1. Tell the guests why they should listen to your Maid of Honor speech.

A good Maid of Honor speech will let them know who you are in relationship to the bride. For example, “Hi, I am Sara's life-time friend. I have known her since the first grade, and I know facts about the story of her courtship with James that everyone here probably hasn't heard yet.” This is a beginning that creates mystery so the audience will hang on your every word. Notice how this opening connects your past with the bride in a way that is relevant to the guests and keeps you from making the mistake of alienating the guest while you try to have a private moment with the bride or just hog the spotlight.

2. Tell a story with your Maid of Honor speech.

As you know, every a good story flows from beginning to middle to the conclusion. You may not have a single story that could fill your entire Maid of Honor toast but you may have several incidences that illustrate your opening line; that's Okay make sure you present them in a sequence that expands your original point. A cool way to do this is to state your main point at the beginning of the maid of honor speech and then use several stories to expand on this point and then conclude by summarizing your main point again.

3. Your Maid of Honor speech should be casually personal, but not exclusive to just you.

The Maid-of-Honor toast needs to inform the audience of things they may not have known about the bride that they would be interested in. Here is an example: When our friend Paula was married, The Maid of Honor, Theresa, reminisced about the time in the 7th grade she and Paula made a list of all the "hot guys" in their class and the groom Ross came out on top. These types of stories will entertain the guests and not embarrass or bore them. Avoid anything that is off color, sexual, or embarrassing no matter how tempting. Always keep it PG at least.

4. In your Maid of Honor speech, don't forget the groom.

Another reason Theresa's speech was so good was that She didn't just blabber on about her and the bride and forget about the groom. It is true that she didn't know Ross as well as she knew the Theresa, but she never highlighted that fact. Just listening to her speech you would have guessed she was equally close to both of them. She honored the bride by honoring the groom. As it turns out, Theresa chatted up all of Ross's friends before the wedding and gathered quite a few facts about him to use in her speech.

5. Keep it light, upbeat and funny.

Just making a sloppy sentimental Maid of Honor speech is one sure way to turn off your audience and annoy the bride. Remember this is not her funeral or an opportunity to demonstrate to everyone how close you were with her. It is a time to honor the bride and add joy to her special day. When considering how to make it funny, don't use inside jokes. Make sure your audience will also find it funny. You may not be a stand up comic, but you can surly think of jokes that have made you laugh--again keep it PG at least. This is probably most easily done by recounting humorous stories about the bride or the groom. Remember we are talking humorous NOT humiliating.

6. In the end, wish them the best.

Now it is time to circle around and summarize the point of your Maid of Honor toast. Once you have restated the theme You could end with something along the lines, “I wish the bride and groom will always be as deeply in love as they are at this very moment.”

Okay, you need to fit all of this into a 2 to 3 minute period. If you go on and on, you will lose your audience and maybe even create some resentment from those dying to dance. Remember, you are one of the spotlights shining on the bride and not the one in the spotlight.