A simple wedding speech is composed of a few key parts: 

•    The hook:  People will be listening to a lot of speeches at a wedding and you want yours to stand out from the rest. The best way to do that is to start by saying something that will catch their attention at the beginning of the speech.  This is called the “hook”. The hook can be in the form of a personal story, a hypothetical scenario that will make people think, or an anecdote about the couple.  A quote can also work well as a way to hook the audience and grab their attention.  Anything that shows why you care about the couple, or why other people should care, will make your audience WANT to listen to what you have to say. You should begin a wedding speech with a hook of some sort.

•    The set up:  Once you have made your audience want to listen to you, you'll want to make it as easy as possible for them to follow your speech from beginning to end. The most effective way to do this is to indicate what tone you will be using and what your speech will cover.  You should NOT give a breakdown of your wedding speech since you want to keep the talk quite short.  However, a simple phrase or sentence that gives your audience a sense of what is to come is always appreciated.

•    The follow-through:  After you've mapped out your speech make sure that you follow your speech map, taking care not to drift too far from what you intended to say.  Generally, you will want to end your speech with a wedding toast or a blessing of some sort.

    While you do not need to follow the above simple speech plan to the letter it does give you a quick idea of what sort of speech outline tends to work well for many speeches.  If you are at a wedding and wish to make a quick toast, or speech on the spot, this simple and easy-to-remember three-part structure will see you through.  This structure can also give you some early ideas about how wedding speeches work and how they can be written.  
  
 You will want to keep the above key parts of a speech for making impromptu toasts and speeches.  While a wedding gives you a chance to plan, write, and practice a speech ahead of time there may be several times throughout the wedding when you will want to give a toast with little preparation.  If you are a member of the wedding party and are attending rehearsal dinners, showers, and bachelor parties you may find that you need to give a speech.  You will not always be told ahead of time whether this will be the case for the events you will be attending.  Many times one person will start with a toast which will lead to several toasts and speeches. Keep the above key points in mind for speech structure and you will always be prepared.
 
  If you have been told ahead of time that you’ll be required to speak at the shower, bachelor party, Bridal shower, or rehearsal you will want to prepare a little more.  You do not want to be giving the same speech to the Bridal couple several times and this means that you will have to develop a few speeches that you can use.  Since all of your speeches are going to be different you need to know exactly what you are going to say in a general sense so that you can prepare your speech.  Here is a short list of the most important questions that you must consider before writing each of your wedding day speeches:

•    What kind of speech do I plan to make (humorous, poetic, sentimental)?
•    How long will my speech be?
•    What is my role in this wedding (father of the Bride, Best Man, Maid of Honor, Bridesmaid, or other)?
•    What type of impression am I hoping to leave with the audience?
•    Is this a first wedding or second?
•    How well do I know the couple?
•    How long have I known the couple?
•    How do I want the couple to remember my speech?