Father of the bride speech- kicking things off

Every wedding speech has its own demands and expectations - the groom speech has got to be heartfelt, the best man speech is there for the entertainment, and the father of the bride speech celebrates the bride in a combination of the two. However, the added cherry on top for the father of the bride, is that you're up first. This extar pressure is not to be sniffed at; I have seen plenty of very successful and talented career men go to pieces at the thought of kicking things off, so you need to be prepared.

So, how to tackle it? Well, it's all about the start. I would avoid the cliched ice breakers as they've all been heard a million times and weren't that funny to start with. The last thing you want to do is say something where you were hoping people might laugh, and you're met with a stony silence, because after that what you'll experience will be the longest 10 minutes of your life.

My advice is to have some fun early on with your new son in law, nothing edgy just exploit one of his character traits or passions for a few laughs. Football teams are always good value as there's comedy gold hard wired into most teams fans DNA. If you support opposing teams , then so much the better. If sport isn't an option, what about where he comes from? England/Scotland, North vs South, red rose white rose...there's plenty of fun to be had with locations, you've just go to put your thinking cap on.

If you don't really have that sort of relationship with your son in law, then obviously your daughter is next in line - I only suggest using your son in law because it gives the speech better balance. So, in much the same way think about what fun you could have with your daughter...maybe she;s got a dodgy sense of direction...maybe she's quite good at pranging cars...all that can feed in to great ways to kick things off.

If that's drawing a blank, then plunder the world, of current affairs. Back in the day Scottish Independence featured a lot in wedding speeches, so did Brexit, although as I've said in other posts I'm resolutely refusing to eniton COVID, in fact I have trouble even writing it. That's something we all want to forget, and if someone at the wedding has lost someone through the disease, then it's going to get awkward.

Whatever you do, don't go for this old chestnut...'Fornication...fornication...for an occasion such as this...' It might work but it's not really worth the gamble, and I'm really not sure how funny somebody shouting out sex is.