Hungarian Wedding Toasts: Cheers, Speeches, and Customs

Who speaks, and when

• A vőfély, a traditional master of ceremonies, runs the wedding in verse: he announces the courses, the dances, and the toasts, often in rhyme.
• Parents toast and bless the couple. The best man and maid of honor may speak, briefly.
• The vőfély keeps everyone else short.

How long

Short, because the vőfély is already talking. A toast is a line and 'éljen az ifjú pár.' The menyasszonytánc at midnight is the moment everyone waits for.

What you’ll see

• The menyasszonytánc, the bride's dance: at midnight guests line up to dance with the bride, each dropping money into a hat or a basket. 'Eladó a menyasszony!' (the bride is for sale) is called out to start it.
• After the dance the bride changes into a red dress, the menyecske dress, and is a married woman.
• Pálinka, the fruit brandy, is poured for every toast, and the first one is drunk together.
• The vőfély's rhymes announce the soup, the stew, the cake, and the dances, and the room answers.
• Guests may be woken with music the morning after for a second round of food.

If you’re the guest from somewhere else

• Bring cash for the bride's dance. Everyone dances, and everyone pays.
• Egészségedre is hard to say. Try anyway; it is appreciated.
• Follow the vőfély. If he announces something, do it.

A toast you could give

Short, warm, specific to the couple, and ending on the phrase. Swap in your own names and your own detail; the shape is what matters.

Zsófi is the best cook I know, which I say with a full plate in front of me. Bence, you will never be hungry, and you will never win an argument. To the two of you. Éljen az ifjú pár!