Bride speech examples that don't sound copied

My nan asked me this morning whether brides are allowed to give speeches now. Nan, I checked. We are.

Thank you all for coming, for travelling so far, and for the presents, which Rob has already started opening in his head.

Dad, thank you for your speech, and for only crying twice, which is fewer than we had in the sweepstake. Mum, thank you for every fitting, every list and every phone call that started with "Just one more thing." Pat and Steve, thank you for making me feel like one of yours from the very first Sunday lunch.

Rob and I met at a pub quiz. His team was called Quiz Team Aguilera, and he got every music question wrong. Every single one. When I told him, he said he'd only joined for the crisps. He came back the next week, and the week after, and he still got the music round wrong, but by then I'd stopped caring about the music round.

Rob, you're the kindest person I know, and the worst at pop music. You make an ordinary Tuesday feel like somewhere I want to be.

To my bridesmaids, Gemma, Lou and Hannah: thank you for the hen do, for holding my dress up in a Portaloo, and for never once telling me to calm down.

Please raise your glasses to my husband, Rob. And to Quiz Team Aguilera, who lost that night, and every night since.

I made a spreadsheet for this wedding. It has fourteen tabs. Jordan was in charge of one cell: "Pick a cake." It took him three weeks, and he tasted every sample twice, to be sure.

Thank you all for being here. Mom and Dad, thank you for everything, including letting me take over your dining room for a year. Carol and Mike, thank you for raising a man who reads the instructions, and for the sweater you knitted me our first Christmas, in exactly my favorite color. You'd asked Jordan. He got it right.

Last spring, when my grandma was sick, Jordan drove me to see her every Sunday, three hours each way. One week he asked her for her pierogi recipe. She said she didn't have one; she just knew. So he stood next to her in the kitchen and wrote down everything she did. We made them for her birthday. They weren't as good as hers. She ate six.

Jordan, you're not in my spreadsheet. You're the part of my life that never needed planning.

Please raise your glasses to my husband, Jordan. The cake was worth the wait.

The first time I saw Sam, she was carrying a ladder down Fifth Street, by herself, at seven in the morning. I asked if she needed a hand. She said no. I took the other end anyway.

Thank you all for coming, especially those of you who flew in from Ohio and brought the weather with you. Mom, thank you for teaching me that I can do almost anything, and for letting me find out the hard way. Denise and Paul, thank you for Sam, and for the lake house weekends that made me part of your family long before today.

Sam and I have carried a lot of things since that ladder: two couches up four flights of stairs, one very heavy cat, and a year when my job fell apart and I couldn't carry much of anything. You carried it. You never once said you didn't need a hand.

Sam, I'll take the other end of everything, for the rest of our lives.

Please raise your glasses to my wife, Sam.

This morning my dad practised walking me down the aisle one last time, in the kitchen, with a mop standing in for me. He's been rehearsing since June. The mop has been very patient.

Dad, you didn't need the practice. You've walked beside me my whole life: to school, to my driving test, to the station the day I moved to London, where you told me you had something in your eye. You had something in your eye today, too.

Mum, thank you for everything, and for the timings, which were perfect. Ian and Maggie, thank you for welcoming me so warmly, and thank you all for coming such a long way.

Tom, I knew you were the one the day you helped Dad fix the fence without being asked, and then let him tell everyone he'd done it himself.

To my bridesmaids, thank you for everything today, including the emergency safety pins.

Please raise your glasses to my husband, Tom. Dad, you can put the mop down now.

I wasn't going to give a speech. Then I realised this is the only day I get to say "my husband" for the first time in front of everyone I love. So: my husband. Yes, that sounds right.

Thank you all for being here. Mum and Dad, thank you for everything. Linda and Gary, thank you for Ben.

Ben, thank you for asking, and for asking again after I laughed the first time.

To my husband.

Our dog Pickles doesn't like anyone. He spent Nick's first three visits under the bed.

On the fourth visit, Nick sat on the kitchen floor and read his book out loud for two hours. It was a book about tax law. Around chapter six, Pickles came out, lay down on Nick's feet and fell asleep. I think he just wanted the reading to stop. But that was the night I knew.

Thank you all for coming. Mom and Dad, thank you for everything, including dog-sitting tonight. Diane and Rich, thank you for raising a man who'll sit on a kitchen floor for two hours for a dog who hates him.

Nick, you're patient with everyone: with Pickles, with my family, and with me, especially while I planned this wedding. You never rushed any of us. You just waited until we came out from under the bed.

Please raise your glasses to my husband, Nick. Pickles sends his regards.