Taking The Stress Out Of Wedding Speeches

You have just received a call on the news of your best friends upcoming wedding. Chosen to be the honorary guest, you suddenly realize that you will have to give a speech. If your like me, public speaking isn't at the top of my list for things to do. Public speaking generally is a very discomforting effort for just about anyone and takes years to become good at. The forum of a wedding is much less demanding and doesn't require you to present the speech of the century. Rather than trying to come up with some brilliant speech, we will examine the process of a practical wedding speech.


First of all, lets try to make a simple but to the point wedding speech that everyone will love and enjoy hearing. The key here is simplicity. Avoid going into long stories of the past and all your adventures together. The audience doesn't want to hear this and will not be able to relate. The last thing you want to do is embarrass or make people feel uncomfortable. However, its good to throw maybe one or two sentences into your speech about the woes of the single days. This will be entertaining, humorous, and just about everyone in the audience can relate to. In addition to humor, follow up with how lucky and special the two are for finding each other. This will make everyone at the wedding feel more united and help give the wedding a justification of its importance. Your speech should be limited to around 5-7 minutes. Going beyond this time frame, you will begin to bore everyone to tears. The less time you talk, the less likely you will say something stupid. Staying sober is a wise decision at this type of venue. You may feel really nervous, but remember alcohol may loosen you up just a bit too much.


Generally a wedding speech is given at the church or outdoors during the ceremony.This environment may seem overwhelming due to all the visible space. Keep in mind that the wedding speech isn't about you and feel honored to be giving it. This helps to take that edge off before giving the speech. Wear a smile and you will be surprised how easy the words begin to flow. You may want to do your wedding speech in the manner of a poem. This approach tends to be much easier since its coming from your heart rather than a generalized introduction.