Wedding speeches are not a tradition in every culture. Other parts of the world are now picking up on this western practice, as well as several other wedding traditions like the white bridal dress and veil. This is a true account of my husband’s wedding speech experience at his daughter’s marriage ceremony 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.
A religious ceremony done by a Muslim family that lives in Cairo, Egypt is a Muslim one. All that this involves is 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 groom too.
My husband isn’t religious. Reciting a prayer in the presence friends and family caused him to worry for weeks. He wrote the prayer on a small piece of paper so he could cheat if necessary. A large room in a religious building was the site of the wedding. 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 the bridegroom as well. 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.
Placing his hand on his new son-in-laws shoulder, he made 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. During my husbands wedding speech he never lifted his hand from the bridegroom’s shoulder and mentioned him by name many times while looking into his eyes. 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.
My husband’s wedding speech had one problem. He used the name of his daughter’s former boyfriend throughout the speech, and never realized he was doing so until stepped off that stage.