Wedding MC Run Sheet: 14 Cue Lines
A wedding MC run sheet is a speaking script, not a timetable: 14 cue lines with the words on them, the name pronunciations, and every hand-back marked.
Twenty to thirty minutes is all the speeches get at a reception, and a wedding MC run sheet is the document that holds them to it. It is a speaking script rather than a timetable. Every line on it is something said into a microphone, in the order it gets said, with the names written the way they sound and every hand-back marked. Bridebook's Australian edition recommends the whole speech segment wrap inside that window and never pass 40 minutes.1
Copy the fourteen cue lines below, or open a day that is already timed in the run sheet generator and write your script against it.
What goes on a wedding MC run sheet
Fourteen lines cover a standard evening reception. The times are the ones on the shipped afternoon sheet, which runs from the couple walking in at 6:00 PM to the send-off at 11:00 PM. The third column is the one no other copy of this document carries.
| Time | Cue | What comes out of the microphone |
|---|---|---|
| 6:00 PM | Couple introduced | Both names, in the order the couple gave you, written the way they sound |
| 6:00 PM | Housekeeping | Bar, bathrooms, smoking area, phones, where the cake and the cards sit |
| 6:05 PM | Welcome | The welcome and the first toast, about five minutes |
| 6:30 PM | Entree served | Nothing at all. The room belongs to the caterer |
| 7:00 PM | Speeches open | Speaker one, by name and by relationship to the couple |
| 7:10 PM | Between speakers | One line per handover, with ten minutes of padding across the block |
| 7:20 PM | Speeches close | Thank every speaker by name, then hand back to the DJ or band |
| 7:30 PM | Mains served | Nothing for 45 minutes |
| 7:45 PM | Couple out for photos | Where they have gone and when they are back, so the room stays put |
| 8:30 PM | Cake cut | Call the room in, five minutes |
| 8:45 PM | First dance | Announce it, then put the microphone down |
| 9:15 PM | Floor opens | Nothing until last drinks |
| 10:45 PM | Last drinks | Bar closes at 11:00, send-off straight after |
| 11:00 PM | Send off | Line the guests up, then stop talking |
Eleven of the fourteen are things said out loud. Three are reminders to stay off the microphone, and the longest of them is the stretch after the first dance: the floor is open until 10:45 PM and the room has nothing left to be told.
Ten speaking moments across a five-hour reception, then two hours of nothing between the first dance and last drinks.
The three columns you have to write yourself
Names, written the way they sound. Surnames, a partner nobody has met, a grandparent's title in another language. Write them phonetically rather than trusting the moment, because the microphone is on and there is no second attempt.
The hand-back. Every announcement ends somewhere. The speech block ends with the DJ or band taking the room back, and the shipped template gives them their own supplier column alongside the caterer, celebrant and photographer. Write down who you hand to, so the pause after your last word belongs to somebody.
The line for when it goes long. One sentence, written in advance, that gets a speaker off the microphone without embarrassing them. Choosing that sentence at 7:38 PM in front of a hundred people is the part nobody rehearses.
Type the ceremony time and write against real clock times The run sheet generator places the reception rows from the times you enter, so the script column is the only part you write from scratch.
How long do the speeches actually get?
The block, not the speech, is the number to hold. Bridebook's Australian edition recommends the whole speech segment stay inside 20 to 30 minutes and treats 40 as the ceiling.1 Easy Weddings recommends 3 to 5 minutes per speech and puts the absolute maximum at 10.2
Those two numbers only agree if somebody is counting. The shipped sheet books speeches at 7:00 PM for three speakers at five minutes each and names the MC as the person holding the clock. On a derived day the speech beat lands 90 minutes into the reception, between dinner and the first dance, so the block has a served course on either side of it.
The block and the single speech, with the two ceilings that decide whether dinner is still warm.
Write both figures at the top of your sheet, with a running total beside each speaker. How long wedding speeches should be covers the per-speaker side.
What happens when a speaker runs over
The mains go cold. The shipped sheet is blunt about it: three unwatched speeches turn a 30 minute block into 45, and the kitchen is already plated. Mains are called at 7:30 PM and the caterer allows 45 minutes from the first plate landing to the last one cleared, so fifteen borrowed minutes come straight out of the food.
Thirty minutes of speeches against forty-five, and where the mains land in each case.
Two things on the sheet prevent it. The first is padding you have already agreed to. Jordan, founder and lead wedding coordinator at Managing Matrimony, names under-padded transitions as the biggest mistake couples make and adds 10 minutes between speakers and 15 minutes for the reception entry.4
The second is splitting the block. One Australian wedding DJ runs speeches in two rounds of two or three speakers, capped at five minutes each, rather than one unbroken run.3 Six speakers in one sitting is a long time to hold a room that has just been fed; the same six across two rounds gives you a natural place to stop.
Two rounds of three, five minutes each, with a break in the middle where the room gets to eat.
Who the MC hands back to
The same Australian DJ budgets 10 minutes for housekeeping announcements and the wedding party entrances together, 5 minutes for the welcome speech or toast, and at least 90 to 120 minutes of dancing at the end.3 Every one of those is a handover: you open, they run it, you take it back for the next announcement.
That is why the MC needs the whole day rather than a page of speech notes. Jordan sends the finished run sheet to every paid supplier plus the MC, the wedding party, the parents and one trusted family member as a backup contact, as a PDF to print and a live link for last-minute edits.4 The printed copy is the one you hold; the link is the one still correct after the celebrant moves twenty minutes.
A coordinator running several weddings a season keeps each day in one planner account, and a couple's DIY plan is one payment rather than a monthly charge. See pricing.
Common questions
What does a wedding MC actually announce? The entrance, the housekeeping, each speaker, the cake, the first dance, last drinks and the send-off. On the fourteen-line sheet above that is eleven moments, and the rest of the night is somebody else's.
How many speeches should there be? Three is what the shipped sheet books, at five minutes each. Six is workable if you split them into two rounds.3 Past six, the block passes the 40 minute ceiling at any sensible speech length.1
Should the MC write the speeches? No. The MC writes the introductions, the thanks and the housekeeping, which is roughly six short pieces of copy. The speeches belong to the people giving them.
What do you say when a speech passes ten minutes? Stand where the speaker can see you, wait for the next full stop, then thank them by name and move straight to the next cue. Easy Weddings puts 10 minutes as the absolute maximum for one speech, so that is a fair line to have agreed with the couple beforehand.2
Does the MC need the couple's full run sheet as well? Yes. The shipped template is one day with supplier columns over it, so the MC reads the same document as the caterer and the DJ rather than a separate file. Two schedules for one wedding is how a 7:45 PM photo block and a 7:45 PM announcement get booked against each other.
When should the MC get the sheet? Two to three weeks out, once the ceremony time and the speaker order are both settled, and again after any change. If you sent a link rather than a file, the second send is not needed.
Who a wedding MC run sheet is not for
A reception with no formal speeches, no cake and no send-off has nothing to script, and a professional MC bringing their own format needs the times and the names rather than your words. The full wedding run sheet suits both of those days better.
The sheet earns its place at more than three speakers, or when the couple leaves the room for photographs and somebody has to hold a hundred people for fifteen minutes.
Build the day from the ceremony time in the run sheet generator, then write the script column against the times it gives you. The Australian wedding run sheet template is the full day this reception sits inside, and what time dinner should be served decides where the speech block goes. Both are free to use, alongside how many hours a reception should be.