FH and I come from a culture where family is everything and it's all about tradition. I don't think I would want our parents to speak at our reception. For one - it would be our moms because our dads refuse to do it. His mom likes to (low-key) be the center of attention. We traveled to this family event and my FH was asked to sing. After he was done, she ran to the dance floor to hug him- THIS WAS SOMEONE ELSE'S PARTY! It's cute but it was embarrassing. When FH's sister got married, the speech was all over the place, talking about the family history and how wonderful her daughter was - summa cum laude for college graduation, 4.0 GPA, etc... that was embarrassing too. Our culture tends to put the focus of a wedding on the families getting together, not so much the bride and groom. It wasn't until I went to a non-cultural wedding and it was so REFRESHING to see the focus be on the bride and groom, which is why we're been picky about who we invite. Obviously, I still want to incorporate the family element but with focus on the couple. Our guests are majority of the family and we want them to feel special as guests. Because they operate on tradition, I'm sure both our moms are expecting to talk.
My plan is to have a videographer do a sit down interview and talk about us as kids, what they thought, advice, wish/hope for us. (I was at a starbucks event that supported young musicians and they played a video of the musicians with them answering questions, giving advice - this was played during transitions). I think it takes the nerves out from giving a speech, they can get drunk if they want to, and most importantly, the speeches won't be awkward and the taped stuff will have a focus. FH is not too keen on the idea but mainly bc I feel like his mom won't like the idea. He'd say, "isn't that weird for them to be giving wishes TAPED and not in person?" I'm ready to be blunt with him and tell him his mom craves attention and loves to brag - that's the last thing we need. The only speeches/toasts we would be having would be the MOH and BM.
