The Six-Beat ToastLantern Row Press

Wedding welcome speech example

A Wedding Welcome Speech That Is Over in Under a Minute

Here is a finished wedding welcome speech, given by an officiant thirty seconds after the vows, with notes on which of the six beats survive. It runs under a minute. The host and roommate versions from the same chapter are named underneath.

1 minute read aloud 187 words From The Wedding Party Speech Vault, chapter 8

For the officiant, host, emcee, or friend with a microphone who has to say something first and must not say too much.

Why this speech usually goes wrong

The speech that steals the next moment

You are the only person tonight who isn't toasting a person. You're toasting an evening, and the whole room is waiting for permission to enjoy it.

Every other speech tonight is going to work hard to make the room feel something specific about the bride, the groom, or both. Yours has one job before any of that starts: make it clear the room is allowed to relax.

You're not the warm up act for the real speeches. You're the reason the real speeches land, because you got the room settled, quiet, and facing the right direction first.

Welcome speakers get this wrong for a generous reason. They're excited, they love this couple, and they figure a little extra warmth can't hurt. So they tell the sweet story of how the couple met, or they get choked up on a joke that was supposed to be the best man's, or they deliver a small blessing of their own that quietly uses up the room's first big emotional reaction.

None of that is malicious. It's just spending a moment that belongs to somebody else. A room only has so much attention and so many tears in it early in the night. Every one you use is one the parent toast, or the best man, doesn't get.

The fix isn't insincerity. It's restraint. You get warmth. You might get one clean laugh. What you don't get is a story about the couple's history, and you don't get a full blessing. Those belong to somebody standing up later, and using them first is spending money that isn't yours.

Three welcomes follow, one per wedding. Every one of them runs under a minute and a half out loud, because that is the entire discipline of this role. If a minute and a half feels short on the page, time yourself reading one aloud. In the room, it will feel exactly right.

Steals the next moment

  • I want to tell you the story of how these two met, because it's too good not to share.
  • I'm not going to cry, I already know I'm going to cry.
  • Before we start, let me just say everything I've always wanted to say to both of them.

Sets the table, sits down

  • You're about to hear from the people who know them best. I'm just the one holding the microphone first.
  • Find your seat, find a drink, and get ready to hear some things about the groom he was hoping you'd forgotten.
  • In about two hours somebody's going to want you on the dance floor. Between now and then, eat well.

One column tells the room what's happening. The other one accidentally gives away the show.

The finished speech

The Officiant, for Dan and Amara

Read it aloud. About 1 minute.187 words

The friend who married them an hour earlier had to turn a room that had just watched two people cry at each other into a room ready for dinner and speeches.

An hour ago, in that garden, I stood four feet from Dan and Amara and watched two people promise each other the rest of their lives, and I am still buzzing from it, so bear with me for one minute before this room turns into a party.

You are allowed to let go of that garden now. Sit where you like, not where the place cards say if you'd rather sit with the person who makes you laugh. Refill your glass. In a few minutes you're going to hear from a best man who has been threatening this speech for a decade, and after that from a room full of people who love these two more than they can say in ninety seconds, myself included.

So find your seat, find a glass, and get ready. If you would raise them now, just for a moment. To an afternoon that already went perfectly. To Dan and Amara.

End of speech. Two more welcome speeches from the same chapter are named below.

Where the beats start

The six beats, marked

Every speech in the series is the same six beats in the same order: Open, Claim, Story, Turn, Blessing, Lift. Here is where each one starts in the speech you just read.

  1. Open

    compresses to one image, thirty seconds after the vows, instead of a life story about either of them.

  2. Note

    A sliver of Claim survives as a line about the evening itself, not about Dan or Amara's character: you're allowed to let go of that garden now.

  3. Story

    Turn and Blessing are cut completely. They belong to the best man and to family, later tonight.

  4. Lift

    arrives before the one minute mark, because the whole speech is a run up to it.

The method behind it

Write your own welcome speech in one hour

The speech above was not written from talent. It was written from six boxes on a worksheet, filled in order, in about an hour. The Six-Beat Toast is that worksheet, one chapter per beat, with a worked example from a best man, a maid of honor, and a parent at every step.

$17one payment, instant download

  • Six beats, six worksheets, in order. Filled in, they are a finished draft.
  • 95 pages, 18,782 words, PDF and EPUB, readable on a phone at the venue.
  • A chapter on the four ways the speech goes wrong, and a closing chapter on the night before and the ten minutes before.
  • Instant download, PDF and EPUB, with the One-Hour Sprint checklist and the Cue Card kit included.

Write yours in one hour, $17

PDF and EPUB, delivered the moment you pay, yours to keep and reuse for every wedding after this one. Digital product, so all sales are final.

Not for you if you want no structure at all and would rather wing it. The book is a fixed order of six beats; that is the whole reason it works in an hour.

Cover of The Six-Beat Toast, a wedding speech guide by Lantern Row Press

Two more from the same chapter

The other welcome speeches in the Vault

  • The Host, for Tom and Priya181 words, about 1 min
  • The Roommate, for Sam and Ellie192 words, about 1 min

The Wedding Party Speech Vault holds twenty-seven finished speeches across nine roles, with the beats marked on every one. It is offered after checkout as the companion to The Six-Beat Toast.

Questions people ask before they write

Welcome speech questions

Who gives the welcome speech at a wedding?

Whoever is hosting the moment: the officiant right after the ceremony, the hosts or the couple's parents at the top of the reception, or the emcee before dinner. Sometimes a friend who lives with one of them. The job is the same in every case, which is to tell the room where it is and what is coming, then get out of the way.

How long should a wedding welcome speech be?

Under a minute, 150 to 200 words. The three welcome speeches in the Speech Vault run 181 to 192 words. This is the one speech of the night where length is a failure on its own. Every extra sentence is a sentence stolen from the best man and the family.

What should a wedding welcome speech include?

One image or one sentence naming the job, two or three logistics lines, and a Lift that names what happens next. Dinner, bar, restrooms, where to be at eight. The speech above cuts Story, Turn and Blessing entirely, on purpose, because those beats belong to the people speaking later.

Should the welcome speech include a toast?

A short one, yes, as the Lift: instruction first, both names last. Do not give the toast the best man has been writing for a month. Raise the glass to the evening, or to the room, or simply to the two of them, and then say who is speaking next.

Can I say something about the couple in the welcome?

One line at most, and about the evening rather than about their characters. The speech above keeps a sliver of Claim: you are allowed to enjoy this. Anything more and you have given the family's speech before the family stands up. They will notice.

Other speeches that night

Finished speeches for the rest of the wedding party