When to do speeches?

Our toasts were during the salad course to be more efficient. My dad, my MOH and the best man all gave a speech, and they ate their salads either before they got up or after they sat down. There was time for them all to have it, since they weren't all standing up there at the same time.

After our intros, H n I said a few words while dinner was served (family style). The BM waited til near the end of the meal for himself n the MOH to do their speeches. He knew H skipped lunch n diabetic/wanted to make sure he had time to eat. Don't ask me how the guys didn't know to get lunch?!?

To me, speeches can be done whenever...just keep them to a few n only a few minutes each

We did a couple during cocktails and then a couple after dinner. i wanted to break it up a bit. it worked really well.

We did ours right after eating (we had no dance) and before dessert. Three short and sweet toasts!

@bluevelvet that't what they recommended doing. I just feel like it might take a while.

Since we had a cocktail style reception with heavy apps (that were available for a lot of the evening) our situation was different but I think we pretty much did what your DOC is suggesting...our schedule was

5:30-6:30 Focus on Food!

6:30 Cake Cutting and Toasts

So people had a chance to eat some before the toasts. (Toasting time -- one from the best man, two from my bridesmen -- was 9 minutes.)

If you're doing courses, would between work?

We only had one speech and did it right before our first dance. We ended up doing our cake cutting earlier than planned because the kids were too excited for dessert, so we did that, then the speech, then the first dance.

@Pammat yeah I guess we could! I kind of think if my parents are doing a welcome right before the dinner while salads are being served it would make more sense to have them do their speech at the same time?? We could then do MOH right when dinner is being served and then at the end my brother/also a groomsman can do the third and final speech.

From a vendor perspective it is nice to do speeches after everyone has been served dinner. I can't speak for other catering companies, but ours likes to have a minimal presence on the floor when speeches are being given so that we are not interupting people who are listening and clanging around dirty dishes and such. We have a skeleton crew to keep water glasses filled, but that's about it until after speeches are finished.

From a host perspective, DH and I gave a quick thank you after we were introduced, then my step father gave a blessing over the meal. The BM & MOH speeches occurred as soon as the last table was back from the buffet. Our VIPs who were giving speeches had gone through the buffet line first, so they were done with their meals by the time they needed to give a speech.

A wedding I recently attended had appetizers then after a while of being done with appetizers the DJ introduce the bridal party into the room (they had been sitting outside doing nothing through windows we could see the whole time) then DIRECTLY after introducing them with a grand entrance they did speeches and THEN dinner. very odd setup if you ask me.

@Jumi update I talked to my parents and they were OK with that; doing their welcome and speech at the start...thanks for the suggestion

@edecker lol that's soooo awkward!!! With the setup of our venue we are actually doing bridal party announcements then first dance right after cocktail hour...then everybody will transition to seated dinner. Weren't they taking photos during cocktail hour/appetizers??

We did our speeches before dinner as our photographer's contract stated they would not shoot photos during dinner.

I have been to 20-30 weddings and the only one that I remember the timing of the speeches at is the only one I had to give a speech, when i was my best friend's MOH last year. And they did it right at the beginning!! They had cocktail hour, then moved everyone inside the reception room and did bridal party intros, then the dances (bride and groom, bride and dad, groom and mom) then right into toasts. It was GREAT for me because i was so nervous I couldn't have fun or relax til it was over, and I didn't want to have more than one drink til it was over either. I am thinking maybe we will do it the same way?

We're doing it towards the end of dinner. That way people will mostly have eaten (if they hadn't finished already). And we don't waste time just doing toasts. I'd die of boredom