I’m going to a wedding this weekend and I’ve been asked by the bride and groom to make a toast to the wedding party. The bride and groom are old friends of mine so saying a few words to them will be no problem. However, the wedding party is another story. There’s only 4 people in it : Best man, groomsman, maid of honour and bridesmaid. Of the 4, the best man is a good friend of mine. However, the groomsman and I have a mutual dislike for one another, the maid of honour is the bride’s younger sister who I’ve never met and the bridesmaid is my ex-girlfriend and we aren’t too friendly anymore.
So, if possible, I’d like to make this toast as impersonal as possible and just address the group as a whole. However, I’m not sure what you’re even supposed to say in a toast like this. Can anyone please offer a suggestion or two??
Make sure everyone’s glass is full
Clear your throat
Rise from your seat
Raise your glass
Thank everyone for gathering
Express how privileged you feel to do this
Recall how you met your friend
Compliment the bride’s appearance
Wish them every happiness in their new life together
Touch glasses with everyone
Toss off your drink
Park and lock it
As normal, just place your bread under thr grill!!!
Not that this will help much, but I made three toasts at a recent wedding reception. You can use the third one to toast the wedding party, and somehow draw some kind of sequitur to it.
To the groom (attributed to P.J. O’Rourke)
Here’s to [groom], he’s a helluva pal
He’s every girl’s guy and every guy’s gal
He’s a prince, a hopper, the lord of the dance
and he frightens the horses when he takes down his pants
To the bride (attributed to me)
Here’s to [bride], a helluva girl
The prettiest young chickie in all the known world
She really knocks me out when she gives me her look
and if that don’t work, she’ll use her left hook
To the wedding party (attributed to whoever came up with the very first toast)
Here’s to Eve, the mother of our race
She put her fig leaf in the right place
Here’s to Adam, father of us all
He was Johnny-on-the-spot when the leaves began to fall
There are all sorts of books on toasts. Toasts for Irish Blessings, Italian blessings, etc… They give samples you just have to insert the names. Check out your local bookstore. The books are in the range of $6-25
Zenster’s makes perfect sense. Don’t stress over it. Unless you do something utterly, improbably stupid or foolish (“To my dear friend, his new wife, and that friggin’ asshole sitting next to her…”) it won’t be remembered anyway.