Wedding Toast Examples

Good evening. I'm going to keep this brief, which Emma will appreciate because she has already warned the DJ about long speeches. I've known David since our early twenties, when he thought matching socks were optional and a balanced meal meant two kinds of cereal. Then he met Emma. Within six months he owned an iron. I am not saying she fixed him. I am saying he started trying. Emma, you look wonderful tonight. David, you somehow look more nervous than the day you asked her out. That seems right. Please raise your glasses to Emma and David. May your home be loud and your arguments short.

For those who don't know me, I'm Rachel, Emma's cousin. We grew up in the same house for a few years after my family moved in. I used to steal her clothes. She used to tell on me. We were not close back then. I remember the first time she brought David home. She was uncharacteristically quiet in the car. She kept checking her phone. When he walked in, my aunt asked what he did for a living, and David answered while helping her set the table without being asked. Emma watched him the whole time like she had already decided. That is the moment I keep coming back to. Not the proposal or the wedding. The way she looked at him in our kitchen. To Emma and David. I hope you keep looking at each other like that.

Hi everyone. I'm Mark, David's college roommate. I do not have a long speech. I just want to say that Emma and David make the people around them better. David is calmer with her. Emma laughs more with him. I have seen both happen. The first time I met Emma, David talked over her twice. She waited, then finished her sentence both times. He listened after that. That is how I knew she was good for him. Please join me in raising a glass to Emma and David. I am glad you found each other.

Evening. I'm Tom, and I have the unfortunate honor of knowing David before Emma got hold of him. The man showed up to our first job interview in a wrinkled shirt and told the manager his greatest weakness was that he worked too hard. He got the job anyway, which tells you everything about David's luck. Emma, you should know that he rehearsed his proposal in front of me three times. Three. The first two were disasters. The third was only slightly better. Apparently it worked, so what do I know. To be serious for one sentence: you two fit. I do not know how else to say it. Raise your glasses to Emma and David. And David, stop rehearsing.

I'm James, David's uncle. I have been married for thirty-one years, which means I am qualified to give exactly one piece of advice. Stop keeping score. It sounds simple and it is hard. Marriage is not fifty-fifty every day. Some weeks one of you carries everything. Some weeks you are the one being carried. The trouble starts when you start counting who did more. Emma, David will sometimes need to be told out loud what is wrong. He will say he is fine when he is not. David, Emma will sometimes need space before she needs solutions. Wait for her to ask. The rest is just showing up. Please raise your glasses to Emma and David. May you keep showing up for each other.

I'm [Groom's name]'s oldest friend. I have known him long enough to remember when he considered a clean shirt optional and a grocery list a sign of weakness. Then [Bride's name] showed up. Now he owns a spice rack and can tell cilantro from parsley. He sends me voice notes about which vacuum to buy. I have stopped answering those. The change is not about the spice rack. It is about how he talks now. He used to tell me what he was doing. Now he tells me what they are doing, and he says it with the same tone he used to reserve for new gadgets. That is how I knew. [Bride's name], thank you for making him someone who owns coasters. [Groom's name], thank you for letting her. Please raise your glasses to them both.

I work with [Groom's name]. We share a wall, which means I have heard most of this relationship unfold one meeting at a time. He used to take calls from [Bride's name] with the door closed. Now he leaves it open, and if I hear him say 'that sounds good, let me ask [Bride's name]' one more time, I am charging him rent for the wall. The part that gets me is the small stuff. He keeps a spare phone charger in his desk with a label that says [Bride's name]. He waters a plant she gave him even though he forgets to water himself. And he brings the same sandwich every day because she makes it, and he says it like it is still a surprise. That is a man who knows what he has. [Bride's name], you are marrying someone who shows up, even for a desk plant. To you both.

I have known [Groom's name] since we were six. We learned to ride bikes in the same cul-de-sac, and we both still believe the kid with the ramp lived in the best house on the street. When he met [Bride's name], he called me and said he had met someone who read the same book twice in a row on purpose. That was the whole pitch. Not how she looked or where she worked. That she re-read books. I told him that meant she was patient, which is exactly what he would need. He has never been good at asking for help. With her, he does not have to. I watched him hand over the remote, the map, and half a sandwich without a second thought. For him, that is practically a love letter. [Bride's name], welcome. You got a good one, even if he still cannot pack a suitcase. To [Groom's name] and [Bride's name].

I am [Groom's name]'s sister, which means I have seen him at his worst and still let him borrow my car. Growing up, he was the one who would not come down for dinner until he finished a level. He is still that stubborn. What changed is what he is stubborn about. Now he is stubborn about calling home, about remembering anniversaries, about being on time for [Bride's name] when being on time has never once mattered to him before. I noticed it last spring. She was sick, and he went to the pharmacy twice in one night, once for the wrong thing, then back again without complaining. Our dad would have done the same. I did not tell him that then. I am telling him now, in front of all of you, so he has to hear it. You grew into the man dad hoped you would be. [Bride's name], you picked someone who will go back for the right thing every time. To you both.

I am a friend of the couple, and I am going to tell you the thing nobody warns you about at weddings. You do not always realize what someone is to you until you see them choose. I have watched [Groom's name] and [Bride's name] make small choices for two years now. He changed jobs to be in the same city as her. She learned his grandmother's potato recipe so he would stop being homesick. They do not announce these things. They just do them, and if you are not paying attention, you miss it. I was going through a rough patch last winter, and they did not ask how I was doing. They just kept showing up with takeout and an extra chair pulled to the table. That is what their marriage will be, I think. An extra chair, always. Some couples make you believe in the whole thing again. These two do. Please raise your glasses to [Groom's name] and [Bride's name].

I will keep this shorter than the line at the bar. [Groom's name], I have known you for twenty years. You forget where you put your keys, you sing the wrong words loudly, and you are the first person I call when something actually matters. [Bride's name], the first time I met you, you laughed at one of his terrible jokes before he finished telling it. I knew right then this would end in a wedding, because no one has ever laughed at that joke before, and I have heard it for two decades. You two are the right kind of loud together. Everyone, raise your glasses. To [Groom's name] and [Bride's name]. Long may you laugh at each other's bad jokes.