Father of the groom speech examples

Good evening, everyone. For those who haven't had the pleasure, I'm Danny's father, which for thirty-one years has mostly meant being the man standing just behind him saying "measure twice" to someone who has never once measured twice.

When Danny was nine he built a go-kart out of a shopping trolley and two ironing boards, launched it down Fenwick Hill, and steered directly into the only lamppost on a road with no other lampposts. He climbed out of the wreckage, looked at it thoughtfully, and announced, "I think the brakes were the problem." There were no brakes. That was, in fairness, the problem.

I tell you this so you understand the level of confidence we are dealing with. This is a boy who once assembled a wardrobe with three screws left over and told me they were spares the manufacturer throws in. That wardrobe is still standing. I check on it when I visit. I do not trust it.

He has always been like this — certain, cheerful, and completely undeterred by evidence. And for years his mum and I quietly wondered who on earth could ever keep up with him.

Then Priya arrived.

Priya, the first time you came to our house, Danny told you he was going to cook, and you said, "Shall I preheat the smoke alarm?" And I knew, in that moment, that this family had been waiting for you for a very long time.

Because here is what I have watched over three years. You don't slow him down and you don't rein him in. You just quietly hand him the brakes he keeps forgetting to install. He is braver with you, and somehow also far less likely to drive into a lamppost.

I want to thank your parents, Anjali and Rohan, for a wedding this generous and this warm, and for raising a daughter who looked at my son — go-kart, wardrobe, spare screws and all — and thought, yes, him.

Danny, you are the best thing your mum and I ever built, and unlike that wardrobe, you were finished properly.

Would you all please stand and raise your glasses. To Danny and Priya.

Good evening. I'm Callum's father, and I'll keep this gentle, because Callum has asked me twice today not to embarrass him, and once is usually my limit.

When Callum was small he used to follow me around the garden with a plastic watering can, insisting on helping. He watered the same rose bush about forty times a day and left the rest of the garden to fend for itself. That rose grew to the size of a small car. I have never once had the heart to prune it.

I think about that rose a lot, because it turns out it taught me the first true thing I ever learned about my son: that when Callum decides something matters to him, he gives it everything he has, and he does not stop.

I have watched him do it his whole life. With his little sister, who he taught to ride a bike by running behind her for what felt like an entire summer. With his friends, the same ones he has kept since school, who are all sitting at that table right now pretending they are not welling up. And now, most of all, with Grace.

Grace, I want to say this to you directly. When you first came into our lives, you didn't set out to win us over. You just paid attention. You noticed that Callum's mother likes to be asked about her garden. You noticed that I go quiet when I'm happy and worked out, correctly, that it was a good sign. You have a way of making the people around you feel seen, and my son is a better man for standing next to it.

I'm not going to hand you two any advice today. You haven't asked for it, and marriages are not built out of other people's speeches. But I will tell you the one thing I know for certain, which is that the things you tend carefully are the things that grow far past all reason.

Grace, thank you for choosing him. And thank you to your family for welcoming ours so completely today — we feel it, and we will not forget it.

Callum, I have been proud of you every single day of your life. Watching you become someone's husband is simply the proudest yet.

Please raise your glasses with me. To Callum and Grace.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Marcus's dad, and I've been told there are four more speeches after mine, so I'm going to try to be the one you thank later.

People have always asked me what Marcus was like as a boy, and the honest answer is: exactly like this. Steady. Kind in a way that never asked to be noticed. The sort of child who, at his own birthday party, quietly went to check on the one guest sitting alone. He was six. He learned to be useful without being asked, and to this day he's the first one up to clear the plates — including, I suspect, at his own wedding.

I could stand here and list his achievements, but Marcus would hate that, and anyway they are not the point. The point is who he chose, and who chose him back.

Elena, we did not so much gain a daughter today as recognise one who was already ours. You brought a lightness into this family that we did not know we were missing. You laugh at my jokes, which shows either great warmth or very poor judgement, and I have decided, for my own sake, to take it as warmth.

Thank you to your parents for a day of such kindness, and for raising the person who makes our son this happy.

Marcus, your mother and I spent thirty years quietly hoping you'd find someone who saw you clearly. You have. That is all we ever really wanted for you.

So I'll sit down now, as promised. Everyone, please raise your glasses. To Marcus and Elena.