Weddings are generally joyous family occasions and I was surprised when I discovered that there’s a convention attached to them. I mean the wedding speeches. Because, wedding speeches are traditional and there are generally three wedding speeches acceptable. These speeches are given by the bride’s father, by the bridegroom, and the last speech is given by the best man. The maid of honor may occasionally want to say a few words, responding to the bridegroom’s speech. And as it’s the bride’s wedding too, she may want to join the bridegroom and thanking people for being there and for all their support. Alternatively, she may well thank her father for his kind words just after his speech.
These wedding speeches are highly anticipated by everybody present, and equally highly dreaded by the persons that give them.Such is the price of fame when public speaking….
Have you ever been in a situation where the groom or the bride asked you to give a short speech at their wedding? How are you going to come up with an appropriate wedding speech that fits in with the tradition, is humorous and will be remembered by everyone present?
Here are a few suggestions for the different speeches at a wedding reception. If you observe them, you will not have too much trouble delivering a memorable wedding speech.
The bride’s father’s speech is usually one of welcome. He greets the bridegroom’s parents, all the relatives of both the bride’s and the groom’s families, and all the guests. Very importantly, he then welcomes the groom to his family. At this stage, if you’re the proud father of the bride, take a moment and talk about your daughter and mention her virtues and anything else that will be fitting. Finally, you then propose a toast for the bride and bridegroom’s health and happiness.
The next speech will be the one by the bridegroom, in response to his father-in-law’s speech. He will express his appreciation to the bride’s father for his welcome and toast. If you’re the groom, take now the chance to express your happiness today, and also say something about your completely gorgeous, intelligent and fantastic new wife. You can then present your gifts of thanks and appreciation to anybody that has helped with the day. This will be the best man and the bridesmaid, the mothers of both bride and groom, and everybody else that helped make the day a success. After giving out the gifts, you then end your speech by toasting the bridesmaids.
And now is the time for the most anticipated of all the wedding speeches: the Best Man’s speech. It is the final speech, and as such, the one that is expected to be the most memorable, funny and impressive. If you’ve been chosen for this role, you will first have to thank the groom on behalf of the bridesmaids. You will then embark on telling everybody present about the groom’s previous life. The best man’s speech is expected to be humorous and very entertaining. But not so much that you upset anybody. So you will want to appeal both to the parents and your mates. Combine lighthearted humor with a few more touching instances. Thoughfully match your witticism and your more serious stories and say something nice about the groom. Finish your speech by wishing the happy couple a long and happy life.
Here are a few tips on how to deliver wedding speeches:
– Try to limit your speech to around 7 minutes or about 1000 words.
– Start with writing out the whole speech. Master your speech and jot down short bullet points. If you need to read out your speech, learn the opening and the end by heart, then read the rest. Look up from time to time and at your audience — this will give your speech more immediacy.
– Practice, practice, practice. Take it from me, if you think you will be able to make it up as you go along on the day, you will be mistaken. Even great public speakers practice and rehearse, every time.
– Be sincere, but also include enough humorous comments to make it interesting.
– Speak slowly and with a strong voice. Use pauses for maximum momentum, especially between paragraphs. And wait for the laughs!
– Speaking of laughs… Wait until the laughter has eased off, then continue. Comedians and great public speakers do it — learn from them.
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