And now, let us all raise our glasses to the Bride & Groom!

At the risk of sounding long winded myself, I have to talk about one of my personal pet peeves: unending "toasts". I put toasts in quotation marks because if it's that long, it's not a toast, it's a speech. Proper toasts are less than 3 minutes. Nothing is more of a downer at a wedding reception than watching the energy of the room fizzle away as the minutes slowly tick by during neeeeeeever eeeeeeeending speeches.

Dictionary.com description:
TOAST /toʊst/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[tohst] –noun
1. a salutation or a few words of congratulation, good wishes, appreciation, remembrance, etc., uttered immediately before drinking to a person, event, etc.

I've had weddings where a father or an honor attendant will go on for 15, 20 & 25 minutes while the guests hungrily sit there waiting for their food or for the dance floor to open up. I've heard of (thankfully have not had one of my own) weddings where the best man or maid of honor, after a day of drinking, launches into innapropriate territory.

My advice?

1. Try as much as possible to keep the number of people toasting to a minimum
2. Encourage family members who want to speak to speak the night before at the rehearsal dinner. They'll be the ones to appreciate the childhood stories & inside jokes anyway.
3. Schedule them as early in the reception as possible so you & your guests can spend the majority of the evening drinking and dancing!
4. Encourage the people who are going to toast to keep it short and keep the drinking until after!

Don't get me wrong, I am not against toasts, I just don't like the abuse of them! It is a wonderful thing to see a room full of teary eyes or laughter as a result of a beautiful, touching and heartfelt toast.

Now that I'm done preaching, enjoy Michael Scott of "The Office" ruining Phyllis' wedding.....AGAIN!

The Office - The Michael's Wedding Speech