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Crystal Adair-Benning of Toronto still gets teary-eyed when she recalls the speech her father gave on her wedding day three years ago.

Her father, normally a shy man, poured his heart out to her wedding guests, telling sweet and funny anecdotes about his only child as a baby, about watching her don heels and dress up like a lady for the first time, and how that almost made him cry.

"He came across as heartfelt and funny," said Ms. Adair-Benning, 27. "All those things that I know are the best of my dad came out."

It wasn't until months after the wedding that Ms. Adair-Benning discovered the secret behind her father's miraculous transformation.

He'd had a professional write it for him.

"I was like, 'I'm sorry? You couldn't come up with the words yourself?' " said Ms. Adair-Benning, who is herself a wedding planner.

But after she got past her initial indignation, she not only forgave him - "the reality was, he couldn't come up with the words himself" - she also began offering speechwriting services to her own clients.

She estimates she now helps write toasts, speeches and vows for nearly half the weddings she plans.

No longer just a novelty, the use of professional speechwriting services has become increasingly common at weddings, turning tongue-tied brides, grooms and bridal-party members into orators with the eloquence of Barack Obama and the comic timing of Jon Stewart.

But the practice typically goes unnoticed, since few culprits are willing to fess up to outsourcing the task of expressing how they feel about their closest loved ones.

"It's fairly well-known that politicians, or even top-ranking executives, hire speechwriters," said Alan Milevoy, founder of the online Montreal-based Words2Touch Speech Writing Services. "But with weddings, people just want to kind of impress other people by claiming that they wrote it."

Mr. Milevoy said he received about 15 requests in the past month for wedding speeches from everyone from best men to mothers of the groom.

Clients fill in an online questionnaire that asks for details about their relationship with the bride or groom, and whether they want a speech that is humorous, sentimental or serious.

Based on the client's responses, Mr. Milevoy produces a customized speech.

The service costs about $120 for a three- to five-minute speech, which can be completed within a few days or a few hours, depending on the client's urgency, Mr. Milevoy said. His company's slogan: "We craft the speech. You bask in the applause."

But it's not just the quest for credit that has customers keeping mum about using speechwriting services. Many are too embarrassed to admit they didn't know what to say.

"I think people feel, 'Why can't I do this? ... I can't even write a speech and it's my daughter's wedding. What is the matter with me?' " said Mary Flynn, owner of Personalized Wedding Speeches & Toasts, an online custom writing service based in Barrie, Ont.

Ms. Flynn said demand has ballooned as weddings have become increasingly elaborate. With couples spending tens of thousands of dollars on the big day, no one wants to flub their performance, especially since the entire event is often recorded on video for posterity, she said.

Nervous about speaking to a crowd of 100 guests, Jeff Cheung, 32, has hired Ms. Adair-Benning to craft his vows for his upcoming wedding in January.

The Richmond Hill, Ont., groom said he has no trouble expressing his feelings to his bride-to-be in private. But sharing those intimate thoughts with an audience can be intimidating, he said.

"You don't want to sound like an idiot."

Although using the service was his idea, his fiancée has had no problem with it, and may even seek help with writing her own vows, Mr. Cheung said.

Others, however, have been less understanding.

"A lot of my friends' wives, they specifically said they would be quite insulted if their husbands went and had help writing their vows," Mr. Cheung said.

Craig Elliott, 33, of New Jersey used Ms. Flynn's service to pen a best man's speech for his best friend's wedding last year.

Since he and his friend have known each other since Grade 2, Mr. Elliott said, he had no shortage of things to say but had a hard time organizing all his thoughts.

"I'm somewhat of a perfectionist so I would have spent days upon days trying to get this to where I wanted it," he said.

He noted that Ms. Flynn was able to make his ideas flow and inject some humour, including a joke about the three most important words in a successful marriage: "Okay, buy it."

"[Hiring a speechwriter] just made my life so much easier. It was one less thing I had to worry about," he said.

Mr. Elliott said the speech was a hit, and ended up expressing all the points he wanted to make.

But as much as he and his best friend have shared throughout the years, hiring a speechwriter is one secret Mr. Elliott has kept to himself.

"He never asked," Mr. Elliot said, "and I never told him."