Father of the Bride Speech: The Host's Welcome (Formal, 2.5 Minutes)

The speech

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Valentin, Honor's father. On behalf of my wife Xiomara and myself, welcome to our daughter's wedding. We are very glad you are here.

A few people deserve thanks before anything else. To the many of you who traveled to be with us tonight, some from across the country and a few from across an ocean, thank you. We know what it took. To Leontine and Baptiste, who raised Quill and who have been the kindest co-hosts two people could ask for, thank you. And to the staff of this house, who have looked after two hundred of us as if we were twenty, thank you.

I will offer one memory, and then I will give you back your dinner.

Thanksgiving, 2008. Honor was eleven and seated, as usual, at the children's table in my mother's dining room in Hartford. The adults had eaten, and nobody had said grace or raised a glass or thanked the cook, because we are a family that forgets. Honor stood up. She tapped her water glass with a fork, waited until all nineteen of us were looking at her, and said, "I think somebody should thank Grandma for the turkey." Then she did. Three sentences. She sat down. My mother, who was not a crier, cried.

I have thought about that evening many times since. Honor notices what is owed to people, and she says it, plainly, even when the room has moved on. She has not changed. She is the one who writes the note, who makes the call, who stands up when it would be easier to stay seated.

Quill, you saw that in her before we had a chance to tell you. In four years we have watched you match it: the note, the call, the standing up. You are family now, and Xiomara and I are glad of it.

As host, I have the first toast of the evening. Would you all please stand and raise your glasses. To Honor and Quill.

Why it works: The thank-yous are specific and over in one paragraph. One Thanksgiving memory does the work a biography would fail at, and the toast is two words long because the memory already said the rest.