Bespoke toasts and speeches | examples
Stella and Xavier
Stella and Xavier’s generation aren’t afraid to pick and choose from the established wedding traditions. They still want Reception speeches, for example, but they’re wary of them being overly long or losing their audience with jokes only half understand.
They decide to do something a little different – ‘mirror image’ toasts – a delightful mix of collaboration and surprise.
First they take important time out from all the heady distractions and instead reflect for a while on what it’s actually all about: their relationship. Together, we agree a structure, areas to focus on and a way forward. Then it’s time for them to work independently for a while, generating the words I’ll use to write for them.
On the day, instead of one of them feeling all the pressure, they find themselves looking forward to the big reveal. It’s their way of starting their marriage as they mean to go on.
Wesley
Proud dad to daughter Mica and soon father-in-law to fiancé Adam, Wesley couldn’t be more pleased to have been asked to make a speech at their wedding.
He wants to do the very best job he can for them, naturally, but he is also conscious that he is the only parent to have been asked. Between them, Mica and Adam have 6 parents, since each family experienced divorce some years ago and new partners have come into the fold. They think of both their parents and their step-parents as their family, without distinction.
Wesley decides this is an opportunity not just to share his own happiness, but to involve the whole parental group. With Mica and Adam’s blessing, we all work together, taking their words and his, creating one remarkable speech in the process.
The opening lines? How we can define our own families and be stronger as a result.
Hannah Wroe Gill | Words and Wisdom
