Writing the Perfect Toast

A wedding speech is not a performance. It is a public act of gratitude and love — and the shortest speeches are almost always the ones people remember.

Open with thanks. Guests, parents, wedding party, in that order. Do not read a list; name a few by name and mean it.

Tell one story. Not three. One specific, small, true moment that says something no one else in the room could say. Specificity is love made audible.

Close with a toast. Raise the glass. Say the words. Sit down.