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Wedding Speeches: Find Your Voice

Obama Accepts Nomination On Final Day Of Democratic National Convention

I think most of us would dread the honour of stealing the limelight from the newly-weds for just a moment, by projecting your words into the love-filled air with all eager eyes glued on you. There is simply no escape.
Now, with that statement, you may possibly be feeling a certain tightness wrapped around your heart with tingling fingertips. And that’s just from the thought of it.

So, this blog post is to ‘find your voice’ with some tips and tricks from me, to you.

1. Prepare:
It seems obvious but you wouldn’t believe the amount of people who have the ‘wing-it’ attitude. And for a wedding, unless you have a voice like Morgan Freeman (as it is so ‘God-like), then I suggest you practice what you’re going to say. You can do this easily enough by reciting your speech during daily activities such as, washing-up, showering, or any other household chores.
Again, it may seem obvious to practice your speech before the real thing but, it’s a great way to monitor your progress. Make sure each time you are strengthening your voice to be loud and clear, and to keep a steady pace.

2. Presence:
Not only are your words important, but your appearance/attitude is crucial too. By this, I mean eye contact, posture, and hand gestures. So lets start with eye contact; it is your key to success. You need confident, assertive power to register and connect with your audience and strong, not too heavy/wild eyed eye contact will do the trick. If you’re looking up above peoples heads or looking down at your feet, people are not going to be impressed. They’ll applaud for your timid efforts but not for your actual speech. Imagine if you were this bright, vibrant speaker engaging with every individual in the room because you are so comfortable in your own shoes. Now don’t just imagine; become it. Look into their eyes, not for too long but not for too short. Smile also. You’d be surprised by how easy it is to forget that during the actual speech.
Posture: like I just briefly mentioned, anybody watching you doesn’t want to have the view of your face-down head or a stiff body. It’ll probably just make the audience feel a little awkward. Keep your body up-straight and don’t slouch, but keep it loose. Avoid the statue-like pose at all costs. That may seem hard if you’re stuck between others at a table, but just be comfortable with yourself and you will give a comfortable vibe out to your piers.
You could even throw in some hand gestures in there too or other little body movements. Say if you made a joke or a little sly dig perhaps, then raise an eyebrow. Make your body liaison with your tone of voice and you’ve hit the jackpot.

3. Believe in Yourself:
If you’re not going to the ‘can do’ attitude then who will? For others to completely believe in you and your words, you need to believe in yourself first. Not everybody does, it’s easier to say than do and that even applies to me too. But my trick is to convince myself into thinking I’m invincible; that nothing can touch/effect my performance. I also imagine the scene I have played over and over in my head, where it goes so unbelievably perfect that it’s like it was out of a movie. My advice for this is to just keep telling yourself you can do it until you almost brainwash yourself.

So, those are my three main points that I believe are key to success. However, we all have our own ways of doing things etc so maybe this wasn’t for you. Although, these might be….
Speeches don’t have to be formal or so serious. Many people slot in jokes into their speech to break the ice and get a few laughs from the crowd. But, I have seen some speeches that are unforgettable.

Try our ‘Best Dad’s Speech Ever’. If you are simply not a confident speaker, then this will give you another option for a solution.

If you’re not much of a speaker, perhaps you could take a note out of this lady’s book and put your own creative twist on things. Use your imagination!

It’s always an advantage if you’re musical:

And so I am afraid that that is all I have time to say to you guys.
Just remember to be yourself, keep your head high and don’t imagine the guests in their underwear… Or do…
Whatever helps (not alcohol, that is a no go area until afterwards).

Thank you for reading,

Bryony Williams.

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