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Scottish Wedding Toasts, Speeches & Sayings

Traditional Scottish toasts and Burns-adjacent lines couples and speech-givers actually use, and how to weave them in without it feeling forced.

A well-placed traditional Scottish toast or line can add real warmth to a speech without it feeling like a costume — here are ones couples and speech-givers actually use, and how they tend to land.

The Selkirk Grace

Often attributed to Robert Burns, the Selkirk Grace ("Some hae meat and canna eat, / And some wad eat that want it; / But we hae meat and we can eat, / Sae let the Lord be thankit") is a short, well-known grace said before a meal — a natural fit if your reception meal opens with any kind of formal address, whether or not the rest of the day has a Burns theme.

"Here's tae us — wha's like us?"

A short, well-known Scottish toast ("Here's tae us — wha's like us? Damn few, and they're a' deid" — roughly "here's to us, who's like us, damn few, and they're all dead") — informal and often used with a laugh rather than solemnly, good for a best man or maid of honour speech looking for a lighter closing line.

A quaich toast

If you're including a quaich ceremony, the moment lends itself naturally to a short toast from whoever is presenting or sharing the cup — a simple line about friendship, unity or the couple's future is more effective than an elaborate script.

Gaelic blessings

Short Gaelic blessings (an Irish/Scots Gaelic blessing beginning "May the road rise to meet you" is genuinely of Irish origin but is sometimes used at Scottish weddings too) are popular as a closing line in speeches or on order-of-service sheets — if you want something specifically and accurately Scots Gaelic rather than a generic "Celtic" blessing, a celebrant or Gaelic speaker can help source and correctly pronounce one.

Using them well

A traditional toast works best as one deliberate moment in a speech, not scattered throughout — pick one line that means something to you, get the wording right (many are misquoted online), and let it stand rather than surrounding it with explanation.