17 full speeches
Wedding speech examples for a brother or sister
A sibling has more material than anyone else in the room, which is the problem. These full speeches pick one story out of a lifetime and build on it, from older and younger siblings, brothers and sisters, funny and heartfelt.
Pick one story
You could talk for an hour. Choose the story that shows who they are now, not the one that's funniest to the two of you.
Skip the embarrassing childhood
One light childhood moment is plenty. The room wants to know the adult your sibling grew into.
Welcome the partner properly
Siblings set the tone for how the family takes in a new person. Say something specific and warm about them.
The speeches
- Friend or guest · Heartfelt · about 3 minutesBilingual Wedding Toast from the Bride's SisterThe bride's older sister speaks to a room where the groom's family speaks Spanish, and switches languages for the lines meant for them“Good evening. I'm Oriana, the older sister, by four years, which Eulalia will tell you does not count anymore and I will tell you counts forever. When I left for college in Ohio, Eulalia was fourteen. We were close, but we were sisters, so we had never once said so.”
- Best Man · Funny · about 3.5 minutesBest Man Speech for a Twin BrotherThe groom's identical twin is best man; the mix-up jokes run out and lead to the bride, who has never once gotten them wrong“Hi, everyone. I'm Fenn, Marek's twin brother. If you congratulated me during cocktail hour, thank you. I accepted on his behalf. And to the woman by the bar who asked about the honeymoon, I told you Portugal. I have no idea where they're going. Please don't send a postcard.”
- Best Man · Heartfelt · about 3.5 minutesBest Man Speech for a Younger BrotherOlder brother as best man for his younger brother, built around one childhood memory and one thing he saw the bride do“Hi, everyone. I'm Nils, Ike's older brother. I'm told it's traditional for the best man to embarrass the groom. I've had twenty-nine years to collect material, and I'm going to waste almost all of it. When I was fifteen I had a paper route.”
- Best Man · Short · about 2.5 minutesBest Man Speech for an Older BrotherYounger brother as best man for his older brother; one childhood memory does all the work“Hi, everyone. I'm Ansel, Stellan's little brother, and I have been following him around since 1998. He is the only person in this room who has never once told me to stop. One memory, and then I will let you eat.”
- Best Woman · Heartfelt · about 3 minutesBest Woman Speech From the Groom's SisterThe groom's older sister stands up as his best woman; he is a quiet man who shows love in small, repeated ways“Hi, everyone. I'm Wilda, Ivo's big sister. When he asked me to be his best woman, I said yes before he finished the sentence, which he will tell you is a habit of mine. I'm five years older, so for a lot of his childhood I was in charge when our parents worked late.”
- Father of the Bride · Heartfelt · about 3.5 minutesFather of the Bride Speech From Her BrotherTheir father died four years ago and the bride asked her older brother to give the father of the bride speech, so he has to fill the slot without pretending to be Dad“Good evening, everyone. I'm Tomasz, Ana's big brother. If you're looking at the program and wondering why the father of the bride is thirty-four, that's a fair question. Our dad, Piotr, died four years ago this March. He should be standing here. He'd have been terrible at it, for the record.”
- Maid of Honor · Funny · about 3.5 minutesJoint Speech From Two Maids of HonorTwo maids of honor, the bride's sister and her college best friend, give one speech together and keep competing over who knows the bride better“Seren: Hi, everyone. I'm Seren, Yara's sister. Neve: And I'm Neve, Yara's best friend from college. Seren: We're both maids of honor. Yara could not choose between us, which is fine. It was an easy choice, and she made the wrong one. Neve: We agreed to share this speech fairly.”
- Maid of Honor · Funny · about 3.5 minutesMaid of Honor Speech for a Younger SisterOlder sister as maid of honor for the younger sister who copied everything she did, from bangs to restaurant orders“Hi, everyone. I'm Stella, Daisy's older sister. Three years older, which in our house meant a three-year head start on everything, and Daisy spent her whole childhood trying to close the gap by doing exactly what I did, about four minutes after I did it. I got bangs in fourth grade.”
- Maid of Honor · Heartfelt · about 4 minutesMaid of Honor Speech for a Younger SisterOlder sister as maid of honor for her younger sister, who is marrying a woman; the speaker admits she was the one who did not write back“Good evening. I'm Sigrid, Maeve's older sister by five years, which means I spent most of her childhood telling her she was too young for whatever I was doing. She came anyway. She always came anyway, and tonight I want to tell you about the time that mattered most.”
- Maid of Honor · Funny · about 3.5 minutesMaid of Honor Speech for an Older SisterYounger sister as maid of honor for the bossy older sister who ran her childhood, down to the minute“Hi, everyone. I'm Zinnia, Bettina's little sister. She is four years older than me, and for the first twelve years of my life she was also my supervisor. I never applied for the position. She just hired me.”
- Sibling · Funny · about 3 minutesBrother of the Bride SpeechThe bride's younger brother, not in the wedding party, asked by his sister to say a few words at the reception“Hi, everybody. I'm Kaz, Ida's younger brother. Ida asked me to say a few words. She said "a few" twice on the phone, and then she texted it to me, so I'm going to try. When Ida was eleven, she got a label maker for her birthday.”
- Sibling · Heartfelt · about 3.5 minutesBrother of the Bride Speech, Raised by GrandmaThe bride's younger brother speaks at her wedding; the two of them were raised by their grandmother, who is in the room“Hi, everyone. I'm Tiernan, Anneliese's younger brother. There are two of us, and there was one grandmother, and she's sitting at table two in the blue, so I'm going to speak clearly and keep my elbows off this podium. Our grandmother Ursula raised us from the time I was four and Anneliese was nine.”
- Sibling · Funny · about 3.5 minutesBrother of the Groom SpeechThe groom's younger brother, not the best man, asked by the bride to say a few words at the reception“Hi, everybody. I'm Kester, Josiah's younger brother. I am not the best man. That job went to his college roommate, which is fair, because I would have used the time to settle some things from 2011.”
- Sibling · Short · about 2.5 minutesSibling Wedding Speech, Youngest of FourThe youngest of four siblings gives one short speech on behalf of all of them at the oldest brother's wedding“Hi, everyone. I'm Carmela, the youngest of the four of us. Viggo is the oldest, then Lorimer, then Benedicta, then me. The three of them voted that I should do this. I'd like to think it's because I'm the best speaker.”
- Sibling · Heartfelt · about 3 minutesSister of the Bride Speech, Not Maid of HonorThe bride's younger sister, not the maid of honor, speaks at the reception about growing apart as kids and close as adults“Hi, everyone. I'm Folasade, Yetunde's younger sister. Her maid of honor already spoke, and she was wonderful, and I am going to be shorter and probably cry more. I have to start with something true, which is that for most of our childhood, Yetunde and I did not like each other very much.”
- Sibling · Funny · about 3.5 minutesSister of the Groom Speech, a Few WordsThe groom's older sister, not in the wedding party, asked to say a few words at her brother's wedding“Hi, everyone. I'm Octavia, Auden's older sister. I am not the maid of honor, I did not plan anything, and nobody checked this speech, which tells you how much this family trusts me. Mirabel asked me to say a few words.”
- Sibling · Heartfelt · about 3 minutesSister of the Groom Speech, Not in the Wedding PartyThe groom's older sister, not in the wedding party, speaks at the reception at her brother's request“Good evening, everyone. I'm Aila, Lev's older sister. I'm not in the wedding party. I'm the one in the third row who started crying during the processional, before anyone had actually walked anywhere. Lev asked if I'd say something tonight anyway, and I said yes before he finished the question.”
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