WEDDING NOTES – Wedding Toasts
According to Random House, a toast is “a salutation uttered immediately before drinking in honor of a person or event.”
Toasts acknowledge the wedding couple and express good wishes for a happy future together. They also express a welcome – one family welcoming a new member to the group.
Some general guidelines:
- Toasts are not an opportunity to make the couple blush nor are they the place to tell inside jokes.
- The average toast can run about 3 minutes but no more than 5 minutes.
- The best times at the reception to offer toasts are either before the dinner starts and/or just prior to cutting the cake.
- The official host of the reception (usually the bride’s father) is the first to offer a toast. He is followed by the best man and then the maid of honor. Yes, the maid of honor offers a toast to the happy couple. Others may wish to offer toasts, but they should be controlled.
- If the bride and groom host their own wedding, they start the toasts by thanking family and guests for being with them on this special occasion.
- When looking for words for the toast, consider lines from poems that have meaning for the couple or the person offering the toast. Song lyrics or short anecdotes about the couple are also appropriate.
- The host or master of ceremonies should discourage the clinking of silverware against the glassware for any purpose during the reception.
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