Today I wanted to share a little bit of advice regarding the toasts that will inevitably occur at your wedding. I’ve experienced a few weddings recently where the toasts were exceedingly long-winded {I cringe when someone pulls out 3 typed pages!} and a few where there were so many toasts that I watched several guests leave after #7, 8 or 9. And, many times I’ve seen the open microphone toast stall the night for 30+ minutes, not only throwing off the timeline for the entire evening, but also cutting into the dancing time, putting the photographer and videographer in a time crunch to get their shots of the important moments {because they ran out of paid time} and generally boring the crowd into sleepiness.
These are the types of things that can make or break a reception. It can be extremely hard to get your guests to bounce back and hit the dance floor after a heavy meal followed by sitting for up to an hour. The evening needs to continue to flow if you want guests to stick around and have fun. Here are my personal suggestions for toasts:
1. Keep the number of people toasting to less than 5. Preferably 3 ~ Father of the bride {or the person walking her down the aisle}, The Best Man and Maid of Honor.
2. Coach your “Toasters” ~ remind them that this is a time to toast to the celebration, not to tell stories about drunken evenings in Mexico, how you escaped {or didn’t escape} getting arrested together, how the groom had the coolest mullet in school, etc. It’s certainly OK to talk about how you know each other or met and share one or two heartfelt, BRIEF moments of significance. But again, this isn’t story time and 7 minutes feels like 30 when you’re in the crowd, seated after a heavy meal.
3. If you MUST have more than 5 toasts or feel like an open microphone is absolutely necessary, do it at the rehearsal dinner. During the rehearsal dinner there is no anticipation of the next activity to come ~ therefore, people are much more patient and receptive. It’s also a more intimate environment where the toasts can be appreciated so much more. Best of all, you’re not paying your vendors to wait through the toasts, potentially missing shots of your first dance, cake cutting or garter/bouquet toss.
Just my two cents! Cheers! 
