Wedding Toast From a Coworker (Short, About 90 Seconds)

The speech

Hi, everyone. I'm Barnabas. I should say up front that I know Gilda from work, and only from work. We've sat about four feet apart in the claims office at Lakeview Mutual for five years. I've never seen her house. I have watched her eat the same turkey sandwich roughly twelve hundred times.

So here's what I know. Two winters ago my father was in the hospital for most of February, and I was out for three weeks. When I came back, I expected a pile. Instead there was a new tab in our shared spreadsheet, labeled "Barnabas, when you're ready." It had every one of my open files, what she'd done on each, who had called, and who could wait. She did all of it on top of her own work. She never mentioned it. She still hasn't.

I met Amias exactly once before today, at the office holiday potluck. He brought a slow cooker of chili and talked to me for twenty minutes. Near the end he said, "She told me about your dad. How is he doing?"

Amias, you're marrying the person who makes the tab. I'm glad she has someone who makes one for her.

Glasses up. To Gilda and Amias. When you're ready.

Why it works: It is honest about how well the speaker knows the bride and sticks to what he saw at work. One quiet favor tells the room who she is, and the groom earns his line at an office potluck.