Groom Speech - a joint enterprise?

Most young couples about to get married are clearly quite keen on one another, and so they should be - they are, after all, committing themselves to all eternity together. It's in these days of heady devotion that besotted couples can bare to be separated and often find themselves intertwined with one another in odd places such as the aisles of a supermarket. Thankfully this phase doesn’t last long, and after just a few years, the person you couldn't be without, is regularly planning opportunities to escape for a few days.

This is all part of the rich tapestry of life. That passion which burns so brightly cannot manifest itself in that physically obsessed way for too long, otherwise it would probably result in some kind of police caution. However, it's in just this kind of phase that you get married, and which can sometimes lead the happy couple to decide to make a joint speech. I do not care for tradition in many forms, but a joint speech from the happy couple has something rather awkward about it. One person will be standing there, whilst the other reels off sweet nothings, and it can all seem a bit like watching a human version of QVC.

It's very difficult to make a joint speech where your co presenter is the other person in the speech. Joint best man speeches are easier because you're talking about a third party. It also gets very awkward when it comes to talking about parents because potentially you could have one speech where each set of parents is talked about twice - and listening to that is going to get very boring very quickly. I'm all for brides speaking on the day, but it works so much better if they have a separate speech to the groom speech. Just make sure you're not doubling up on content too much, although there will be a natural overlap.