How to Give a Killer Wedding Speech
Massive parties with hundreds of guests and champagne flutes have given way to backyard micro weddings with your favourite craft beers. But one tradition has stayed strong and even thrived as weddings take on a new form: the wedding speech. If you’ve been charged with saying a few words about the newlyweds at a scaled-down wedding, you may be asking if your speech should follow suit.
Attending an intimate wedding doesn’t mean you have to dial down the speeches. In fact, with everything else stripped-back, heartfelt and humorous toasts are more important. Although they may be the most daunting things you’ll ever write and deliver, they’re also one of the most anticipated parts of any ceremony.
Whether it’s in front of 10 people or 100, public speaking can be intimidating, and if you’ve been subjected to a lengthy, cliché-filled wedding speech, you know it’s not always easy to pull off a memorable toast. But before you panic, or sign up for Toastmasters, take a deep breath and sit back. We’ve got you covered with a slew of tips to help deliver the best wedding speech of all time.
Introduce Yourself – With a smaller wedding, you might have the added bonus of already being acquainted with most of the guests. But you’ll still want to follow tradition and introduce yourself with a brief explanation of how you met the couple. A little context goes a long way.
Two Heads are Better Than One – There’s a tendency to think of writing a speech as a solitary process, but we suggest making it a group effort. Inviting other couples or friends to brainstorm some of their favourite stories and quirks about the couple will make an entertaining toast.
Ditch the Cliches – You can almost get away with generic wedding speeches when you’re delivering to a large tipsy audience at a traditional reception. But cliches and cringey jokes become much more obvious at a smaller venue. Work hard to create a truly meaningful and unique speech, and you’ll have your audience hooked.
Know Your Audience – A more intimate celebration means you can get a bit more personal with the anecdotes. But you’ll still want to read the room. Make sure nobody feels uncomfortable and that everybody enjoys the speech by avoiding insult humour. Remember, this is a toast, not a roast.
Address the Happy Couple - This special day is about your loved one and their new spouse, and while you may be closer to one person versus the other, do your best to include both of them. Reach out to their spouse’s friends for some insight if needed, and talk about their first impression or what they said right after their first date. Memories like that are what newlyweds will be happy to hear.
Practice Makes Perfect – In fact, practice 100 times. Let yourself wander a little away from the actual text of your speech so you won’t just be reading when the time comes for the real event; you’ll have it memorized. Not word-for-word but idea-for-idea, and it will flow naturally.
Short and Sweet – Your toast should reflect your wedding size, and longer doesn’t necessarily equal better. Most experts suggest three to five minutes tops. A great speech doesn’t have to be full of perfected, eloquent wording. Convey a genuine happiness for the couple, and your speech can still be filled with plenty of charm!
It’s easy to panic and Google a wedding speech template, but cut-and-paste jobs rarely make memorable speeches. If you’re staring at a blank page, take a step back and think about your relationship with the couple. Focus on memories you share and remind yourself that you’re simply speaking to someone you care about. With these tips and tricks, you’ll be giving a killer toast that will have guests clinking glasses and applauding. As long as you take a deep breath and speak from the heart, you’ll totally nail it.
