How weddings have changed in the decades! Coming from a handful to 400-500 invited guests; one-two to six-eight bridal party members; a straightforward wedding car to expensive and huge wedding cars; three course meals to six course meals; one-three live bands; simple attire to colorful and flamboyant dresses, suits and attire and off-the-cuff to well-prepared wedding speeches.
While we’re talking about the latter, wedding speeches remain an important part of being married and guests do look forward to hearing them, speaking about them before, during and indeed after they’ve been delivered.
We are all aware of groom speech delivered prior to the meal, in the meal after the meal, however it’s of the strong opinion how the wedding speeches should be delivered following your meal. I understand that for many wedding party speakers i.e. Father from the Bride Speech, Father of the Groom Speech, Bride Speech, Groom Speech and Bestman Speech (the five main speakers), they’d choose to hold the wedding speeches prior to the meal, so they can enjoy their meal (a number of them are paying for it!). However, is going on the invited guests and just how many of them (and indeed wedding ceremony venue staff) would rather wedding ceremony speeches being delivered after the meal for many reasons, most of which include:
The invited guests have been fed and watered and aren’t paying attention to wedding speeches on an empty stomach (at least of food, which would be prior to meal, though weddings today do provide light snacks upon arrival on the wedding venue)
Food could be cooked and served on the agreed time (introduce the wedding ceremony speeches prior to the meal as well as their could be a delay of Quarter-hour to a single.5 hours, driving your kitchen staff crazy trying to keep food freshly cooked, presentable and edible)
Wedding ceremony speeches behave as the transition from the meal towards the dancing (broke and alone happening as soon as the meal, people are expecting ‘a few words’ being shared in regards to the Bride & Groom then they understand they can get out of bed, move around, have a break, take a stroll, navigate to the bar…)
It’s not easy for parents with the Bride & Groom to communicate in in public, as the majority of them wouldn’t be used of computer. So, they could, should they so wished, speak prior to / their meal.
There should still be some sort of formal wedding speech(es) following your meal…
For more info about father of the bride speech have a look at this popular webpage.