Father of the bride speech - short and sweet?

When it comes to public speaking, the way I like to look at it is: nobody normal likes standing up in front of a lot of people and talking out loud. If you're not prepared, it's nerve wracking, intimidating and can cause sleepless nights. The added cherry on top with wedding speeches is that they have to be entertaining - this isn't a dry procession through a software sales pitch, and then with the father of the bride speech, the fact that you're up first, just adds to the pressure.

The net effect of all this, is to make many fathers of the bride search the internet for short and sweet speeches, and I totally understand that urge. Your mind is doing everything it can to limit the weight of expectation and exposure time, and so naturally you feel that the less time you're up there, the quicker you can go back to being a normal person again. All I can say is: do this at your peril.

This speech, whatever length, will flash past, and before you know it, it will be 5 years ago, and if you went for the short and sweet route, that's an awfully long time to reflect just how wrong you got it. Don't mortgage your present for your future - in other words, what might seem like a great idea, is going to seem completely the opposite further down the line. This is your one opportunity to celebrate your daughter in this way, and this speech is for her, not for you - worth remembering when you're obsessing about as short as speech as possible. If you make a super quick speech, you are doing your daughter a great disservice, and you need to think about her, not you.

Make the most of the opportunity, enjoy it on the day, and most importantly in the years to come, because once you've made that father of the bride speech, there's no going back.