"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure"
Bridegroom, father of the bride, best man, chief bride's maid, mother or maid of honor? Whatever your role they possibly all have one thing in common - you have to give a wedding speech!
Whilst the prospect is probably daunting it does not have to be. With good preparation, learned elementary knowledge of
the basic rules and etiquette and a little practice there is no reason why your wedding speech will not be a resounding success.
My first, and possibly most important, piece of advice - "Fail to prepare, then prepare to fail". By reading this guide you have
taken that very important step - preparation.
If you have plenty of time to prepare then great! I suggest that you give the guide a
thorough read first and then use it as a reference to write your speech and practice your speech delivery. If the wedding day is
close at hand then do not fret, use the guide as a reference and digest as much as you can. You will most definitely benefit.
Preparing and delivering any kind of speech is a daunting prospect for most people. A friend of mine is a senior executive
with a large multi-national blue chip company and he is terrified every time he has to speak to a large audience. He spoke to me
about this one day as he could not understand why this was so. He makes decisions involving millions of dollars with ease, so
why get so nervous when speaking to an audience? The reason was actually plainly obvious, he makes million dollar decisions
most days of his working life but only has to speak maybe five times a year. He is comfortable making big decisions and this is
where he has built experience over the years. Public speaking, because it is so infrequent, is outside of his comfort zone.
I would imagine that this is true for most people, but do not worry, help is at hand in the form of this guide. A point to note is
that a wedding speech is actually far easier than most types of public speaking.
Remember the audience will be warmed by the joy of the occasion and neither expect nor want a slick, professional,
speech. Most people in the audience will be empathetic to you and simply expect a few sincere and perhaps amusing words
from the speakers and the toasts so that they can get on with enjoying themselves.
