Over the many years I’ve photographed weddings I’ve seen all manner of amazing speeches. A great wedding speech reveals something further about the bride and groom that wedding guests will not necessarily already know. It’s a chance to revisit childhood memories, a way to say thank you and more importantly to convey love. For me some of the best weddings that I have worked in have had the most rousing speeches. The conclusion I come to with regard to this is that great speeches can only be made by strong personal bonds. Put simply if there’s a powerful connection between people then there’s always a great story to tell. I’d also say that a series of good speeches will allow time to digest a meal and wash it down with a little light sparkle! This means that the evening is primed to fire into a belting good party and people will dance the night away.
This isn’t so much a writing guide, there are plenty of articles about that all over the internet, but it might give you a few nudges of inspiration to draw from. The best speeches I’ve heard are the ones that injected some creativity and here are a few from recent years that will perhaps inspire you in your quest to entertain your wedding guests and set the course for an evening to remember!
A Gift
I’ve witnessed quite a few gifts in my time. The grandest was from a Bride to her new Husband in the shape of a shiny new blue Jaguar car and the most bizarre was a potty. One recent standout though was the presentation of a stuffed bear to the groom from his best men. The back story on this was that the bride had a much cherished bear from her childhood that had been jilted from the comfort of her bed with the introduction of her new husband and in order to restore a balance a companion was introduced.
The Toastmaster
Having a good Toastmaster is a great way to lift the energy. You could elect for a traditional red coated confident and well spoken distinguished person to bring order to a noisy room. In the case of Lauren and Andy’s lovely early summer treat at Sutton Bonnington Hall however it was the highly charismatic Dave from Bliss wedding DJ services had everyone howling before he invited speakers to stand for their turn.
The wheel of misfortune.
Last year I took a trip to the village of Saltaire just north of Bradford for a visual treat that was heavily influenced by Johns artistic talents. This was inspired by his and Jenny’s meeting in the preparations of the 2012 Olympic games. The 4 best man line up didn’t settle on a few stories to tell but introduced a highly amusing ‘spin the wheel’ event to add a sense of random chance to the grooms blushes!
A picture
Having a set of compromising pictures is not uncommon but in the case of Liz and Hugh (more of their wedding can be seen here) last year it was revealed that Hugh had once ridden a bicycle over a desert whilst naked. The fun however didn’t stop there when further disclosure came about the couples exploits of a naturist camping holiday!
The singer/song writer
Perhaps one of the most common things that I’ve seen or heard (apart from the dreadful joke about the groom taking his new wife to Bangor for a week – yes that ones still making a good few weddings every year!) is some guitar work. Last year I chuckled merrily listening to Sarah’s father as he sang how he would chop of her new Husband Jack’s c*ck if he did anything to hurt his precious daughter. Best of all though was the epic performance of Sarah serenading her new wife Sophie at Donington Park Farmhouse Hotel. And rather than just post a picture, I asked Lucas and Laura to let me use their filming from the day…
