Wedding Toasts Made Easy
Oct 31st, 2008 by Grant Dougan
Sooner or later it had to happen, right? Your best bud would get married leaving you cruising in the single lane on your own. You played that scenario in your mind a few times before.
The idea of being a best man is very appealing. There’s nothing you would rather do for your best bud on his wedding day than dazzle wedding guests with a superb wedding toast and share heartfelt sentiments, but public speaking and you, well those words were never meant to be in the same sentence.
So after you get that cold sweat under control, where do you start when writing and delivering a wedding toast? How do you harness the jitters and use them to your advantage. What on earth do you say, you who are known as the strong, silent type?
Here are a few words to the wise to make your wedding toast top-notch.
- You can’t get started too early. It’s absolutely essential to do your homework if you want to give a successful wedding speech. Do your research. Search out books and articles on the web and in the local library on giving wedding toasts. Talk to other “best men” about their experiences.
- Face the fear and use it. It’s only energy after all! When making a wedding toast, it can be very valuable to have extra energy at hand that you can use to captivate your audience and make your wedding toast memorable. A speech without the energy of performance anxiety is lacklustre and totally lacking in passion.
- Write, edit, relax and don’t look at the wedding toast for a few days. Then repeat the process as often as necessary until you just know you have done the best job you can. Look at this as a journey and try to enjoy the whole thing, otherwise it will just seem like a chore that you want to get out of the way.
- A touch of humor is great in a wedding toast but it only works if it is gentle humor. There is no room in a wedding speech for sarcasm, spicy tidbits, gross jokes, too-personal stories, in-jokes or bad language.
- Take a stroll down memory lane. Recount how you met the groom, about a shared experience or two. Say what a super guy he is. In your wedding toast, compliment his choice of bride and comment about the wonderful future you believe they will have together. Today’s the day you can wear your heart on your sleeve.
- Be brief. Three to five minutes is long enough for a wedding toast.
- Face time! Practice delivering your wedding toast in front of a full-length mirror, complete with props and features. Time it too.
- Grab the mike. Not literally! Try to find a few moments and stand exactly where you will be giving the wedding toast. It will help you feel more comfortable when you take the mike for real.
- Raise a glass. This is the actual toast of the wedding toast. Make eye contact with the bride and groom when you toast them. Lift your arm from the shoulder, toast with a full glass. This takes place at the very end of your wedding speech.
- Move to the bride and groom and hug them when your wedding toast is complete. Then it’s back to your seat amidst well-earned applause.
