This is the season of weddings and right now, many of us are rehearsing the speech to be made at the wedding.

Are you the one making the Best Man’s Speech, the Father of the Bride’s Speech or the Chief Bridesmaid’s Speech?

You may be wracked with nerves at the thought of standing up in front of all those wedding guests and making a speech on such an important day.

Remember to speak clearly.
Get rid of all the ‘ums’ and ‘errs’.
Look confident.

But there is much more to making a wedding speech than just speaking it clearly, fluently and confidently.

Your connection to the wedding guests is crucial and that’s where your presentation skills need to come online. You might feel embarrassed, nervous or very self-conscious or you may be really looking forward to sharing stories of how you know the bride or groom.

Your posture and body language communicates so much to your audience. You could sound pitch perfect, but your posture could be giving out nervous messages. Instead of sounding like a best friend to the wedding couple, you may sound distant and uneasy.

Practising your wedding speech, changing it around and adding extra warmth can bring your speech alive.

When I write a speech I often jot down the important things I want to cover first. A wedding speech may include when you first met the person, where you were, what you were doing. Adding vivid words to describe colours of clothes, make-up or the sunset will begin to breathe life into your speech.

Personality and warm personality traits are also good to include in your wedding speech.

Find a humorous anecdote or two to relate to the wedding guests. (It might be prudent to get a second opinion on what you think is humorous, just in case).

End your speech with a loving line about your loved one.

Now take your time to write out what you want to say. Practise saying your words aloud and get out the ‘red pen’ to strike out words that are difficult to say or make a sentence too long. Rearrange the order of your speech, keep to the point or at least ensure there’s a thread of story running through.

Next is making your speech land. This is where you know what you want to say and you want your words to really register, to resonate with your listeners.

This is where crafting your speech comes in. This is when you would benefit from working with a professional voice and speech coach to find where to put your pauses, increase your vocal range, ensure your speech and body language marry up.

All good weddings have a fun range of speeches and you could be making one of the most memorable speeches of your life.

Practising and delivering your wedding speech can be fun. Sincere. And memorable.

Accent reduction
Leadership
Speech

Let me know if you would like help with making your wedding speech and speak with confidence in front of people. Please get in touch.