|
Wedding Speech Survival Guide
Knees shaking, voice quaking…that’s not the look you’re after when you take to the floor to deliver your wedding speech. Here are Wedding Journal’s tips on how to say it with style…
Never leave it to chance: Don’t be fooled into thinking you can just rock up on the day and deliver a cracking wedding speech. You can’t. It will take planning and preparation to get the content right and then you’ll need to spend hours working on your delivery technique. Ideally you’ll want to have your speech memorised, as working from notes can be very ‘staged’. It’s a good idea to bring prompt cards with you though, just in case you dry up and lose your chain of thought.
Keep it clean: Remember that you’re not addressing the boys in the rugby club. A wedding reception really isn’t the place for changing room humour. The guest age range will be broad – from the very young to the elderly and there will be a mix of races, cultures and tastes. Keep your content clean and inoffensive.
Prepare to entertain:We don’t want to alarm you, but it’s important to realise that wedding guests do expect to be entertained. Your speech marks the beginning of the celebrations, and while you aren’t expected to perform like a stand-up pro, you do need to make them smile. Avoid joke book ‘jokes’ that may fall on hard ground, instead use personal stories, memories and anecdotes to add some natural humour into your speech.
A sobering thought: Don’t fall under the temptation of calming your nerves with a drink. One glass may lead to two and before you know it you will have reduced your ability to think straight, never mind deliver a smooth speech. Don’t embarrass yourself and the wedding party by turning into a drunken fool, instead reward yourself with a drink after the speech.
Get personal: Short for content for your speech? Identify who the wedding guests will be and that should help you to come up with a wedding speech that the audience can relate to. Interact with the audience by referring directly to guests or by addressing individuals by name– this is a great way of making the audience more attentive and responsive.
Plan your toast: Every good wedding speech ends with a toast. This is your end focal point and provides something to work towards. Give everyone a moment to charge their glasses by being clear in the exact working of the toast, for example: ‘ Let’s raise a glass to my beautiful wife’ or ‘ Please join me in a toast to the bride and groom.’
5 marriage quotations
A well-chosen quotation can make a good addition to any wedding speech. Here are five famous quips on matrimony.
- “Wives are young men's mistresses; companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.” ~ Francis Bacon
- “Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
- “There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage.” ~ Martin Luther
- “One good husband is worth two good wives, for the scarcer things are, the more they are valued.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
- “Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.” ~ Jane Austin
|
Planning 
I posted 4 photos on Facebook in the album "Bridal inspiration from Cannes...." 
