Quote to end Best Man toast at wedding?

August 3, 2011 8:35 AM

I am the best man for an upcoming wedding. I think I have the toast down (don't worry, keeping it short) and I'm really looking for a quote/saying or short poem to end it with. Suggestions?

It could be something a little abstract (not necessarily about marriage), but I'd really like something not overdone (ex. kibran). It could be an irish blessing, native american, Shakespearean, from a movie, a song... I'm not picky about the source, though I would shy away from anything from the bible (unless perfect).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

(he reads this site, hence the anonymity.)

posted by anonymous to Grab Bag (15 answers total)

Ogden Nash?
posted by pharm at 8:41 AM on August 3, 2011

This may not be the tone you're going for, but there's a nice little Ogden Nash poem I used at my sister's rehearsal dinner:

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up.

on preview: damnit, pharm.
posted by dismas at 8:41 AM on August 3, 2011

Not that I've done something weird like bookmark a random livejournal page to use as a reference when writing notes/ toasts for weddings, but this page has come in handy more than once over the past few years.

In particular, this has been my recent favorite, an excerpt from James Dillet Freeman's "Blessing For a Marriage":

May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy.
May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.
posted by CharlieSue at 8:43 AM on August 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Odysseus to Nausikaa:
To you may the gods give all that you desire in your heart, a husband and a home, and may they grant beautiful harmony: for there is nothing greater and better than this, than when in harmony of mind a man and woman share a home they are a great grief to their enemies and a delight to their friends; they them-selves are greatly respected.
posted by SLC Mom at 8:46 AM on August 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

Genesis 2:25: "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."
posted by michaelh at 8:49 AM on August 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

This might be a good place to look.

From that site, I particularly like:

I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. Rita Rudner
posted by chiefthe at 8:56 AM on August 3, 2011

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] by e.e. cummings, perhaps starting with the last stanza
posted by needsnoprosecutor at 8:59 AM on August 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

“May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live.” by Robert Heinlein apparently.
posted by backwards guitar at 9:28 AM on August 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I wish you'd given us some idea of the tone of the rest of your speech - light, serious, funny, anecdotes, observations?

However I have always been fond of this once since it reflects my belief that relationships are about growing together & in the same-ish direction rather than being identical or inwardly-focused.

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction."
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery
posted by phearlez at 9:29 AM on August 3, 2011 [6 favorites]

My sister and her husband used The Master Speed by Robert Frost. I'd start the quote at "Two such as you."

No speed of wind or water rushing by
But you have speed far greater. You can climb
Back up a stream of radiance to the sky,
And back through history up the stream of time.
And you were given this swiftness, not for haste
Nor chiefly that you may go where you will;
But in the rush of everything to waste,
That you may have the power of standing still—
Off any still or moving thing you say.
Two such as you with such a master speed
Cannot be parted nor be swept away
From one another once you are agreed
That life is only life forevermore
Together wing to wing and oar to oar.

posted by Pallas Athena at 11:58 AM on August 3, 2011 [5 favorites]

"May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live."

Then there's always 1 Corinthians 7:9...
posted by DandyRandy at 12:00 PM on August 3, 2011

Falling in love is like owning a dog was previously recommended on Ask.Mefi.
posted by Addlepated at 4:32 PM on August 3, 2011

Although it was said face-to-faces (not as part of a toast), below is the short poem I recited to my brother and his new wife. (They live in New York City, and before I started quoting the poem, I explained how I imagined them walking in different areas of the city during the day, but carrying each other in their thoughts)

Here at the frontier,
the leaves are falling,
and I am surrounded by barbarians.

And although you are a thousand miles away,
on my table there are always two cups.

posted by blueberry at 11:29 PM on August 3, 2011

"When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part."

George Bernard Shaw
posted by Redhush at 5:23 AM on August 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

DandyRandy: the version I always heard was "May you live as long as you want to... and want to as long as you live!"

Slightly more appropriate for an Irish pub than a wedding, but maybe afterwards....
posted by Pallas Athena at 1:07 PM on August 5, 2011