Wedding Speech Success

Wedding speeches be they performed by the groom, the best man, or the father of the bride are probably one of the most nervous times you will experience unless you have to do some kind of public speaking in your day-to-day life you will be positively shaking at the thought of standing up and giving a speech in front of your friends and family.

There are many tips to help your speech go as smoothly as possible and I aim to let you in on them.

Firstly I got married on the 10th of July 2009 and had to make a speech naturally. I am in no way shape or form the most confident person in the world and certainly have no experience in public speaking, I have however done a lot of research before the big day and have gleaned some tips on how to prepare and deliver your speech.

Being well prepared is paramount when deciding to write a speech, I think my speech was virtually finished 3months before the due date.

As soon as you and your wife-to-be have announced a date you need to start thinking of things you would like to say in your speech, Who to thank, what lovely words you would like to say to your new wife, mentioning people who can't make it, etc etc.

Get some of these thoughts down onto paper or your computer as soon as you think of them otherwise they get forgotten amongst all the other stuff you have to plan and remember.

The wedding speech order is important, In order of who goes first it is usually the father/mother of the bride followed by the groom, then the best man is saved till last as his speech is the one most people look forward to.

The father of the bride needs to thank everyone for coming and to tell a few stories about the blushing bride then its the groom's turn and he will again thank people for coming and will also thank the bride's parents for accepting him into their family and for producing such a beautiful daughter, say a few words about how beautiful his new bride looks and then finish with thanking bridesmaids and ushers then introduce begrudgingly the best man.

It will be perfectly natural to have nerves leading up to the big day but don't panic the people attending are your friends and family and certainly aren't there to see you fail they are there to love and support you in your speech or if its the best man speech they are there to hear a few jokes and as long as you rip the groom to bits they will be happy.

Make sure that you have two copies of any notes you have taken, you can either write key points down or the whole speech, just make sure if you have the whole speech be sure to look up from your notes so it doesn't look like you're just reading straight off of them.

Be sure that when you read your speech you try and look relaxed so then family members will be relaxed as well.

Talking slowly is most important as I found myself rushing my speech when practising it, about 800 words or 5 Min's is about right for most speeches, so speak slowly and make sure that you look at your audience every now and then and get good eye contact.

Also, make sure you speak loudly and clearly as I found my voice would drop down to a whisper when practising and im not the loudest talker anyway.

I have my speech written down on index cards as I think if you stand there and unravel sheets of A4 paper it looks messy.

Just remember everyone is there to love and support you and is not wanting you to fail, they are there to enjoy themselves and to see the happy couple have a lovely day, you may get the odd drunk relative who likes to try and embarrass you by shouting out remarks but I think if you just point them out in front of everyone and make a small joke out of it it should shut them up.

In short, relax enjoy yourself and remember it's just five minutes of your life, once it's over you can have a drink and relax.Good luck