One of the most important parts of your wedding day (especially for video) is your wedding toast or speeches. They’re one of the most personal moments of the day and words will be said about you for all your guests to hear. As wedding videographers, we use that dialogue, and these speeches set the tone and emotion throughout your film. Us capturing your reception toasts will be the only way you’ll be able to relive these words about you two. Since they’re so important to what I do, I figured I’d share some of my own personal tips to make sure you get the most of out your toasters, and the best quality results for your wedding video!

1. Choose The Right People To Speak

This is probably the most important and underrated tip that you’ll rarely see on any other blog. No one knows your guests better than you, so even though people default to having their Maid Of Honor or Best Man speak, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll do the best job. If they’re not great at public speaking, there might actually be better options for people to do this. Be the best judge of your friends and family. Know who will be comfortable talking in front of all your guests. Family members who will actually do some research on how to give a great speech and write something down. Friends who are responsible enough to not be 10 shots of whiskey deep by that time of the night.

I’ve seen couples let whoever they want to speak during their reception and some were embarrassing, and I was even told by the couple to NOT include them in their final wedding video 🤦‍♂️ I never want to see any of my couples go through that again.

2. Prep Your Speakers

I know you already have a lot on your plate with months and months of wedding planning, but since this is a big part of your day, I believe it’s important to prep your speakers or educate them briefly before your wedding. I did a wedding once where everyone who spoke mentioned or thanked the bride for sending them a video on proper microphone etiquette, and it worked out great!

Zola has a great article on the basis of how to write a wedding toast, so feel free to share that with your speakers, but also have them educated on how to use a microphone. This may sound dumb, but it’s SO important and I can’t tell you how many times people give reception toasts and no one can hear them because the microphone is too far from their mouth, or they’re moving around too much. It makes a huge difference in real-time at your wedding and also makes a huge difference in your wedding video. It’s not just an issue for your videographer, your DJ or band will also appreciate this! This is a great video on proper microphone etiquette to send to whoever is giving a toast at your wedding.

3. Keep It Short And Sweet

Along with all the prep that your speakers will be given, one huge tip I can’t emphasize enough is to keep it short and sweet. When a toast is too long, your guests start to lose interest and start their own conversation which no one wants to hear in the background of their wedding video. I had a wedding once where the best man spoke for 32 minutes, yes…32 minutes, I remember that number vividly 😂. Even the bride and groom lost interest and it showed on their faces, which isn’t what you want to remember from your day.

There isn’t any set number of minutes that’s correct for this, but I would recommend under 5 minutes is a good length. Get to the juicy parts and that’s all they have to do.

-Austin

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Hi, my name is Austin, and a wedding videographer based out of New York City.

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