The bride often asks herself - should she or shouldn't she make a speech?

The answer is that you definitely should consider making your own wedding speech. It will give you a perfect to opportunity to give particular thanks to your in-laws for welcoming you into their family, your husband for loving you and most importantly your parents for all that they have done for you and for helping you reach this special milestone in your life.

Bride's wedding speeches are becoming increasingly popular with more and more brides welcoming the chance to express their feelings on the most special day of their life.

The usual format for wedding speeches is that the bride's speech is the last speech of the day after the Father of the Bride, Best Man and Groom. As a bride you should definitely take this opportunity to make a speech, after all its probably the only time for the remainder of the wedding day that you will be able to hold every person's attention before the celebrating really begins! As the last speaker I personally think that the bride's speech has an immense impact on the assembled guests.

If you or your husband are nervous public speakers you might decide to opt for speaking together as a double-act. You might also want to consider that if your father or husband gives a highly emotional speech are you the type of person who will not be able to pull it together after their speeches? The last thing you want on your wedding day is to be struggling with tears and feeling that you can't enjoy the emotive moment of hearing the other speeches but instead have to concentrate on stopping your bottom lip from wobbling in preparation for your own speech immediately afterwards. If that is a likely scenario then perhaps you should opt for breaking with tradition and making your speech first. All I would say is that you should remember to tell the master of ceremonies beforehand where you would like to be featured in the line-up of speakers so that he can announce you at the appropriate moment.

The unique thing about a bride's speech is that there is no formal etiquette about the format of the speech, who you must mention, who you should remember to thank etc. Whereas the other speakers have to abide by traditions attached to their role (e.g. father of the bride describes first occasion he met groom and goes on to give tear-jerking reminisces about his daughter, best man has to humiliate the groom and comment on the bridesmaids beauty etc) you have no such obligations or restrictions. Your assembled guests and husband will have no expectations of your speech so you have free range over the content of your speech. You can have real fun incorporating funny stories or special memories into your speech as well as giving specific mentions to friends, family and your new husband - there are no hard and fast rules to follow and you can be totally flexible.

Although there is no formal structure to bride’s wedding speeches as a guide I would recommend incorporating some of the following into it:

♥ Thank your guests for coming and give special thanks particularly to guests who have traveled a long way or made an extra-special effort to attend your wedding.

♥ Mention anyone of importance to you who would like to have attended but was unable to come due to extenuating circumstances.

♥ If any guest has made a unique contribution to the wedding (e.g. home-made wedding cake, hand-made floral displays or played music, sung a song or given a reading during the ceremony) then ensure that you give them a special mention.

♥ Try to jot down over the weeks leading up to your wedding any special words that you would like to say.

♥ Tell an amusing story about the groom or about the run-up to the wedding. Stories your guests may find particularly amusing are those which involve some of them. This might include appropriate stories from the engagement party, bridal shower/hen or stag party.

♥ Possibly tell the story of how you met the groom, your first impressions, happy and funny memories of how the relationship developed from then up to your wedding day.

♥ The majority of brides (myself included) give a personal message to their husband expressing how you feel about him and leaving the guests in no doubt that you are totally in love!

♥ You might wish to tell your guests what your wedding day means to you, your thoughts on love and marriage and how it feels to be a wife.

♥ Thank your parents for their roles in the wedding and for their love, support and encouragement over the years.

♥ Mention your new in-laws and offer a few kind words and thank them for welcoming you into their family. Assure your mother-in-law that you will look after her little boy!

♥ Give some thanks to the people who've supported you through the stress of preparing for the wedding. A cute idea (if appropriate) is to apologise to your co-workers if they are attending for being wedding obsessed and talking about wedding consistently at work for the past few months!

♥ Thank your guests for their generosity and all their gifts.

♥ You will undoubtedly have spent all day receiving compliments on how great you look so do make sure you include in your speech a reciprocal comment to you all your guests who have inevitably gone to a lot of effort with their appearance for your wedding day. This ensures that every guest feels special. You might want to finish your speech with a toast to the guests.

♥ It goes without saying that you should try not to repeat any comments which have already been made in the previous speeches. If you want to reiterate a specific thank you to someone at the wedding perhaps you could so this personally during the afternoon/evening reception.

♥ For sample wedding speeches which will give you some further ideas try www.frugalbride.com/bridespeeches.html