Wedding Toasts And Speeches Explained

While weddings are a celebration of love and unity, once the vows are exchanged, the wedding speeches/toasts are the second biggest highlight of the day. Wedding toasts allow the bride and groom's friends and loved ones to share their love of the couple on their special day. Although the bride and groom can already feel the love as they share their special day with family and friends, wedding speeches allow those involved with the wedding to feel truly included in the festivities. Here is some advice on wedding day toasts and speeches.

One of the main questions concerning wedding toasts is who should give a toast? It is customary for the parents of the bride and groom to give a toast, as well as the best man and the maid of honour. In addition, siblings should be allowed to give a short toast as well. If the bride and groom have a few very close friends who are special to them, but who they were not able to have in their wedding party, it is probably a good idea to ask those people to give a wedding speech. Just about anyone can give a toast, however, if the bride and groom have specific people in mind to give toasts, then they should allow that person time to prepare by asking them in advance to prepare a speech.

Being prepared for the speech is important because the better prepared you are, the smoother your toast will go. If you give your speech without practice and you are stumbling over your words, the other guests will have a difficult time focusing on what you are saying and grasping the importance of your words. You don't have to write down your entire speech and quote it verbatim, however, it is a good idea to make a small cue card of topics you would like to mention in your toast. Keep in mind that people are very easily distracted, so try to avoid talking for more than 5-7 minutes.

Remember, it's a wedding toast, not celebrity roast, so try to avoid saying things that may cause problems later. If you hold the secret to what the groom really did at his bachelor party, or if you know what the bride really did on the trip to Vegas, the wedding reception is not the right time or place to mention it. Just keep your speech upbeat add in some humour if you have a funny, non-embarrassing, story to tell.

As a general rule, if you are easily intoxicated, you should probably avoid drinking any type of alcohol prior to giving the toast. Remember that you want everyone to remember how great your speech was, as opposed to only remembering how drunk you were.

With any type of public speaking, even if you are in front of only close family and friends, it is always possible that you will encounter stage fright. While there is no sure way to avoid this, here is a tip that can help you to overcome your anxiety. Instead of focusing on the entire group, simply scan the audience with your eyes, but have about four different people that you focus on and make eye contact with during the course of your speech.