Whether you’re a seasoned public speaker, experienced standup comedian or an introvert who hates having the spotlight shone on them, delivering a wedding speech to a room full of guests can be nerve-wracking.
You might be the groom, best man, father of the bride or the bride herself - whatever the reason for having to grab the mic on the big wedding day, you’re probably feeling a little anxious.
Good news: you can do this! Here are five ways to prepare for one of the most important speeches you’ll ever give.
There’s nothing wrong with a bit of ad-libbing for a wedding speech, but too much will probably lead you down a bit of a rambling path.
To avoid that, make sure you actually write out your wedding speech. You don’t need to do it word for word or end up with eighteen pages of A4 paper, either (see tip 3) - you just need to capture all of the important suff before you forget it.
Like anything big in life, rehearsing your wedding speech is vitally important if you’re to nail it on the day.
However, tread with caution here; there’s such a thing as over-rehearsing a speech.
It might sound counter productive not to continually rehearse the words you’re going to say on the big day, but the more you run through what you’re going to say, the more likely you are to wander off course when the time comes.
Also, the more you rehearse something, the less impactful the words will be in your own mind.
Most of the greatest speakers work from cue cards, rather than pieces of A4 paper.
A cue card contains just a paragraph or two of your speech, enabling you to break it down into smaller chunks and making it less likely you will lose your place each time you look up and back down again.
Your speech will be far easier to read this way and much less daunting. You can also have a bit of fun by flinging the cards behind your back when finished if you’re going for comic effect!
This is particularly important for best man reception speeches, but every wedding speech may contain material that could be taken the wrong way by someone in the room. The last thing you want to do is to offend the mother of the bride, for example!
If you’ve written something you’re unsure about, and which is bothering you, run it past someone to see if your concerns are valid. If they are, remove it - you’ll feel better for doing so, and it’ll decrease the chance of any slip-ups on the day.
Guess what? The audience you’ll deliver this speech to will be the easiest one ever to tame.
They’ll be rooting for you. They won’t want you to fail. They’ll laugh at your jokes (even if they’re not particularly funny), and they’ll make you feel comfortable as soon as you stand up.
This is rare - make the most of it!
The most important tip for delivering wedding speeches of any kind is to enjoy the experience. You’ll probably only get to do this once (depending on your role), and it really is an amazing feeling.
