An emotional father of the bride speech is a heartfelt and sincere expression of a father’s love, pride, and gratitude for her daughter’s life as she starts the next chapter of her life with the groom, your new son-in-law.
Writing and delivering an emotional and heartfelt father of the bride speech is the hardest thing any father can ever do on their daughter’s wedding day.
It usually involves pouring your whole heart, mind and body into coming up with touching words that show how much you love her and how proud you are of the person she’s become.
Those words can bring you to tears if you have a soft heart or she is your only child and daughter. Or middle or second daughter.
If you are wondering how you are going to deliver a fun and heartfelt father of the bride speech through the tears without being overwhelmed, then I have great news for you.
Guess what that is? In this post, I am going to share with you proven tips and ideas that can help you write easily, a very emotional father of the bride speech that is spoken from the depth of your heart.
That being said, let’s start by look at this:
How To Write A Touching And Heartfelt Father Of The Bride Speech
Having a step-by-step plan is a great way to approach this task. So, let’s follow these simple steps:
· Start Off By Watching Father Of The Bride Speech Videos
· Read Heartfelt father Of The Bride Speech Examples and Samples
· Create An Outline And Structure For Your Speech
· Write A Rough First Draft
Let’s now break down each of those key points into smaller, actionable steps as that will make the writing process even more manageable and clear.
· Start Off By Watching Emotional Father Of The Bride Speech Videos
In the past, tasks had to be done the hard way. That is no longer the case now.
Modern technology has leveled the playing field for everyone. So, if you have no idea how to start, you don’t have to flinch in pain and spend hours hopping from one website to another.
Just head over to YouTube and insert the key phrase: emotional father of the bride speeches and a lot of videos that correspond to your query will pop out.
You then have to watch a few video clips and decide if it suits your speaking and writing needs or not.
If it does, you just have to pick up a few ideas from them and find a way to blend them into your script.
Let’s look at this video, as an example.
Did you pick up any good stuff from watching it? You may watch it back-to-back for some additional insights.
This comes next: read…
· Heartfelt Father Of The Bride Speech Examples And Samples
First, we will read two examples before figuring out how they were written. Let’s start by reading the two examples.
Emotional Father Of The Bride Speech Example
It is my great pleasure to stand before you on this the occasion of my daughter’s wedding. Now to say that I’ve been looking forward to this day would be a bit of an understatement. So now that the big day is finally here. I just want to take a moment to savor this experience because chances are I’m never going to have another opportunity like this again.
You know the bond between a father and a daughter is an amazing thing. The day
that Katie was born I realized depth of love I’d never known before. Well as I stood there that day holding my daughter for the first time,
I recall clearly having this distinct sensation that my heart was no longer in my body. You stole your poor daddy’s heart.
The moment that I saw you and today my heart is bursting with pride and joy proud of the woman that you become and joyful that you have come to know the warmth and happiness of true love and I’m absolutely certain that you’re going to be a great wife and a fantastic mother. After all you’ve learned from the very best.
James, I also remember the day that you came to our house and asked for Katie’s hand, I actually teared up a little.
You know they say that a woman tends to marry a man who has the same attributes as her father. But do you know what attribute I like most about James.
I like that he is strong. I’m talking about your strength of character. Your integrity as an individual is important to me because that one trait in particular is going to have an overriding influence on the likelihood of my daughter’s long term happiness.
And it’s obvious to me that you’re deeply in love with Katie and frankly James there’s nothing more important to this father than to know that his daughter is being cared for with that kind of love and integrity.
Sentimental Father Of The Bride Speech Example
First of all, my wife Holly and I want to welcome you all here and thank you for joining on us on this celebration of Greg and Carly. Thanks to Dan and Lynn for welcoming my daughter into your home. And you guys better grab some Kleenex.
About a month ago my wife says to me are you going to write a speech? I’m like no I’m going to wing it. Two weeks ago she says. Are you going to write a speech or what oh my God I don’t have to. So I got a little cheat sheet on my cheat sheet. I got a heart and I got a teardrop. The heart is because I’m going to speak from the heart and the teardrop is because all you people are going to flip and cry.
So Greg, I’ve always told my three daughters to pick a good guy with a great family and a hard-working guy. I can honestly say Greg you check all the boxes.
You are a great guy. You put my daughter first and as a father of three girls I can’t ask for any more than that.
Second, you have a great family, a wonderful family.
Third, you are hard-working. As I was helping you guys with your home, I saw how much care you took and how hard you worked and if your job doesn’t work at Yale you could start up the barber demolition because you will make a hell of a demolition contractor.
Carly, I don’t know where to start. You got stuck in the middle just like Greg and sometimes that sucks. But, you are the one of the most caring and compassionate people I’ve ever met.
You put everybody else first and thank God you found the guy that didn’t need fixing. I can remember a couple of conversations in my car. You were 19 years old. You’re not even married…. what are you doing in couples counseling.
But all kidding aside, we welcome Greg and the Barber family into our family and we’re so honored to have you both join together today and start your family and your relationship and your future.
A couple of stories about Carly and I’ll keep it short because we want to start partying.
Carly had this habit when she was growing up of collecting my belly button fuzz.
She would put it in a plastic bag and keep it under her bed.
So today I’m passing this tradition on so that she could do that for Greg. One other short story some of you know. I love the horses. Unlike my grandfather some of mine actually win.
Some of his are still running and they’re still running. So today I had a couple of minutes and I’m looking at Saratoga. In the third race there’s a horse and the name was what love looks like.
I got to bet this horse. I don’t know if it’s going to win but I don’t care I’m betting it. It won and I can honestly say these two are an example of what look love looks like.
So that being said let’s raise the glass and celebrate Greg and Carly and their beautiful future together.
Let’s now get to work by analyzing the content of both examples. Having a content outline will make things much easier. So, let’s look at this one:
· Create An Outline And Structure For Your Speech
· Thank and welcome everyone for attending
· Mention and thank a few people
· Thank the groom’s parents
· Let them know who you are
· Start your speech
· Talk about the bride
· Talk about the groom
· End your speech memorably
Here’s what to do next after creating that simple outline: Back each key point up with ideas, stories, and examples to enrich your speech.
This is how it’s done.
· Thank And Welcome Everyone For Attending
I guess you can do that easily, right? Just give it a try.
· Mention And Thank A Few People
Start off by thanking everyone for coming as it’s a great way to start off on the right foot.
Here’s how a father wrote his introductory remarks:
First of all, I’d like to express my gratitude to all of you for joining us today on this joyous occasion as we celebrate the union of my daughter, Krissy, and her loving partner, Alex.
Next, mention people you would like to express gratitude to. People like:
· The bride’s mother
· The siblings of the bride
· The grand mom and granddad of the bride.
For example, if the mother of the bride is deceased, you can simply say that you know she is looking down at her with love and pride.
· Thank The Groom’s Parents
Thank the groom’s parents for hosting the rehearsal dinner and for treating your daughter like their own baby girl.
If you have a great relationship with them, you can briefly talk about that and go on to share how you first met the groom before you even dive into your speech.
· Let Them Know Who You Are
It’s as simple as this example would be:
For those of you who don’t know me, I am Brian, very proud father of the bride.
· Start Off Your Speech On A Strong Note
You can just start anyhow. Since this is going to be an emotional father of the bride speech, you should start with words that pull at heartstrings.
· You may start with how you felt when she was born.
Here’s an example:
· You can share how parenting your daughter was like in the early years. Did you have sleepless nights? Was she an easy baby?
Here’s how I would start mine:
Parenting Doris has been an adventure, to say the least. There were times when she tested our patience, like when she came fell off our bed and we ended up in the Emergency Room.
· You can express your feelings about how you felt when you both walked down the aisle.
· How does giving her away makes you feel? Please, share that if you can.
The point of all this is to bring back fond memories while expressing how much she means to you. That’s when the tears will start to pour down your face because you will be speaking from deep down your heart.
· Talk About The Bride
Considering how brief most emotional father of the bride speeches are, it’s best to go with just a story or two.
So, start by writing down the most memorable thing you would like to share with your audience.
What would you like to say about her? You may brainstorm with your wife to find that perfect story that radiates her inner beauty and character.
· Talk About The Groom
The ideas I shared about thanking his parents may still be valid here. But, you can go a step further by talking about his personal attributes and how that will help make him a wonderful husband to your daughter and a great dad to his own children.
· End Your Heartfelt Speech Memorably
How would you like to end your speech?
You can conclude it with an advice like this one?
Laugh together often; embrace forgiveness and understanding, and practice empathy and active listening.
Or you can make it super memorable by ending with a poem about marriage. Here’s one I got from the poet James Bertolino
May you never find yourselves back to back
without love pulling you around
into each other’s arms.