You have many times, some times or will some time soon hear a wedding speech from a Bestman, Father of the Bride / Groom, Bride and / or Groom. It will be either a long speech or short speech. There is never a medium length speech and you will never hear anyone say that the speech was the perfect length. It will either be too long or too short! Most of us would error on the short, don\’t you agree, while some will write a speech that they think is short, but to the audience / listeners it is / was too long.
So, should you write a long speech or a short speech? Well, it depends on who and what you are writing about, though for the aforementioned speakers this does not really matter. Write down everything you want to mention and speak about as headings or sections in your speech draft. Then write about them in a way that explains how you feel about them and in a way that your audience can appreciate, relate to and enjoy the way you are explaining and feeling about them.
Write to the point and don’t overdo the detail. Don\’t dwell too much on one person and one thing. Have variety in the speech making it interesting. Think of the five \’W\’s and one \’H\’ i.e. Who, What, Where, When, Why and How to develop good narrative. Add body to each part of your speech and review it on paper (easier to proof read), continuing to do this until you are satisfied.
You will then question yourself, is the speech too long? You are unlikely to think the speech is too short. If you feel the speech is too long, then you have wrote too much about that particular person or that particular thing!
Rule of thumb is that your speech should be between 9-11 minutes without interruption.
Say what you want to say, it’s a once off, all of these people will never be together like this again to hear you speak about the people that are important to you in your life…