Wedding Dinner Emcee Script (Chinese Included)

I’m sure weddings elsewhere might entail different things. This is my own “notes” so it’s closer to Malaysia/Singapore weddings (specifically, very Chinese / non-religious type). Should be useful for that one off emcee job you gotta do coz you’re a close friend and the newly wed couple can’t afford to get a professional one.

Square brackets are optional. XX, YY, ZZ, __ etc. just substitute away.


Before the start of the wedding

大家请就坐,宴会即将开始。

The ceremony will begin soon, we would like to invite everyone to please take a seat.

Pre-entrance of bride / groom, after everyone’s mostly seated. Spot lighting if available.

大家好。我是 JJ, [我是 KK], 我[们]将会是你们今天的司仪。

[Hi, I am JJ [and I am KK] and we will be your emcees for the day.]

欢迎大家来到 _______ 出席 AA BB 夫妇的儿子 YY,与 CC DD 夫妇的女儿 XX,的婚礼。

Good [afternoon/evening] everyone, today is the wedding of Mr. & Mrs. AA’s son YY with Mr. & Mrs. CC’s daughter XX. We are honored to welcome all of you to celebrate this joyous occasion with us here in ________.

Note: Some families are very serious about the exact enunciation of the parent’s name / combination (considering some might have unfortunately passed away etc.). Refer to the banquet invite that was printed and ask if you can’t pronounce the name of both party’s parents (or rep), bride or groom’s name. Never 有边读边!

现在,有请大家起立,掌声欢迎我们今天的主角 YY 与 XX 入场!

May I invite all of you to rise and welcome YY and XX [into the Grand Ballroom]!

March in: Entry of flower girl + flower boy, or anything interesting for a march in (ballet girl?), last being the newly wed couple. For serious ones, take interval steps (one foot forward, next foot bring to match to stand straight, wait, then switch).

For weddings that starts directly with cake cutting (the common case), proceed to get them on stage etc. Otherwise, it’s also common to do it altogether during the 2nd entrance/half way through the dinner (4th to 5th dish).

有请我们的新人到台上来且结婚蛋糕!

Let’s welcome our newly weds to come up on stage to cut the wedding cake.

*Say good things here

大家请坐。Please take a seat.

我谨代表 AABB 夫妇,与 CCDD 夫妇,感谢大家百忙之中抽空出席 YY 和 XX 的结婚[午/晚]宴。

On behalf of Mr. & Mrs. AA, and Mr. & Mrs. CC, we would like to thank all of you for gracing this joyous occasion.

今天的宴会现在开始。请大家享用今天的[午/晚]宴。酒微菜薄,请多多包涵。

Lunch will be served immediately. We hope you will enjoy every dish that has been specially prepared.

Hotel/Restaurant takes over for launch of first dish. The following is pretty fluid, depending on what you have. Usually the simplest is to ask the photographer to make montages of events that happened preceding the banquet, like the “rescuing” of the bride, baby photos, how they met etc. Life performances attracts the most attention. The following are snippets:

请大家欣赏我们即将播放的录影,关于 YY 与 XX 共度的人生片段。

We have prepared a few short video clips for YY & XX. Sharing their journey and special moments with you. Without further ado, here they are. Enjoy!

今天我们有一位特别的嘉宾,那就是 [ YY/XX 的 ??, ] LL, 来为我们献上一首歌。

Today, we have a special performance by [ YY/XX’s ?? ] LL. S/he would like to [sing a song/perform a piece] entitled __________ to the newly weds. Let’s put our hands together to welcome LL!

让我们掌声欢迎,LL 来为我们的新人[唱/表演] _______!

让我们再次给 LL 掌声鼓励好不好?Another round of applause for LL!

谢谢 LL 。 Thank you LL.

The traditional “climax” of such banquets is in the toasting. This is unique, in that it is institutionalized into our culture for a long time. The use of the cross cultural “toasting” of champagne or wine or other celebratory drinks, and the efforts to create a congratulatory scene the newly weds will not forget, is essential in such banquets (which has evolved into a celebration / marketing effort from its traditional ceremonial significance). Although most modern weddings had settled with Mandarin as the preferred medium to cater for the various dialect groups, the toasting remains, uniquely, Cantonese (speaks to the success of the HK film industry).

大家好,希望大家都喜欢今天的菜肴。

Hello everyone, we hope you have enjoyed the dishes today.

* Insert second entrance if it’s an evening dinner that involves the bride changing from her wedding dress to her evening gown.

* Insert cake cutting here if not done earlier.

今天的宴会正式进入高潮。我们有请新人到台上来开香槟!

Let’s welcome our newly weds YY & XX to come on stage to pop the champagne!

*Say good things here

接下来,有请我们的新人来喝交杯酒!

Next, the couple will have a cross toast with each other.

*Say good things here

接下来,有请新人的父母和亲戚到台上来敬酒。[也请各位兄弟姐妹们到台上来助贺。]

We now invite parents and relatives to come on stage to propose a toast. [We also like to invite the brothers and sisters to help us out on stage as well.]

第一杯,是要祝贺新人,永浴爱河,永结同心,白头偕老。

For the first toast to our newly wed couple, may both of you treasure one another and live happily ever after.

饮~~~~~~~~盛!

第二杯,是要祝贺新人,好好做人,早生贵子,三年抱两。

For the second toast, we wish our newly wed couple to be fruitful and multiply in numbers!

饮~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~盛!

第三杯,是要祝贺在场的各位亲戚朋友,龙马精神,生意兴隆,身体健康。

For the third toast, we would like to wish everyone great health and good fortune in the coming year.

饮~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~盛!

请新人留在台上,为我们说几句话。
We will now invite the couple to say a few words of appreciation.

The so called “speech” can be quite terrorizing / emotional to the newly wed couple. As an emcee, the responsibility is to make sure that the show must go on. That’s why I think the toasting should happen before the speech as it’s simple and rehearsed, and the shoutingcheering can sooth the nerves of the couple (some do it before, so that we can toast to what the couple say). If the couple cry half way / fall down / do something weird / panic etc. say good things and keep the show going, at the very least, ask the audience to applause for encouragement.

大家请坐。 Please take a seat.

让我们现在来看一看今天早上新郎接新娘的短片。

Let’s take a look at what happened earlier today when the groom overcome all obstacles to fetch his bride home.

The last part is optional. The realistic attendees won’t really need a good bye as they will leave after they’re full / done eating the last dish. However, in certain occasions it’s polite to sign off, wishing everyone well, before the end of the last dish.

各位,今天的酒席到此结束。再次要谢谢各位远道而来捧场。希望大家有一个快乐的[一天/晚上]。

We have come to an end of today’s banquet. Again, we would like to express our deepest appreciation for your support today. We wish that you will have a happy [day/evening].

[谢谢/晚安/再见]。Thank you / Good night / Good bye.


End note: I thought of putting this up on a wiki interface, so that more people can contribute, becoming a form of public property anyway. But then I thought if everyone add it’ll be too much to be useful. So if you have more good sentences to add (especially on the “good things to say”, which I’m lacking), please feel free to drop a comment, indicating when it will be good to say that. I’ll edit it as I go.

Similarly, this is in no way a substitute for the all too familiar Dai Kam Jie (Tai Kam Jie / 大妗姐 / 喜娘 / 全福人 / 好命婆 search these terms all you’ll see plenty of contacts) or Dai Kam Gong. If you’ve heard one (especially those who can do half a dozen dialects and doesn’t seem to get tired throughout the day), you’ll see that it’s a profession that is a class of its own.

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11 Responses

  1. Thank you so much…although haven’t read it yet…but this is what i really need…once again thank you so much…

  2. need a emcee script for annual dinner. first time as emcee in my life,it’s my company annual dinner. your reply is much much appreciate. thank you

  3. robert, i don’t think there’s a standard script for corporate annual dinners – they are all unique AFAIK…

    how about just make sure you get all the names right, the event sequence, etc. you don’t need to be fancy at all in corporate event. just be yourself. once you get some experience you’ll be able to add salt add vinegar 🙂

    enjoy!

  4. I’m really glad to have found this page. I’ve not spoken chinese for a long time and have been asked to be the chinese emcee for my brother’s wedding. This has definitely been a life saver!

    Thanks!

  5. very useful sharing and great scripts.
    how to handle if have to converse in english and mandarin by 1 person at the same time.
    to say “good thing” in mandrin just easy but to say “good thing/words” not that easy….(any suggestion?) how about if try to use “Idiosm”…do u have some sample/example

  6. hi angah, i don’t have any samples – it was a one off work. even if it’s one person, it’s best to write what you want to say down and rehearse.

  7. thnaks mate,

    i have been looking for this script for a few days….now i have found your script version is very helpful as i will be a wedding MC on 11.11.11 for my best malaysian family… and i am also asked to be the Tai Kam men / 大妗men… I image i will have fun and full of laughter, should i wear a mini skit and wear a high heel lei !!

    so next to search is the script for Tai Kam Jie / 大妗姐 for tea ceremony..

    you help me a lot..thanks\

    j in melbourne

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