If life goes according to plan, your daughter will meet the man of her dreams, fall in love and then decide to get married. This all usually takes its time, and so with the natural pace of life, education, and career, that will probably be some time when she's around the age of 30. Things are changing on that front, and I'm writing far more speeches for couples marrying in their twenties than I was 10 years ago. However, that still means there's at least 25 years worth of memories to sort through, and that's where the problems start. Most men in their 50's find themselves doing things like getting to the top of the stairs, and not having the slightest idea what they were going upstairs for in the first place. Over the age of 40, remembering what happened at the weekend becomes increasingly challenging, and when it comes to birthdays and anniversaries, you've got more chance of winning the lottery.
The greatest challenge for a father of the bride speech, is actually remembering what your daughter's early years were like. If you add into the mix that you were probably busy forging a career and not around that much, and then it becomes almost impossible. So, how to tackle that situation? Well, the first stop is obviously asking your wife, but I write for a lot of divorced guys, and asking your former wife could well lead to some firm accusations as to why the marriage didn't work in the first place. In this scenario it's best to start with what you do remember, and see if that's enough. Many fathers are labouring under the idea that need a mountain of content in order to write a speech. You just need to be able to celebrate your daughter in a meaningful and engaging way, some of that is going to be heartfelt sentiment, so you really only need one or two good stories from the past and the odd memory thrown in, to ensure you have the right number of words.
This is a life story, it's not a CV in spoken form, it's you telling the world exactly what she means to you, so if stories are in short supply, no problem. Concentrate on what you do know and make the most of it, being as descriptive and entertaining as you can. Remember, you've only got around 1300 words to play with, so in this instance not being able to remember very much, isn't such a bad thing after all.
