The rhetoric expert advises - Five tricks for a successful wedding speech

Are you one of those people who think charming, emotional and humorous speeches belong at the wedding, but who don't know what the art behind a good speech looks like? Then you should read on now as our Rhetoric expert Thérese Kihlander will give you five sharp tips to succeed with a thunderous wedding speech.

1. Start early

Firstly, it is advisable to start thinking about the speech and to gather ideas at an early stage. And what is an early stage? Well, just a few months before it starts. Make a list on your mobile and write down things you come up with once you've started the process in your brain. Maybe you see a photo of the person or people you want to pay tribute to one day and come up with a specific anecdote you want to highlight in your speech. Or do you hear a song that makes you think of them/the defendant? Simply start gathering material for the speech early, it will be so much easier than scrambling something two weeks before it's time to take the microphone at the wedding.

2. The target group's information

When you're going to write your speech, it's a good idea to think about what information the target group, i.e. the wedding guests in this case, have about the person or people you want to pay tribute to. This is mainly so that you avoid merely rattling off internal memories without giving enough information about the incident so that everyone in the room is invited to understand the comicness of the story. So, if you want to share a story where only a few people in the room were involved, you must tell enough about the context so that everyone in the audience can understand what you are talking about and what is, for example, funny. 

3. Avoid a stand-up show

Humor is part of the wedding speech and many of the clients I write wedding speeches for like to have a nice balance between emotional parts and humorous elements in the wedding speech. But, if you want to highlight many humorous memories that are perhaps rather embarrassing, you should think twice. The purpose of a wedding speech is to praise the addressee(s), not to make them feel uncomfortable. So consider how you want to use humor in your speech so that it doesn't turn into a stand-up show rather than a wedding speech.

4. Practice, practice, practice

Perhaps not entirely unexpected, but practicing well before the actual performance of the speech has so many good effects. First, it often helps us to create a sense of control over the situation. For example, the better you learn the introduction to the speech, the easier it is to shake off the nervousness quickly during the actual performance situation. Practice your speech in front of the mirror, record yourself by filming yourself or make a sound recording on your mobile phone. In addition to the fact that you then get an idea of how long the speech will be, you can also use this when you have to practice the speech by listening to it on your way to work one morning or similar.

5. Get help

Finally, don't let the difficulty of writing a speech or the nervousness of delivering it cause you to neglect giving a speech instead. There is help to get a rhetorically correct wedding speech, including from me. But you can also get help by watching movies containing wedding speeches, watching famous and successful public wedding speeches for inspiration, etc. For example, you can watch Prince Daniel's speech to Crown Princess Victoria, it is a true inspiration for anyone who wants to pay tribute to someone or some at a wedding.

Good luck!

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