A Funny Wedding Speech Story

Not all cultures practice the traditional wedding speech custom. This practice is increasingly being adopted in other parts of the world, along with many other western wedding traditions such as the white bridal dress and veil. This is an accurate chronicle of my husband's wedding speech experience from the ceremony for his daughter a few years ago.

Sense the bridegroom's mother had passed away unexpectedly weeks before the wedding, they decided that as a young couple they would make do with an official, religious, marriage ceremony. Deciding to use the money for an extended honeymoon they canceled the large festive wedding party that we had planned.

Since we are a Muslim family living in Cairo, Egypt, the religious ceremony was a Muslim one. Generally, what is required the presence of two witnesses, the bride and groom and a Muslim cleric, a Sheikh. In the Sheikh's presence, the bride, the groom and the two witnesses sign a marriage document. After this, the sheikh, the brides guardian, bowed his head in prayer. In this situation it was her father and my husband and the bridegroom as well.

My husband isn't religious. He worried for weeks about reciting the prayer correctly in the presence of family and friends. He even reverted to old schoolboy tactics and wrote the prayer down on a 3 by 3 inch strip of paper, just in case he needed it. The marriage was held in the large hall of a religious building. The bride, groom, friends acting as witnesses, Sheikh, father of the bride, and bridegroom's father were are set upon the stage. My husband was sitting between the Sheikh and the bridegroom. The other guests and I took our places just below in theatre like seats. When it was time for my husband to recite his prayer, he did it perfectly. I could see and feel him relax. Relief was written all over his face.

That is when it happened. I think it was his ex-wife, the bride's mother, that asked him to make a speech. This was unplanned, but my husband often gives imprompto speeches. He quite liked the idea; he was relaxed and back in his element.

Putting an affection hand on his new son-in-laws shoulder, he stood up to make his improvised wedding speech. It was an excellent discourse, loaded with compliments about his new son in law and several well chosen kind words about the young gentleman's current loss. As my husband gave his speech, he looked the groom in the eyes and kept his hand on his shoulder. He told the young man that he knew his daughter loved him very much, that he was counting on him to love her back and take care of her.

Everything was perfect in my husband's wedding speech except one minor detail. Unbeknownst to him until after the speech, he said his daughter's former boyfriend's name through the entire speech.

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