4 full speeches
Wedding speech examples when someone has died
A wedding without someone who should be there is hard to speak at. These full speeches mention the person by name, give them a moment, and come back to the couple. None of them leaves the room sitting in silence.
Ask the couple first
Some want their late parent mentioned by name, some want a quiet line, some want nothing at all. Ask them, and do what they say.
Use a story, not a eulogy
One specific, slightly funny thing the person did keeps them in the room. A list of their virtues turns the toast into a funeral.
Mention them once, then move on
Put the moment in the middle or near the end, keep it to a few lines, and finish on the couple. The last line belongs to the people getting married.
The speeches
- Best Man · Heartfelt · about 3.5 minutesBest Man Speech After the Groom Lost His DadBest man for a college roommate whose father died two years before the wedding; the speech names him once and moves on“Good evening. I'm Lazlo, the best man. Fitzgerald and I were assigned the same freshman dorm room at Pitt, and he spent the first night labeling the shelves. His side, my side. I have been living on my side of his labels ever since. I want to tell you about a porch.”
- Father of the Bride · Heartfelt · about 3.5 minutesFather of the Bride Speech From a WidowerA father whose wife died when their daughter was fourteen wants to honor her without turning the toast into a eulogy“Good evening. I'm Yosef, Tamar's father. Thank you all for coming. Kai's family came from Sacramento and from Osaka, and his grandmother made the trip at eighty-six, which puts the rest of us to shame. We're very glad to have you at our table. In our house, Friday night dinner was never optional.”
- 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.”
- Grandparent · Heartfelt · about 2.5 minutesWedding Toast From a GrandfatherA grandfather married fifty-six years, whose wife died two winters ago, toasts his granddaughter with a house rule the couple kept and what he saw the groom do“Evening, everyone. I'm Aldous, Juno's grandfather. I was married to her grandmother Fiadh for fifty-six years. She died two winters ago, and she would have loved tonight, mostly because she'd have been right about the flowers. Fiadh and I had one rule in our house, and we kept it the whole time.”
Guides for this situation
Have a draft already?
The free speech check reads it the way a room would: what lands, what to cut, and how long it runs. No account.
Check my speech