“Thirty years won't fit, and it shouldn't. Pick one story that shows who she is, not a highlights reel. One good story with a point will land harder than a lifetime compressed into five minutes.”

“I wrote a book on wedding speeches after years of photographing weddings and watching the good, the bad and the cringeworthy. The mistake most fathers make is trying to cover every year instead of finding one moment that says it all. Pick the story that shows who she really is, say what you actually feel about the person she has become, and sit down while they still want more.”

“Thirty years will not fit, and the guests do not want a highlight reel. I would pick one moment that only you could have seen: the thing that tells everyone who she is and what you are handing over.”

“I would pick one moment that shows who she is, not a timeline that proves you were there. At my daughter’s wedding I’d rather tell the room one true thing about her that took me years to see than try to cram the years in.”

“Pick one small moment that says everything: the way she used to run into your room, the thing she said at sixteen, the look on her face when you knew she was grown. Five minutes is long enough to make people feel it.”

“Thirty years won't fit, and the audience doesn't want it to. Pick the one story that shows who she is, say it in under two minutes, and let the silence after land harder than the words.”

“I gave the mother-of-the-bride speech at my daughter Charlotte's wedding not long ago, and I took the pressure off by deciding I wasn't there to summarise her whole life. I picked one small moment that showed who she is, said what I actually felt, and stopped. The guests remember the feeling, not the length.”

“I learned this the hard way when I tried to cram a lifetime of stories into one keynote: the audience doesn't want the whole album, they want the one song that makes them feel something. Pick one moment with your daughter that only you saw, tell it like you're talking to her, and let the rest sit in the silence.”

“Pick one story that lands, not thirty years. At our kids' weddings, I told one small moment that showed who she is, then welcomed her husband into it. The guests remember the feeling, not the timeline.”