If you don’t retain a wedding planner and opt to plan your own wedding, there are scores of details to think about. Toast giving is one of the most important decisions and must be well thought out. Giving a toast is a task that puts panic in the speaking hearts of most members of a wedding party. While it’s not ordinarily something that is particularly time-consuming or involved, it’s public speaking (which does not sit agreeably with a lot of people) and certainly puts people on the spot.

If you are planning a wedding and determine that most members of this wedding party are hams who will not mind the entire “public speaking” idea, then by all means keep the toasts customary with dad, the best man and others taking their expected turns at the microphone.

But if you’re looking for something different, either because you would like to avoid putting individuals on the spot, or you simply would like to do something atypical and fun, read on.

First, you can certainly take the entire toast occurrence off the plan if you wish. There are no rules requiring a toast at any wedding. Weddings should be distinctive events and replicate the personalities of the bride and groom.

But if you desire to do something a little out of the ordinary, there are options. You might go the video route, which asks people to essentially make a toast on camera and then the video is given to the bride and groom later on. This is not a particularly unique idea, but it does solve the concern of not wanting to place individuals on the spot and still provides every person a chance to say something special to the bride and groom.

If your guest listing includes a lot of gregarious individuals then consider “pass the microphone”. This manner of giving toasts does put folks on the spot, but it might also be a lot of fun. Getting people at the time they least expect it and then asking them to think of something humorous or significant about the bride and groom can possibly result in fascinating, hilarious and truthful results.

You can also come to a decision that one person at every table be required to give a toast. Number the tables and at various intervals, have the MC or DJ call a number, which will oblige guests at that table to work out amongst themselves who will give the toast at that table. Of course, more than one individual can if they like, however there will likely be at least one ham at each table who will get pleasure from standing up and toasting the newlyweds.

Say you have plenty of public speakers in the party, and locating willing toast participants will not be a problem. But you sense the subject matter might be. There’s an easy resolution to this problem. You can furnish open-ended topics for the toast speakers. Say you are providing an “open mike” toast arrangement, where anyone might request the microphone and offer a toast. The DJ, MC or somebody else in the wedding party (perhaps the maid of honor or best man) can offer the speaker a surprise topic, which might be pulled from a champagne flute or drawn out of the flower arrangement on the head table. There might be slips of paper to pick, or just one piece of paper with numerous ideas.

The speaker might decide to finish this sentence, “I recall when (groom’s name here) was a young boy, he invariably …” or answer this question, “When was (insert bride’s name here) at her silliest? Tell us the story”. You might have to offer every speaker a minute or two to pull together their thoughts, but you are certain to come up with a few attention-grabbing stories, a number of exceptional anecdotes and a few different perspectives on the bride and groom.

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