so many of the dads that come to me for help with their fathers of the Bride speech tell me that they hate speaking in public but you can hate speaking in public and still give an amazing and funny Father of the Bride speech that's what this guy's done let's take a look and see what he's doing right uh before I begin I have a disclaimer I'm not a public speaker in fact the last time I spoke in front of a group Ellie told me afterwards dad your content was really good but you need to work
on your delivery and that was at a funeral great joke I mean great joke truth is funny because based on the reaction their reaction I'm guessing that may have actually been true uh great way to start it and he admitted he was nervous so if you admit you're nervous that's fine and all that means is people are rooting for you these people love you you're paying for their dinner they love your daughter so admit you're nervous if you're terrified it's okay hopefully I'll be better tonight I'd like to welcome all of our family and friends
who shared this joyous occasion what a lovely event tday today um I'd like to offer a special thank you to Rick Clayton um our pastor and dear friend uh for the heartfelt ceremony let's give him a warm Round of Applause thank you I would also like to thank Alex Noble our wedding planner not sure where she [Applause] is Alex uh thank you we for making Ellie's Williams and Stephanie's and Jackie's what did I say Vision come to life we couldn't have done it without you so thank you very very much Stephanie has been praying for
Ellie's Future Husband since preschool and we are blessed that that he had brought William and Ellie together we are we've been fortunate to had the opportunity to get to know William throughout the last nine years that's been a blessing he's become a son to us and to William's parents Jackie and Allen Stephan I would like to thank you for raising such a kind-hearted caring and loving son let's give them a warm Round of Applause now look is is he doing this perfectly no I mean his he's doing a great job he's taking all the boxes
he's thanking people but he's he's fumbled over a few words he's reading directly off his page that's not minimizing any of my enjoyment of the speech I mean that's not distracting me is it distracting you no you want to hear what he's going to say next and speaking of that I'll shut up so we can see what he says next I'm not going to be able to look at Jackie she's going to make me cry the day Ellie was born I knew she CH would change me into a better person as she has grown she
has changed my default setting to yes for all Ellie requests such as being the first dad and daughter in the freezing Waters of Camp Seafair at Indian princesses while all the staff was in wet suits our late night runs all over Raleigh and more recently at hot yoga at 9:45 a.m. now I thought the word hot was a marketing term that meant like trendy or hip I didn't realize it meant it was 90 plus degrees on purpose my yoga moves are downright questionable but the quality of time I got to spend with Alie was worth
the sweat look at that he's he's Blended humor everything he's saying is true and and he was able to sort of toggle into sentimentality and and it didn't feel overly sweet so you just have to talk about your daughter and and think about those moments that really make you smile and really make her who she is uh Ellie obviously looks like Stephanie thank the Lord beautiful and confident but she is me on the inside a literal thinker and like me she's a little sassy and a little crusty you you told me to bring [Applause] it
so per being literal Ellie was around six or seven and had spent hours playing with Sarah Ally and Mary in her room after the play date I said let's see what shape your room's in and she said Dad it's still a [Laughter] square so I know you want to add you you want your speech to be funny everyone wants that funny Father of the Bride speech what he's doing is how you make it authentically funny how you really make it not dad jokes you you use truth nothing is funnier than truth and if you want
to make it really funny use specificity it's what standup Comics like me do be specific so what he did was he said she's very literal and then he Illustrated it and he gave us an example because he got a laugh just all just on literal but then he gave a specific example where she he said what shape is your room in and she said Square so that didn't come from a jokebook that didn't come from AI that didn't come from the Internet or someone else's speech that was real and it's fantastic I knew I knew
she was me Ellie you continue to impress me with your zest for life and travel your kend do attitude commitment to health and wellness your vast network of close friends or as I call them your good time buddies as well as being reflective and honest about who you are most importantly you're not knowledge of the best Caesar salad options in any city is unrivaled Ellie I'm so proud of who you have become the first time I met William I love what he just did he talked about his daughter first I always suggest speaking about your
daughter first because that way from the storytelling angle we know who she is I mean everyone there's going to know who she is but we we just have a sense of her as a character in the story that you're telling us and then enter partner enter new husband enter spouse then now we really have this picture in our minds I think it's a great way to do it and let me say again he still sounds nervous and he's reading right off his paper but at least he's looking up he looks up he doesn't just read
it like it's a seventh grade book report he looks up when he can but he's clearly reading it and it's it's okay had invited some friends to her house after a high school basketball game and she told me there was a guy coming over that was shy and to make him feel comfortable and chat him up well I guess I made him so comfortable that he ended up asking Ellie out on a date not not sure what happened there now every father of a daughter is apprehensive about that first date where some young man comes
over to take out your daughter and you know what's on his mind [Music] truth is funny he didn't even have to make a joke he just acknowledged something he just acknowledged it everyone they they did the work for him be before they left I reminded him that she was temporarily under his jurisdiction and and responsible for bringing her home safe and on time I also mentioned to him about my new favorite country song by Rodney Atkins just cleaning this gun you just mentioned that the other day to me by the way again truth is funny
that could sound like it was a joke even if it was a joke even if it was an exaggeration that would be funny but when he says you were just telling me that about that the other day he's speaking directly to the groom and that makes us as the audience understand I mean it would have been just as good as as sort of a white lie but it was true he probably did say it U shortly after they left they returned quickly Ellie said William had a reaction to the shrimp and got sick at the
restaurant well we found out days later that it was not the shrimp but a case of the nerves now as a dad I was relieved I knew that if he was that nervous just sitting across from Ellie at dinner I didn't have to worry about anything [Laughter] else and again he doesn't have to say I what you know he doesn't have to be doesn't have to explain it to us the audience knows they're talking about sex but he doesn't have to say it because I see dads do that in speeches I see them say well
I didn't want him to try to sleep with my daughter or get for you don't have to be you don't have to be overt about it the audience knows what we're talking about you can be subtle from the time uh from that time forward William became a permanent fixture at the danberg house Steph would make dinners which included a baked potato and Texas toast at the same Meal which was unheard of before William again truth is funny the specifics of that truth are hilarious how do we know that the family liked the new boyfriend mom
made baked potatoes and Texas toast she made double carbs she liked this guy so much and that was something the regular family didn't get he got it so it's a way of saying something that it's a way of illustrating something we know they like them but that's a specific example and it gets a huge laugh we even stopped at a KFC on a family road trip instead of a salad place with healthy options there was a new balance in our house and I I liked it I like it while in college we made countless road
trips to Williams VMI football games and the Ellie's UNCC KD functions so many good times memories life was good but then the dark time came a breakup or as we call it sad summer of 17 the breakup has hit us hard we lost a piece of our family in our fourth wheel Steph and I knew that Ellie and William were meant to be it just took them some time to realize it too a long six months later they were back back together and the world was right again William welcome to the family I'm proud to
call you my son and as a son we will continue to share our love of Napoleon Dynamite memes Seinfeld reruns Captain Morgan and Bella wine and most importantly you can continue to borrow my clothes throughout high school and college I texted Ellie William and Stephanie my daily wows Scott's words of wisdom now it's time for some sweet unsolicited marriage nuggets of wisdom number one compromise and husbands don't get ahead of me on this one uh number one compromise you're a team nail be flexible and open to to listening after our last dog passed I wanted
to wait a bit before we got a new dog and Stephanie wanted one immediately we compromised and got a dog immediately again he's nailing the jokes and I'm calling them jokes but they're not jokes they're they're they're all truthful this isn't anything that he stole from someone else's speech it's really original to him even though the thought itself of husband and wife you got to compromise she always gets her way that can be sort of a cliche idea but if you give us a real life example a real true example of it suddenly this idea
that's a little bit cliche just becomes absolutely wonderful because it's not about oh I'm just sort of being lazy and putting in the things that you've heard before he's giving it a specific example [Applause] wonderful number two communication what a wife says versus what she means it's fine means it's not fine when she is venting don't try to solve it just be a good listener be Phil dumpy it doesn't matter where we eat you choose this is a trap [Music] this this means she will reject all of your suggestions and ultimately go where she decides
[Laughter] and then number three love first understand life's a journey full of highs and lows always remember that your love and commitment for each other is stronger than any stumbling blocks along the way in closing thank you Stephanie for helping shape Ellie to who she is today from being my better half on our life Journey you are the love of my life and I hope that Ellie and William will enjoy life together as much as we have so let's raise a toast to Ellie and William I think that was a great speech and even remember
to thank Mom and Dad don't forget to thank mom in your speech it's a long quiet car ride if you do but the things that I see dads worrying about they worry that being nervous is going to hurt their speech they worry that reading their speech or not memorizing it is going to hurt the delivery of their speech it doesn't those things aren't important but if you want to know what could hurt your speech watch this next video
