Writing your first maid of honor speech can be difficult if you’re not used to speech writing and public speaking.
Now while the following example may help you, I recommend that you don’t copy it word for word.
Instead, use it to grab ideas from so that you can craft your own speech.
Now here’s the sample speech that I created just for this website and is similar to the one I gave at my friend’s wedding last Summer.
Sample Maid of Honor Speech
“Hello everyone!
For all of you out there that don’t know me, I am _______, the sister/friend of the bride. I hope that all of you here today are as excited for these two as I am and I want to personally thank all of you for coming to witness their special day.”
This is a solid introduction. Nothing fancy, nothing original. I do stress, however, that if you have the creative edge to be original and write a great wedding speech like none other, then do it!’
The key to making a memorable maid of honor speech is to write one unlike any other. Creativity is the key to being remembered.
Let’s move on to another sample of the body of the speech.
“My dearest friend/sister, I want you to know that you are beyond beautiful today.
I am so very thankful to be apart of this celebration of your new life.
Thank you for giving me your love throughout our life and for sharing all of these years with me.
Though we may have fought, argued, wrestled, pulled hair and more, it was all out of love for each other.
I can’t promise that we’ll never fight again, but I will try to control myself more now that you’ve got a husband to defend you (crowd giggles).”
Ok, so I got a little carried away there, but this is the idea that you need to have.
Laughter is very addicting and when you can strike that emotion into people, they can’t help but feel emotionally connected to your words.
This is key to delivering a great wedding speech. If you can tap into the crowds emotions, you will have excellent maid of honor speeches that your friends and family will remember for years to come.
Do not spend too much time creating humor. You want to show how much you love the bride and to do that, you must think about special times you two had together.
Think of WHY you two are such good friends. If the bride is your sister, then talk about how thankful you are for being her sister. Let her know WHY you love her and HOW much she means to you.
Think of and write down several adventures you two had together and how they helped deepen your friendship and love.
You need to ask yourself WHY you two are close and what helped form this bond.
More Speech Help?
If you’re looking for more examples and not necessarily how to write a speech, I’ve been a fan of Belinda for awhile now as I got help from her when I had to write my speech.
You may have noticed the book image on the right side of my website when you first came here.
Her book has 25 speech examples and templates along with advice for writing and giving a good speech. If fear is your concern, then I really think you’ll like her book.
Click Here to Learn More About This Book
-You’ll learn the correct way to structure a wedding speech so that it flows well and sounds professional.
-You’re going to learn how to speak without feeling nervous.
-Public speaking is one of the biggest fears that people have next to death and this book will teach you how to combat these fears so that you’ll never be scared of speaking in front of crowds ever again.
-You’ll get access to plenty of sample wedding speeches and toasts that you can grab and use to reshape for your own.
-You’ll also learn how to come up with an endless amount of topics to speak about. If thinking of what to say is your problem, then this book will teach you how to come up with plenty of things to talk about.
With the knowledge you’ll gain from this book, I strongly believe you’ll be confident to write and give a great maid of honor speech without the fear of speaking.
That’s it for today and I hope I’ve been able to help you out!
Sarah
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Being the other lady in the party of toast makers makes the maid of honor speech really important. Adding some famous wedding quotes and using one liners will help give your speech that added bit of humor.
Lol. The speech is so serious at the beginnings and audience get so engross to the message and in the end, it seems kinda funny. Anyway, it’s a good way to make it memorable :)
I do like the introduction, but think that the hair pulling reference should be used with care. I would agree however that humour in a speech is a great idea.
I was lucky enough to have a friend who was a professional in this field and she gave me tips on some good speeches and ways to start speeches.
Oh you are! I’m gonna use something like that on my cousin’s special day. I try to appear sincere as well, though I’m already a little bit nervous)
I agree in that you could somewhat work this around a best man speech…well, at least the beginning. ha. However, you make a great point that originality is the best outline to follow but remember to keep it about them. I’ve seen some brutal “original” speeches that were not only bad, but about the person giving it. Thanks for posting.
Wow, I am totally showing this to my maid of honor prior to my wedding this spring! I’m most scared she may drink too much in the limo on the way to the reception and totally bomb her speech!
Thanks Sarah. I was so nervous about giving the speech next month at my best friend’s wedding. Now I can use this as a template. Thank you so much!
Sarah, thanks so much for the example. Most places I have gone to find speech information seemed so staged. I feel a lot better about my upcoming speech. lol
I could have used this two years ago when I was writing my wedding speech! Ugh, i was tough.
my cousin is getting married dec 31,2011 and I have always had a fear of public speaking, and she is having a beautiful wedding with about 150 to 200 people. I’m so afraid of giving a terrible speech. help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!