Rhyming Mother Of The Bride Speech

Why a Rhyming Speech Could Be Brilliant (Or Backfire Spectacularly)

Let’s be real—delivering a wedding speech is nerve-wracking enough. Deciding to turn it into a poem? That takes guts. But if you pull it off, you’ll create a Mother of the Bride speech that feels unique, heartfelt, and guaranteed to stick in people’s memories.

Rhyming works brilliantly when you want to surprise your guests, bring a bit of theatrical fun to the day, and still honour your daughter with warmth and love. The catch? It only works if it sounds natural. The flow has to be smooth, the rhymes can’t feel shoehorned, and it should reflect you—not something nicked from a children’s bedtime book.

The good news? We’ve got the tricks and templates to help you nail it.

In this blog we’ll explore:

• Video examples of Mother of the Bride rhyming speeches 

• A simple framework for writing your own poem

• The golden rules for keeping it witty yet genuine

• A sample rhyming speech crafted by the Speechy crew

Rhyming Mother of the Bride Speech Examples 

It’s always good to get some inspiration and here are a couple of mums who have done a fab job.

This mother almost has her big moment ruined by her daughter interrupting to turn the sound down. But once it gets going it’s a perfect tribute based around the recurring phrase ‘my lovely daughter’. She fits in plenty of touching anecdotes, both funny and sentimental. There’s also a great line about her daughter not just taking her heart when she moved out, but also her best wine glasses.

This Mother of the Bride is quite happy to admit her poem isn’t always the best… but this adds to the fun of it! Plus some of the rhymes are nowhere near as bad as she makes out (OK, some are).

But all credit to this mother, she introduces everyone in (near) perfect rhyme, even kicking off the pre-amble to the speech in verse. Sure, it’s not much of a dedication to her daughter – which we’d encourage – but it’s an inventive way of welcoming everyone to the wedding.

The Building Blocks

1. Treat it like a normal Mother of the Bride speech! – It’s worth checking out our guide on how to write the perfect Mother of the Bride speech because, despite it being a poem, you still need to cover the same content (though you may wish to have an introduction and summary that doesn’t rhyme).
2. In summary, the Mother of the Bride typically thanks everyone for coming but you don’t need to namecheck individuals. That’s the newlywed’s job.
3. Your job is to pay tribute to your daughter with some funny anecdotes (from childhood to adulthood) before moving on to summing up how much she means to you and what a wonderful person you think she is.
4. If appropriate, you should also pay tribute to the role her father played in her upbringing. If he has passed away, check out how to acknowledge the dearly departed within your speech without it turning into a eulogy.
5. Certainly, pay tribute to your daughter’s new partner and welcome your new in-laws to the family.
6. You may also want to add some marriage advice (comedic or poignant) towards the end of your speech, before toasting the happy couple and wishing them well for their future life together.

Get The Rhyming Right

Delivering a rhyming speech can make you seem cleverer than you actually are. It’s also an easy way to come across as a pre-schooler reading a poem about their teddy. 

It just depends on your ability. Even if you get the rhyming spot on, you also have to nail the rhythm (actually harder than it sounds).

It is a RISK. But if you do decide to go for it, here’s the cheat’s guide…

• Decide what point you’re trying to make with the speech and the stories you want to tell. Pull out all the keywords from that content; the ones that are crucial to telling the story and the punchline words.
• Use a thesaurus to find as many variations of those keywords as possible.
• Next, use a rhyming dictionary to come up with as many words that rhyme with the keywords and their variants.
• Spot the rhyming words that could fit into the theme of your speech. Pull out all the useful pairs of words (a keyword and a rhyming word).
• Now, build your poem using your pairings to create rhyming sentences.
• Sometimes it’s easier to find a poem that you like to base your rhythm on. For example, use a Pam Ayres poem and base your effort on a similar beat.
• Put the more tenuous rhyming word or sentence first. The second ‘payoff’ sentence is the one that your poetry is judged on. This is also where the punchline should be.
• Once you write your first verse, ensure that all the others follow the same pattern and rhythm.
• One comedy technique is to set up the idea that you’re about to say something rude, but after a pause, reveal something completely innocent. For example, my sister-in- law included this classic in her sister-of-the-groom speech…’He erected a tent, thought that should do the trick, Then he took Heidi to a nudist beach to show off his… suntan.’ 

Rhyming Reminders

1. Keep it simple – If it was us, we’d stick to the typical, funny poem structures. AABB (four-line verses within which each couplet rhymes), ABAB (four-line verses where alternate lines rhyme), or AABBA (which is typical of limericks. Just make sure it’s a clean limerick…).
2. Don’t write too many verses – A typical Mother of the Bride speech is five or six minutes long. But you don’t have to write a poem that goes on as long as that. Two or three minutes of poem is perfect, as you’ll probably spend a couple of minutes setting it up anyway. As with all good speeches, don’t fill the poem out for the sake of it, just choose the créme de la créme of your endless stories about your daughter.
3. Don’t panic if you get stuck – Everyone does it. No writer can just knock out gold in one go – even the best ones. Go for a walk, do some exercise, and have a bath! Push it to the back of your mind and inspiration will strike when you least expect it.
4. Read the poem out loud! – And do it a lot! Once you’ve written it, you’ll need to practice it and the best way to do it is actually reading it. Not just to practice your delivery, but to make sure everything really does rhyme and fits into the rhythm. Once confident enough, try it again but in front of a friend or family member. You’ll nail it in no time.

Speechy’s Mother Of The Bride Example

Now you’re familiar with the rules, you’re probably wondering what a speech looks like written down. Here’s an example, taken from a speech where the mother’s daughter went to study to become an engineer. This helped influence the theme of the speech, allowing us to work plenty of anecdotes into it, as well as some marriage advice. After all, you’re the expert!

From the day you were born, you loved to cuddle,

Although most of the time it was to get out of trouble.

Weekends on the beach, running up and down the pier.

Until you left me for uni to become an engineer.

A good engineer gets things up & running,

But a marriage? Well, that requires cunning.

With marriage, there are no plans to follow along,

There’s just a need to say ‘sorry’. That lasts lifelong.

The basics of marriage, it’s obvious to see,

Isn’t grand designs, but agreeing what temperature a room should be.

It’s about getting up early, just to make your loved one tea,

And stacking the dishes; an engineering feat beyond me

Men aren’t easy to mold, but you’ve chosen yours well,

He is kind and strong-willed, can survive Ikea hell.

But as you build your new home, he might break out in a sweat,

When he debates once again which lampshade you should get.

Whilst some mothers may prefer a slightly different balance of humour, advice, and anecdotes, this poem shows just how handy a poem can be for making something that perhaps might otherwise sound a little familiar, totally unique.