Maid of Honor Speech

Wow.  What a time in life.  If you’ve been selected to give the Maid of Honor Speech at your friend’s wedding, you’re likely trying to get some ideas.  Allow me to attempt to provide you with the best of what I know from my years of experience as a professional speaking consultant.

Planning is important, and you’ve done a great thing by looking for information ahead of time.

Click here for a much more in-depth speech tutorial that will get you sounding like you’ve been doing public speaking forever.

 You’d be surprised how many people ignore the fear they have about public speaking and tell themselves “I’ll figure it out the couple of days before,” “the night before,” or God forbid “in the car on the way there.” 

By the way, if you’re nervous, as in freaked out beyond belief, that’s completely normal.  It’s natural to feel anywhere from a bit jittery to completely terrified at the idea of having to give a maid of honor speech.  It’s a totally natural reaction by the mind.  There are research psychologists who suggest this comes from our ancient past and the idea of being rejected by the tribe we lived with and depended on for survival.  I still get nervous every single time I prepare to speak, whether at a professional engagement, or even a casual dinner.   Okay, now that you know your nerves are normal, let’s look at the maid of honor speech itself:

The technical aspects of the maid of honor speech:

  First, you might consider starting by telling the audience who you are, and thanking them for coming.  Then, consider a story or two.  Everyone on Earth likes to hear a story.  The first might be something about what you thought of the groom when you first met him.  This always seems to be a good topic, because it’s perfectly acceptable for you to just slightly poke fun at him, as if to say “I wasn’t really sure about Jim when he first started dating Laura.  He drove this old beat up car and had a slightly strange craving for French fries after midnight.”

Hello!  In case I haven’t had the chance to meet you in person yet, my name is _________.  I’m the maid of honor today, and I’m so proud of _______ (the bride).  First, I want to say congrats ________(bride & groom).  Also, thanks to _______(the bride’s parents, who likely put on the wedding) and everyone who came from near and far to be here with ________(bride and groom) on their very special day.

  Keep any jabs you might consider aiming at the groom in your maid of honor speech to a low level.  As you will probably be sensing just thinking about your past experience, at a wedding, people place the parts of themselves that might be frustrated about the “darker side” of humanity on the back burner.  They are there to experience feelings of love, joy and happiness.  They don’t want to be reminded about the bad things that can come out in people, like greed, lust, pain, etc.  So keep from telling jokes that might hint at these things.  A tiny ever-so-slightly negative comment about the groom is okay, but only once, and try to make it very light.