4 full speeches
Wedding speech examples for divorced or single parents
When the parents aren't together, every speech has to decide who gets thanked and how. These full speeches handle it from both sides of the family, without pretending nothing happened and without reopening anything.
Thank everyone who helped
Name every parent who raised the bride or groom, and the ones paying for the night. Leaving someone out is the thing people remember.
Skip the history
The room doesn't need to know what went wrong. One gracious line about the other parent does more than a paragraph of explanation.
Agree on who speaks
If both parents want to speak, talk it through with the couple early. Two short speeches beat one long negotiation on the day.
The speeches
- Friend or guest · Heartfelt · about 3 minutesToast for a Parent's Second Marriage, From Their DaughterAn adult daughter toasts her divorced mom's second marriage, welcoming her new stepdad at the reception“Hi, everyone. I'm Coral, Aurelia's daughter. My brother Marlon is the one at table four pretending he isn't already crying. He asked me to do this, which was smart of him. My parents split up when I was nine and Marlon was six.”
- Father of the Bride · Heartfelt · about 3 minutesFather of the Bride Speech for Divorced ParentsA divorced father speaks for his daughter; he thanks her mother by name in one sentence and keeps the rest about Kalinda“Good evening, everyone. I'm Bartek, Kalinda's dad. Thank you for coming, and thank you especially to the ones who drove down from Duluth in that weather, which Kalinda planned for, because of course she did. Here is the thing about my daughter. When she was eleven, she asked for a raise in her allowance.”
- Father of the Bride · Heartfelt · about 3.5 minutesStepfather of the Bride SpeechA stepfather who arrived when the bride was fourteen and wasn't wanted speaks with her father in the room, and has to honor both men without making it awkward“Hi, everyone. I'm Magnus. I'm Frida's stepfather, and for about a year of her life I was "Mom's husband," said in a tone I won't try to imitate in front of her new in-laws. I married Ulla when Frida was fourteen. Frida did not ask for me.”
- Mother of the Bride · Heartfelt · about 3.5 minutesMother of the Bride Speech, Hosting AloneA mother who raised her daughter alone is hosting alone, and uses one week from 2008 to show who her daughter is and to welcome the man who noticed the screen door“Good evening, everyone. I'm Xiomara, Leontine's mother. It's just me up here tonight, which is how it has been in our house since Leontine was four, and I want to say up front that we did fine. Better than fine. Look at her. Welcome, all of you.”
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