8 Steps to Writing the Perfect Maid of Honor Speech

So you’re the lucky lady who got selected as the maid of honour? Congrats! It truly is an honour. The maid of honor speech is an important part of any wedding reception, so you’ll want to get it done right. Whether you want the newlyweds to be cracking up or tearing up, there are a few things that you’ll definitely want to include in your wedding speech. Here are the steps you need to take to write the best maid of honour speech.

Here are the 8 steps to writing an awesome maid of honor speech.

1. Start writing early

This is something with a very concrete deadline, so you won’t want to procrastinate - especially if words are not your forte or you’re more of an introvert. While your maid of honor speech won’t be graded, you’ll want to impress both the newlyweds and the crowd with it. Start writing at least a month in advance to help make the process a painless one. Pro tip: use our wedding speech template to get started.

2. Do your research

While researching a friendship (or sisterhood) may seem odd, it’ll definitely help you with your speechwriting. To kick off the process consult high school yearbooks, old Facebook albums, photo albums, scrapbooks - anything that’ll bring up old memories about the bride-to-be.

3. Make your introductions

To kick off your maid of honor speech you’ll want to introduce yourself and explain how you know the bride and groom. Follow this up by giving a shout out to whoever is hosting the bash, be it the couple themselves, the parents or a generous third-party. This is already a few lines of your speech completed, so congrats on getting the ball rolling.

4. Make the bride a priority

She’s the reason you’ll be holding that microphone, so make a big part of your maid of honor about her and your friendship. This is where you can get a little personal and perhaps make some waterworks (or giggles) happen with a tale that exemplifies your relationship. Maybe the two of you had a fun time gallivanting around Montreal? Perhaps you have a pseudo-embarrassing story about how you met in middle school? Pick a memory and run with it. Remember: there are things you shouldn’t say in your wedding speech. You’ll want this to be PG as the bride’s partner, family and in-laws will be listening.

5. Give her partner some of the limelight

While your friendship is important, you also want to give your BFF’s new spouse some love. This is another point in your maid of honor speech where you can get anecdotal with throwback stories about when you met the groom. If you’re not super close with them you may need to return to the research phase. And don’t worry, this section of your speech doesn’t have to be too lengthy.

6. Speak about the couple

You should dedicate a portion of your maid of honor speech to the happy couple - it is their special day, after all. Maybe share the inside scoop about how you found out they were dating or talk about when you knew they were in love. There should be plenty to pull from, but if all else fails I suggest consulting ancient text messages, emails, or FB threads with the bride for ammo or a funny story (thank god for the digital age).

7. Make it snappy

While this is your moment to shine, don’t make your wedding toast super lengthy – keep it short and sweet (five minutes max). The bride’s spouse, family, friends and in-laws don’t need a detailed account of your friendship, so just make things light, easy and speedy. Practice beforehand to make sure it doesn’t drag on.

8. Avoid these pitfalls

As mentioned before, when giving a funny maid of honor speech, you’ll want to keep the stories PG as there may be grandparents and kids around. That means there should be no talk about drunken antics or contraband substances (no, it does not matter how hilarious the story is). You should also avoid mentioning divorce. Nobody at a wedding wants to hear about divorce. Lastly, do not give your maid of honor speech drunk. You can hit the open bar when you’re finished.

Join the “wedding speech” discussions in our community »