After Dinner Speeches
Whether a wedding is formal or not, most evening weddings will include an after dinner speech. There is no hard and fast rule that says that a speech needs to be an after dinner speech, quite the opposite. Many wedding speeches are given before the meal as sort of a lead-in to the dinner.
One of the reasons that after dinner speeches have become more popular recently is that the wedding guests are in a mellow mood and are more relaxed. And then again, everyone is seated in one place for the time it takes to give the after dinner speeches.
Another reason is that not only are the guests more relaxed, but they are ready to be entertained and they open up more and are more receptive.
For the speech giver, after dinner speeches give him/her more time to become nervous and worry about the speech giving, but with the audience in a much more receptive mood, it makes the speech giving an easier job.
The after dinner speeches themselves can be formal or informal depending of course on the design of the wedding itself. But the universal rule for after dinner speeches is that the father of the bride is almost always the first person to give the speech.
The father of the bride is usually followed at that point by the groom, who expresses his profound thanks for the support his new father in law has given him in underwriting the wedding. The next person up is the best man. If the wedding is a more formal venue, or even if it is not, the after dinner speeches lineup may continue with the bride just giving a small speech; and she may sometimes be followed by the bridesmaid.
It is also becoming the case, that the father of the groom or a relative of the groom will also give a speech. And you will find that usually the after dinner speeches are kept short, and most speakers are considerate enough not to drone on and on.
Luckily, most after dinner speeches these days are short and to the point, even hilarious sometimes and usually fun to listen to; because the average number of after dinner speeches given at one wedding is quite often six or seven. If kept short and entertaining, it is not a dirge for the guests to sit through, but quite the opposite and can be lots of fun. And another thing to consider is, when you have after dinner speeches they are usually followed by a bevy of wedding toasts and when that happens you can keep on sipping the bubbly over and over again. Done properly and with heartfelt expressions from the speech givers, after dinner speeches provide a good time to be had by all involved.