How to Rock Your Groom Speech

The Groom Speech is perhaps the most important of the wedding speeches, as it’s the only one given from the perspective of the happy couple.

Although the groom might expect the warmest welcome of all the wedding speakers, there is still considerable pressure on him to get his speech just right. As with other aspects of your wedding, you just want it to be perfect. Certainly you don’t want memories of your special day to be tinged with feelings of disappointment or regret about your speech.

Fortunately, with the right approach and a bit of preparation it’s quite straightforward to produce a groom speech which wows your home crowd and leaves your new wife bursting with pride.

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What makes a groom speech great?

Guests arguably have fewer specific expectations for the Groom Speech, but in essence it serves two main functions:

• To thank family and friends for their support on behalf of yourself and your new bride
• To talk about your new bride and the journey which led to your marriage

Outside of these requirements, there’s plenty of room for the groom to get creative, but let’s cover each of these main points separately.

The Thank Yous

The Groom Speech is a platform to thank people publicly for their contribution to the planning of the wedding and to your life generally.

Typically you will want to thank some or all of the following people:

• The father of the bride for his speech
• Your parents and family for their support over the years
• Your bride’s parents for welcoming you into their family (and possibly for their financial support)
• Your best man and other members of the groom’s party for their help
• The bridesmaids (by way of a toast – see later)
• Any other organisers that deserve special recognition – e.g. the management at the wedding venue

You may also want to mention:

• Family members who were unable to attend (if not already mentioned by the Father of the Bride
• Late family members who are in your thoughts
• The best man and his imminent speech

Talking about your bride

This is an important part of the groom’s speech as it allows him to focus on the person who is most important to him of all – his bride.

For the guests, the groom speech is an chance to learn more about the bride from the perspective of her partner and learn the story of the relationship which led to the big day.

Here are some questions that might help:

• How did you meet and what were your first impressions?
• When did you know she was “the one”?
• What are her best qualities?
• What stories come to find that show her strengths?
• Why do you complement each other well?

While there is not the same pressure to be funny as with the best man speech, a groom speech which tells the story of your relationship with warmth and humour will go down an absolute storm.

Official responsibilities

In addition to the various thank yous mentioned about, there a few couple of official functions the groom is usually expected to carry out:

• Hand out any gifts – e.g. to bridesmaids, groomsmen, etc.
• Propose a toast to the bridesmaids (usually at the end)