How do I write a Wedding Speech?
There are certain things you have to say in a wedding speech; the formalities. Thanking the right people, making toasts and that’s before you embark on your witty anecdotes and perfectly delivered one liners. There is an accepted structure to a wedding speech including the people you have to thank and in what order. Having some structure to your speech makes it much easier to write. The formalities pad out your wedding speech and you don’t have to try and be funny or original when you write them.
Aim to make your wedding speech around 1000 words long. Delivered slowly and clearly, with pauses to let the laughter die down, your speech will be around seven to ten minutes long.
If the previous speakers went on a bit longer than you expected and your audience is looking restless, you might decide to cut your wedding speech down a bit. This won’t apply to the first wedding speech, which is usually the father of the bride speech. Only do it if you feel it’s really necessary. If you need to, cut down on some of the details in your anecdotes or leave out a joke. Don’t cut out any thank yous or toasts, these must be included!
Memorise or Read Your Wedding Speech?
Our wedding speech templates can be easily condensed on to wedding speech cue cards. When you have written your speech, either write the parts of your speech on the cards or just use the headings as prompts. Writing your whole wedding speech on to cue cards might be a good idea even if you plan to commit it to memory. If you do experience a memory blank, you will have your speech there to remind you.
Condensing your wedding speech down into key phrases written on cue cards is an excellent way of remembering it. It is a tried and tested method of remembering large amounts of information when revising for exams. The same principal can be applied to remembering a wedding speech. The act of rewriting your speech in short, note form helps to commit it to memory, even if you have your full speech in front of you on the day. The more you say from memory, the more natural your delivery will sound.
Preparing for your Wedding Speech
Practise, practise and more practise! This is the only way you will feel really confident about delivering your wedding speech. Say as much of your wedding speech from memory as you can, it will make you sound much more natural. No matter how brilliantly written your wedding speech is, if the delivery is poor, your words will be wasted. Try to memorise the first few lines of your wedding speech even if you plan to read the rest of it from cue cards. Read more about Wedding Speech Delivery.
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