4 Effective Strategies for Giving a Great Wedding Speech

By Aaron Hu

The wedding speeches as at the reception are one of the key events of the entire wedding. The groom, best man, and father of the bride each get to thank everyone who came and to express their feelings and share some thoughts about this special event. Each comes with their own perspective. The groom is the one who just got married so he can give his perspective as the newlywed husband. The father of the bride gets to express the feelings he has seeing his daughter start a new phase of her life. The best man gives some perspective on the groom and who he is and what he saw as the friend that made him believe this special day will come. For each of these men it is important to craft not the best speech ever made, but an effective one that conveys what they are thinking and feeling. If you are one of these individual and writing your own speech here are some great suggestions to help you get started.

Focus on your subject. The main problem when making a speech is the risk of getting off topic. While not like a debate speech or lecture you still need to get your point across. For the groom it is talking about the bride and why he loves her and believes that she in the one person for him. For the father of the bride there is the task of showing the bride as a daughter and expressing his pride and joy on her special day. The goal of the best man is to act as master of ceremonies adding levity to the proceedings and providing a unique insight on the groom and bride. Whatever your role for the speech keeping these purposes in mind will help you frame your speech.

Keep your speech organized. It isn't enough to keep your subject matter clear in your mind. Unless you have a great memory and have the confidence to do so, you will need something to help you know the order of ideas in your speech. A good idea that most speakers use is to construct a speech outline with key points. This can be any jokes that you will use or key transitions in your speech. You can start with a full page and condense down everything to a note card. This will not only help you remember important details but allow for your speech to be more spontaneous.

Choose your anecdotes and stories carefully. Stories are normally an important feature of wedding speeches. They help to explain certain facets of the bride or grooms character and give guests a better understanding of the point the speaker is trying to convey. When choosing stories, try to pick what best illustrates the message or point or your speech. While a story can be embarrassing it still needs to come back to the overall point of your speech. The danger is that you will overreach and make your speech more awkward than effective.

Try to go for brevity. A speech for a wedding reception should not be a presidential address. The longer the speech is, the harder it is to keep the attention of your audience. Try to keep your text to a length of around 3 or 4 minutes. That may seem short, but you will be surprised about how much you can say in that amount of time. - 30544

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