Your daughter is getting married. What better way to pay tribute to how wonderful she is than by doing it the way Keats, Wordsworth and Shakespeare did? By writing an almighty, Father of the Bride poem.

Father of the Bride rhyming speeches are increasingly common these days. They’re always popular, as the inventiveness of the poem coupled with funny lines equal big laughs. Plus you can even frame them for your daughter so she has something to look at after her big day (other than her new spouse).

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Rhyming Father of the Bride Speech Inspo

To show you how a good Father of the Bride wedding verse can look, here’s a couple of examples. Firstly, this, from America.

This father isn’t just captivating in his delivery, he tells the story of his daughter’s life in a funny and colourful way in just four minutes. Plus he pays tribute to the groom too, which is always great for balance.

There’s plenty of great lines. Basically, if you can get an audience cheering as much as this man does, you’re doing well.

Whilst the first example perhaps has more laughs, this super succinct poem is very sweet and very personal. It’s not soppy in the way some speeches go, it’s the perfect level of emotional and we can see this going down a storm.

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Father of the Bride Speech Rules

So there are two experts. How do you go about writing yours?

1. Treat it like a normal Father of the Bride speech! – It’s worth checking out our guide on how to write the perfect Father of the Bride speech because, despite it being a poem, you can still encompass everything in there. The Father of the Bride typically thanks everyone for coming, but doesn’t have to thank all the other individuals who’ve helped make the wedding possible. That’s the groom’s job. Your job is to pay tribute to your daughter with some funny anecdotes from when she was a child, bringing you up to now, perhaps with advice along the way. This will work just as well in verse form as in prose.
2. 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…).
3. Don’t write too many verses! – A typical Father of the Bride speech is five or six minutes long. But you don’t have to write a poem that goes on this long. 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 Father of the Bride 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.
4. 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 on a walk, do some exercise, have a bath! Push it to the back of your mind an inspiration will strike when you least expect it.
5. 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 fit 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.

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Speechy’s Father of the Bride Example

Those are the rules. But how does a good Father of the Bride speech look written down? Here’s an example of one, about a daughter who left to study engineering at university, where she met her now-husband.

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’re 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 how hot the house 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 mould, 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 to get.

I wish you a marriage as strong as steel,

An engineering feat, like The Shard or the wheel.

It takes effort to build that sense of bliss, 

But as all engineers know, it’s helped with a kiss.

This is, perhaps, quite a specific example. But it goes to show you don’t need to rely on generic advice or old-hat jokes. You can pay tribute to your daughter and all her uniqueness with a wedding poem that will make everything sound as special as it should do. Best of luck!

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