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Father Of The Bride's Speech At The Wedding Reception

Tradition has it that the bride's father is the host of his daughter's wedding. In times past that meant paying for the reception too, though this is not often automatically assumed today. In keeping with that custom, the bride's father usually acts as the host for the wedding reception.

Some couples engage a professional master of ceremonies, especially for celebrity weddings. For typical weddings the father of the bride is expected to give the opening speech and propose the toast to the newly wed couple at the start of the wedding reception. He will often continue as the master of ceremonies.

There are five key steps to a good father of the bride speech.

The first item is to say some welcoming words to set the atmosphere and create a celebratory mood for a memorable wedding reception. The primary goal is to help the guests to relax. A good way to achieve this is to discuss the wedding ceremony, how beautiful the bride looks, the location chosen for the reception or even the weather -- things that all the guests will have an opinion about -- and how much you are excited about meeting everyone and sharing the reception with them.

Next, as the host, the father of the bride welcomes the guests. It is customary to introduce any special guests, especially the groom's family and anyone who has traveled some distance to get to the wedding. Absent guests are often mentioned as well, especially folks with close associations with the bride or groom but who could not get to the wedding. A dearly loved grandparent or favorite uncle who has recently died is often mentioned at this point.

A third vital section of the speech is to create interest about what is to come at the reception, such as the highlight of the best man's speech and entertainment scheduled during the reception. Any plans to follow the reception could be referred to. Your guests will relax more when they know what lies ahead.

As a fourth step in their wedding speech, most proud fathers want to say a few heartfelt words among friends and family about the bride, their daughter. This is often the most difficult part of the speech to prepare for many fathers. There is a variety of ways to show your love for your daughter. Childhood and courtship stories are popular, funny stories about meeting the groom and quotes from poems are popular topics, but every father has his own ideas.

Finally, to focus the wedding reception guests clearly on the bride and groom it is traditional for the bride's father to call for everyone to join him in a toast to the newly wed couple. The choice of the right words for this toast can take some time.

As the father of the bride you will introduce your own speaking and presentation style, with your own sense of humor and feelings into your speech. These simple five steps provide the basic framework to build on.

Only very few fathers can claim much prior experience speaking at their own daughter's wedding. A professional wedding speech guide is likely to be very helpful to them. Speech templates and example wedding speeches and wedding toasts can be downloaded, along with checklists of things and people that should be remembered, and time saving resources, such as popular jokes, quotes and poems to consider including. Such resources represent accumulated experience and wisdom that make the preparation of the father of the bride speech much easier.

Article Source: http://www.articleadventure.com

See a more comprehensive outline of a father of the bride speech and where to get father of the bride speech guides and resources and help with other wedding speeches and the wedding MC's role.

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