Cheers to the Bride and Groom!

The wedding toast is a time to honor and offer best wishes to the newly married couple.

Origin

Wedding toasts date as far back as the 6th century B.C. Greece. When war ended and a truce called, a marriage would be arranged between children of the leaders in an effort to maintain peace. While celebrating, wine would be poured from a common vessel amongst all of the wedding guests. The bride’s father would take the first sip to prove that there was no poison in the drink. If everyone trusted that the wine was safe to consume they would clink glasses.

The term toast comes from Rome where burnt bread or “toast” would be dropped into wine to absorb acidity. This is further verified in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor when the character Falstaff says "Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in’t."

Modern Day Wedding Toasts

At weddings today toasts are normally given by the father of the bride, the best man and the maid of honor in that order following dinner and before the first dance.

Traditionally champagne is poured for the toast ,however, other options can include a signature cocktail, a shot, or whatever your guests happen to be drinking at the time.

5 Tips for Give a Great Toast

As wedding photographers, we have heard hundreds of wedding toasts. Here are five tips that will keep you from giving a bad one and help you to give a great one.

1. Be brief. Keep it between 3-5 minutes, that is all the attention wedding guests have.
2. Toast Don’t Roast. This is a time of celebration and you are there to honor the person who asked you to speak. A small jab can be funny in getting the audience’s attention but stick to sharing memories, compliments, and sentiments.
3. Know who you’re talking to. Avoid inside jokes that the entire party won’t understand. If you attempt to share an inside joke it will likely confuse everyone celebrating, you will lose audience attention, and attempts to explain often leave the speaker rambling. It never comes across as funny as you think it will.
4. Practice. This will help you to perfect your speech, time your delivery, and ease your nerves.
5. Raise your glass or it’s just a speech!

Photographing the Toasts

For the purposes of capturing the toasts in photos the person giving the toast should not stand behind you. This forces you to crane your neck backward and only allows for one angle for capturing the moment. If the person stands in front of you, ideally on the dance floor, you can maintain a natural position and the person giving the toast can move around addressing both you and the crowd. It also allows for multiple angles of photography.

This is something we coordinate with the DJ on your wedding day as they are the ones who are responsible for the sound.