Wedding Speech Order: Who Speaks First at an Australian Wedding?

At a traditional Australian wedding, the MC opens the formalities, the father of the bride speaks first, then the groom, the bride, the best man and the maid of honour. Many couples now flip the end of that order so the couple speaks last, closing the speeches with their own thank-you before the dance floor opens.

Neither version is wrong. What matters is that everyone knows their spot, every speech has a job, and the whole block fits between courses without the kitchen holding 120 mains under a heat lamp. This guide is the hub for all our speech resources, with an order table, timing advice and links to examples for every speaker.

The traditional Australian wedding speech order

Australian wedding guides generally describe the classic order like this (Easy Weddings):

1. MC welcomes guests and introduces each speaker
2. Father (or parent) of the bride welcomes everyone and welcomes the groom or partner into the family
3. Groom thanks guests, parents and the wedding party and pays tribute to his new spouse
4. Bride gives her own thanks and reflections (once optional, now common)
5. Best man brings the humour and toasts the couple
6. Maid of honour shares her perspective on the bride or couple and toasts them
7. Others, such as a sibling, grandparent or the groom’s parents

The “couple speaks last” order

Plenty of Melbourne MCs prefer to finish with the couple. In this version, parents speak first in order of side, the wedding party follows, and the couple closes the formalities, because their thank-you naturally releases the room into the rest of the night (Melbourne Cityside Celebrant):

1. MC welcome and housekeeping
2. Bride’s parent or parents
3. Groom’s parent or parents
4. Best man and maid of honour (or other wedding party speakers)
5. The couple

We like this version for most receptions. It puts the jokes in the middle, the emotional parent speeches at the start while the room is fresh, and the couple’s toast at the end, which is a natural lead-in to cutting the cake or the first dance.

Speech order at a glance

This table follows the “couple last” order. Lengths are a guide: many celebrants and MCs recommend 3 to 5 minutes as the ceiling for any one speech, which is about 400 to 700 words read aloud (Melbourne Cityside Celebrant).

Order	Speaker	Typical length	What they cover	Who they thank
1	MC	1 to 2 minutes, plus short intros	Welcome, housekeeping, how the night will run	Guests for coming, the venue
2	Father or parents of the bride	3 to 5 minutes	Stories of the bride growing up, welcoming the partner and their family	Guests, the groom’s family, anyone who helped
3	Father or parents of the groom	2 to 4 minutes	The groom’s character, welcoming the bride and her family	The bride’s family, guests
4	Best man	3 to 5 minutes	Light-hearted stories about the groom, how the couple works together, toast	The couple for the honour, the bridesmaids
5	Maid of honour	3 to 5 minutes	Friendship with the bride, the couple’s relationship, toast	The couple for the honour
6	Groom	3 to 5 minutes	Thanks, then a tribute to his new spouse	Guests, both sets of parents, the wedding party, suppliers, speakers
7	Bride (or a joint speech)	2 to 4 minutes	Thanks, families, a message to her partner, final toast	Anything the groom did not cover

If the bride and groom both speak, split the thank-you list in advance so each person is thanked once.

Speech guides for every speaker

Each of these posts covers structure, what to include and complete original examples:

Speaker	Guide
Father of the bride	Father of the bride speech
Mother of the bride	Mother of the bride speech
Father of the groom	Father of the groom speech
Best man	Best man speech examples
Maid of honour	How to write a maid of honour speech and maid of honour speech template with examples
Groom	Groom speech examples
Bride	Bride speech examples
Anyone short on time	Short wedding speeches: 20 examples under 3 minutes
Anyone stuck on line one	Wedding speech opening lines

Common modern variations

Mum speaks, or both parents speak together. A joint parent speech is now very common. One parent can tell the stories and the other can do the welcome and the toast. If only one parent speaks, make that a deliberate decision rather than a default.

No bridal party. Skip the best man and maid of honour slots and invite one close friend from each side to speak instead, or have just parents and the couple.

Two grooms or two brides. Order by family rather than by role: one family’s parent, the other family’s parent, a friend from each side, then the couple.

A joint couple speech. One shared speech, with each person taking a section, is shorter than two separate ones and avoids repeated thank-yous.

A large or multicultural family. If you have eight or more speakers, splitting speeches across courses is reasonable. Many MCs suggest that is the one situation where spreading them out beats one block (Melbourne Cityside Celebrant).

Mini speeches. A handful of friends each share one quick memory of under a minute. It is lively, but it needs a firm MC and nominated speakers, not an open microphone.

When speeches happen at the reception

The two most common windows are:

• Between entrée and main. Guests have eaten something and had a drink, nobody is tired yet, and once speeches are done the night is clear for the party.
• Just after the main course is cleared. The kitchen’s busiest work is finished and you are closer to cake and the first dance.

Grouping speeches into one block means the room settles once instead of being interrupted every course. Whatever you choose, ask your venue coordinator when mains need to go out and build the speeches block backwards from that. Our wedding reception run sheet template shows where speeches sit in a full evening timeline.

How to run speeches with an MC

A good MC is the difference between a tight 25-minute block and an hour that drags. Give your MC:

• The final order in writing, with each speaker’s name spelled phonetically if needed
• A one-line intro for each speaker (“Emma’s best friend since Year 7 at Mentone”)
• A time limit for each speaker, shared with the speakers themselves weeks in advance
• The venue’s service timing, so they can talk to the kitchen if things run long
• A cue for glasses to be topped up before the first toast

On the night, seat speakers near the microphone, test the microphone before guests sit down, and have the MC introduce each speaker so nobody walks up to a silent room. Speakers should bring printed notes, not a phone.

Tell your other suppliers when speeches are

Your photographer, videographer and DJ all need the speeches window on the run sheet. So does your photo booth team.

Our photo booth hire typically covers four to five hours of a wedding reception: the end of cocktail hour, dinner and the busy stretch after the first dance. With an attended package, a Ghost Booth Events attendant is on-site for the full hire, so the speeches block is easy to work around: we build a paused window into the night, the same way we do around dinner at larger functions, and reopen the booth as soon as the formalities finish. That keeps guests in their seats for your dad’s speech rather than queueing for prints.

If you have a remote booth, which is set up and monitored remotely every 20 to 30 minutes, mention the speeches window when you book so we can plan the setup around it. You can compare the two options in our attended vs remote photo booth guide or on the photo booth hire page.

A booth set up behind the dining tables. Think about sight lines from the speeches microphone when you place it.

Speech order checklist

• Decide your order and who is speaking at least six weeks out
• Tell each speaker their position, who speaks before and after them, and their time limit
• Split thank-yous between the couple’s speeches
• Give the MC the order, phonetic names and intros
• Put the speeches window on the run sheet for the venue, photographer, DJ and photo booth team
• Check there is a working microphone and a spot where speakers can see the couple
• Have the final speaker finish with a toast and a clear handover (cake, first dance or dessert)

Planning the rest of the night? Our reception songs list covers what to play during dinner and after speeches. And if you would like a photo booth that works around your formalities, get in touch with your date.

Wedding speech order questions