Friend or guest · Short · about a minute and a half · 210 words
Wedding Toast From the Officiant (Short, About 90 Seconds)
A friend who officiated the ceremony gives a short toast at the reception without repeating what he said at the altar
Given by Ruairi, a friend of the grooms who officiated, for Lucan and Jensen. The names are made up.
The speech
Hi, everyone. I'm Ruairi. An hour ago I married these two. I got ordained online in March. It took four minutes, it was free, and I printed the certificate at the public library. No one at the library asked a single question, which I think about a lot.
I already said the official words. That was the legal part. This is the friend part, and it's shorter.
When I agreed to do this, I asked Lucan and Jensen to each send me, separately, a list of things they didn't want in the ceremony. I expected the usual. No sand pouring. No stories about the time Jensen drove to the wrong airport. I got two emails about ten minutes apart. The first line of each was almost the same. Lucan's said, "Do not make it about me, make it about him." Jensen's said, "Make it about Lucan, leave me out of it."
I've been friends with them for eleven years, and that is them exactly. Each one is always trying to get the other into the good light.
So I didn't pick. I read both lists out loud at dinner, and they argued about it for an hour, very happily.
Glasses up, everybody. To Lucan and Jensen. Make it about him.
Why it works: It names the difference between the ceremony and the toast in one line, then tells a story only the officiant could know. Both grooms come out of it looking good, and the toast line is a quote from them.
Make It Yours
Borrow the shape, not the sentences. This one is built on a single story that only its speaker could tell, and the room can hear a borrowed story from the back. Keep the order of the parts, the length, and the way it turns from the story to the partner, and put your own detail in each slot. The short wedding toasts walks through each part.
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