Wedding Speech

Hi everyone, I'm writing an ordained minister speech for my friend's wedding. I've never performed a wedding in Japanese before and was hoping I could get some help.

Thank you all for joining us on a nice and sunny pleasant Sunday here at the Kahala Hotel and Resort.

明るい日にカハラレゾートにいらっしゃってくださってありがとうございます。川本家族と宮下家族も日本からいらしゃってありがとうございます。私はBobbyBakerと申します。Brideさんの友達で同僚です。

I met Bride-San when she was an intern at (Company Name). She was such a diligent worker that she, and her good friend Friend-San, were asked to become a part of our Finance Family.

2年前Bride-SanはインターンとしてCompany Nameに来ました。とっても真面目な人です。Brideさんと友達のFriend-さんも会計のデパートのスタッフとなりました

She eventually became a friend to me as I got along with everyone else on the third floor. When I had heard that Bride-San was going to get married, I secretly hoped that she would ask me to become the "ordained minister". However I didnt think she would ask me considering she didnt have a ceremony when she did get married. However, Friend-San threw a surprise bridal shower for Bride-san in the office the same week she got married. That's when Bride-San asked me to be her ordained minister."

私はだんだん３階の眠さんとBrideさんとも仲良くなって友達を出来ました。私はBrideさんが結婚すると聞いたとき陰ながらBride-sanの神父になってって言ってほしかったです。ですがその週に真央さんは結婚して無駄ですねって思いました。FriendさんはBrideさんのためBridal Showerを祝った時Brideさんはやっと頼みました「神父で参加してもらってもいい？」って
"I was really honored when she asked me that. I gratefully accepted, and shortly after met her husband, Husband-San. We went to dinner at Restaurant where I could get to know Husband-san. I was nervous at first but was glad to know that we had a lot of things in common. This made becoming an ordained minister for them more important to me.

ずいぶん光栄でした。喜んでうけて受け取ってやっと夫さんのHusband-sanに合わせてくれました. Husbandさんと仲良くなるように富士山テキサスというお店で晩御飯を食べました。最初は緊張過ぎて食べれなかったけどお酒の力のおかげで趣味が合うことで嬉しかったです。夫婦の神父という責任はもっと大事なことになりました.

Of course this is all I have for now.

When will this speech be presented, during the ceremony or during a toast? IMO it's too much about you and why you ended up in this role and your feelings. This event should be about the couple.
Also I don't understand the logic here. You said she's already married. I guess she's having a proper ceremony now? If so I don't see the value in pointing out she's already married. Some people there may not even know that. I had a small ceremony and filed wedding paperwork a month before my actual wedding in order to expedite visa/government paperwork but as far as almost everybody who came to my wedding knew, I was getting married on the day of the ceremony. Telling them I was already officially married would have been an unnecessary distraction. Also how is your Japanese? If it's not that great, you could consider doing it in English only. At my sister-in-law's wedding the "minister" spoke in English only. I doubt he was actually ordained in anything though. Just the typical Japanese style

mdchachi said:

When will this speech be presented, during the ceremony or during a toast? IMO it's too much about you and why you ended up in this role and your feelings. This event should be about the couple.
Also I don't understand the logic here. You said she's already married. I guess she's having a proper ceremony now? If so I don't see the value in pointing out she's already married. Some people there may not even know that. I had a small ceremony and filed wedding paperwork a month before my actual wedding in order to expedite visa/government paperwork but as far as almost everybody who came to my wedding knew, I was getting married on the day of the ceremony. Telling them I was already officially married would have been an unnecessary distraction. Also how is your Japanese? If it's not that great, you could consider doing it in English only. At my sister-in-law's wedding the "minister" spoke in English only. I doubt he was actually ordained in anything though. Just the typical Japanese style

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Hello there,

Thank you for your reply. This speech will be presented during the ceremony. There's actually way more about the couple later on in my speech that I did not add here. I was just asked to add a small introduction about myself.

Yeah she's having a proper ceremony now. A lot of the speech was created alongside the couple (my draft was in English when I first made it last year). The reason why I'm converting it into Japanese now is because I was asked to perform the speech in Japanese instead of English just recently.

My Japanese is at a conversational level, I talk a lot with my friend who is getting married in Japanese but I don't use any vocabulary outside of the casual.

Formal Japanese speeches used in such formal situations are completely different from casual speeches in daily conversations. It must be more polite and respectful than the ones you used in your e-mails for professors, and there are many rules you should keep (there are words/phrases you shouldn't use, for instance).
Here's an example for the first paragraph.

皆様、本日はこの晴れの良き日に川本家、宮下家御両家の婚礼の儀に御列席いただき誠にありがとうございます。また、新郎新婦御両家の皆様方も遠路日本からお越しいただきありがとうございます。わたくしは新婦の同僚で、本日の司会を務めさせていただきますBobbyBakerと申します。

I agree with mdchachi-san. Even if you asked to perform the speech in Japanese, it seems better to do it in English. Your Japanese speech is meaningless for those who don't understand Japanese, and inappropriate for those who understand Japanese like their families.

Toritoribe said:

Formal Japanese speeches used in such formal situations are completely different from casual speeches in daily conversations. It must be more polite and respectful than the ones you used in your e-mails for professors, and there are many rules you should keep (there are words/phrases you shouldn't use, for instance).
Here's an example for the first paragraph.

皆様、本日はこの晴れの良き日に川本家、宮下家御両家の婚礼の儀に御列席いただき誠にありがとうございます。また、新郎新婦御両家の皆様方も遠路日本からお越しいただきありがとうございます。わたくしは新婦の同僚で、本日の司会を務めさせていただきますBobbyBakerと申します。

I agree with mdchachi-san. Even if you asked to perform the speech in Japanese, it seems better to do it in English. Your Japanese speech is meaningless for those who don't understand Japanese, and inappropriate for those who understand Japanese like their families.

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Hi Toritoribe,

Thank you so much for your reply. I'm happy you remembered my translation request from the other month.

The reason why I'm now performing it in Japanese is because the majority of the guests as of last week are Japanese natives. Both families are Japanese American and know Japanese so originally a speech in English was fine. But since extended families from both the bride and groom's family will be coming all the way from Japan (and Okinawa), we decided that it'd be best we perform the ceremony in Japanese.