⏱️ How Long Should a Mother of the Groom Speech Be?

Two to four minutes. Around 300 to 600 words.

Three is plenty. This is a speech that gains from being shorter than people expect, because it usually arrives in a running order already carrying three or four others.

Short does not mean slight. Three well-chosen minutes from the groom's mother can be the most quoted speech of the night, precisely because nobody sees it coming.

For a long time this speech was not on the running order at all. That history shows up in how they get written: a lot of them open by acknowledging it is unusual, then spend a minute being gracious to everyone in the room.

Skip both. The apology wastes your best thirty seconds, and a list of thanks is the one part of a wedding that genuinely is interchangeable.

Say what you know about your son that the room does not. That is the whole job, and nobody else at the wedding can do it.

• One story about him, specific enough that it could not be about anyone else
• What he is like now, in a line
• A genuine welcome to his partner, addressed to them by name
• A toast

That is four things, and three minutes is enough for all of them if you do not open with a preamble.

If you want a fifth, make it a line to your son's partner's parents. It costs ten seconds and it is remembered.

Read it aloud at speaking pace, which for most people is 130 to 150 words a minute. Standing up, not in your head.

Warm speeches run slower than funny ones. Budget a little extra if you expect to be moved, and finish on a line you could deliver from memory.