Whether you are a Bride, Groom, Bestman, Father of the Bride, Father of the Groom, the time will come when you are faced with writing and delivering a wedding speech (Read our blog on ‘7 Powerful Tips for Delivering your Wedding Speech‘) that will probably be the most important speech you will deliver in your lifetime before family, relations and friends. You may have done it before, you may not have done it before or this may be your first and only time or you may have more to do in the future. Whatever your situation, treat this wedding speech has the first and last one as people are looking forward to what you are going to say.
Here are 6 things to keep in mind when planning, writing, and delivering your speech to make it unforgettable:
Time
Start thinking about and begin writing your speech weeks, even months before the actual wedding. Writing this speech, indeed any speech takes time.
Persistence
Set time aside to write some of it every day and keep at it until you have the first draft completed. Don’t lay up on it until you have achieved this.
Dedication
Enjoy writing it. You are writing about someone or people you love in your life and who are very important to you. Give them justice in your speech.
Pace
You must deliver your speech at the right pace, saying every letter in every word, so as not to speak fast (the main challenge in public speaking).
Pausing
Pause after every comma, full-stop and at the end of every paragraph to allow the audience to react to what you have said and allow you to take a breadth.
Voice projection
You need to speak differently to how you would normally speak to people on a one-to-one basis. Use inflection techniques by hitting words hard, and hitting words soft.