How long should wedding speeches be?

cheryl2006

My brother gave a best man speech this past weekend and I was quite surprised at how long he talked for. I think I made him feel bad when I questioned his speech time, so I'm wondering what other people think of as the norm. And at what point do you consider too long?

Rock-n-Voll

They should be as short as possible IMHO.  Maybe ~5 minutes.

Passanie

Short, short, short!

hannikan

Yeah about 5 mins is what I expect.

cheryl2006

Yeah, I agree with 5 minutes. 10 tops.

His was 15 minutes!

Passanie

And five minutes is really a long time if you actually think about how much time that is to spend sitting and staring at one person.

annaandersen

Passanie:

And five minutes is really a long time if you actually think about how much time that is to spend sitting and staring at one person.

Agreed.

sm23

I think 5 minutes is a really long time actually... I think we encouraged our wedding speakers to keep it to 3-5. I think 15 minutes is a very very long speech.

Mrs.BoomBoom

3-5 min

Rock-n-Voll

sm23:

I think 5 minutes is a really long time actually... I think we encouraged our wedding speakers to keep it to 3-5. I think 15 minutes is a very very long speech.

15 minutes is very long, especially when you consider there are usually at least 1-2 more people that also want/need to speak (MOH, parent(s)).  This is why when I DOC'ed weddings I never scheduled the start of speeches until at least the salad course was out.  You just never know how long someone is going to go on and I refuse to have people sitting there starving if I could help it.

I once had a groom who would just not shut up. He probably talked for a good 20 minutes.  It was awful.

EmmieB

i'm giving a toast in oct - i'm thinking 5, 6 sentences with a joke somewhere. 

angelabbf

I'd say no longer than 3 mins.