ground: gratitude to both families, something real to your partner, and a toast that brings it home. The trick is making it feel like one story, not a list.
Bride Speech
More brides are speaking now than ever. This is your chance to say something only you can say, on a night that is already yours.
A bride speech has the advantage of emotional authority. The room is already with you. The challenge is saying something specific and true rather than beautiful and vague.
Wedding Vows
The most intimate words you will ever speak. Not a speech. A promise. The best vows are specific, personal, and end at exactly the right moment.
Great vows resist the urge to be poetic and instead reach for the precise. The structure is deceptively simple: who you were before, who you became because of them, what you promise going forward.
Wedding Toast
Short, warm, and personal. A toast does not need to be long to be remembered. It just needs to be true.
The wedding toast works best when it is tight: one story, one observation, one genuine wish. The audience forgives brevity. They never forgive rambling.
Father of the Groom
Your chance to welcome a new person into your family and tell the room why you are so proud of your kid.
The father of the groom speech is easy to underestimate. You are not just toasting a son. You are welcoming a partner. The speeches that land are equal parts pride and welcome.
Mother of the Groom
You shaped who he became. This is your moment to tell the room what you see, and to welcome the person he chose.
The mother of the groom speech balances pride with welcome. The room wants to hear what only you know about who he is, and how he got here.
Brother of the Bride
You grew up with her. You know the version the room has never seen. That is your material.
A brother of the bride speech has a unique lane: sibling honesty. You can be funnier than a parent and more honest than a friend. The trick is knowing when to pivot from the roast to the real.
Step Father of the Bride
You chose to be here. That is its own kind of powerful. This speech tells a story that only you can tell.
The step father speech navigates a specific emotional landscape. It does not compete with another relationship. It honors its own. The speeches that land are the ones that are honest about the journey.
LGBTQ+ Wedding Speech
Every speech is personal. Yours especially. No templates, no assumptions, just your story told the way it deserves.
The speech is not about love in general. It is about this love, specifically. VowAI asks the questions that surface what makes your story yours.
Second Marriage Speech
This time you know exactly what you want to say. We help you say it with the weight it deserves.
A second marriage speech acknowledges the path without dwelling on it. The best ones are forward-looking: less about what was, more about what is and what will be.
Rehearsal Dinner Toast
The intimate rehearsal dinner needs something personal and warm. Less formal than the reception, more heartfelt than you would expect.
The rehearsal dinner is a different room: smaller, more intimate, full of people who actually know each other. A toast here can be warmer and more honest than anything you would say the next night.
Thank You Speech
Help the couple thank their people without reading from a spreadsheet. Find the feeling first, then name the people.
The thank you speech is deceptively hard. You need to acknowledge everyone without making it feel like an awards acceptance. The ones that work find the specific moment that captures everything.
Not sure which type?
Start with Best Man. It's the most common speech and has the widest range: funny, heartfelt, or both. Once you're in the interview, it's easy to adjust your approach.
Wedding Speech Studio