Most wedding toasts meander endlessly, boring your wedding guests. Many lack structure and a sufficient dose of sentiment. That’s why we blog regularly on ways for you to give a great wedding toast. Here’s another way: turn to the bard with a Shakespeare wedding toast.
Is there anyone who ever had a better way with words than the maestro of the sonnet, William Shakespeare? In a life spanning 52 years, he wrote 39 plays and 154 sonnets, featuring some of the most romantic quotations in English literature, such as this gem from Romeo and Juliet:
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.”
Good stuff for a wedding toast.
From Hamlet:
“Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”
From The Tempest:
“Hear my soul speak:
The very instant that I saw you, did
My heart fly to your service.”
From Henry VI Part 1:
“She’s beautiful, and therefore to be wooed;
She’s a woman, and therefore to be won.”
The powerful sentiment expressed by a Shakespeare wedding toast can’t be topped, so why try? You can easily integrate a quote into your toast.
For example, a best man could say something like this:
When John met Mary, his mission in life became very simple. Shakespeare described it this way:
‘She’s beautiful, and therefore to be wooed;
She’s a woman, and therefore to be won.’
But John didn’t simply view his pursuit of Mary to be a game. I could see by the tenderness of his feelings for her that this went much deeper. She has clearly won his heart forever.
Shakespeare described what happened to this man,
‘Hear my soul speak:
The very instant that I saw you, did
My heart fly to your service.’
Mary, John HAS put his heart at your service forever. And the world is a better place for it.
Let us raise our glasses to celebrate a love that never ends.”
If you’d like to raise your glass to great wedding entertainment, here’s where to start.
