Wedding speech etiquette is not just about being inspirational or humorous. There are also some guidelines that you want to follow when writing and delivering your wedding speech. Etiquette means you have rules to follow for socially acceptable behavior. For me, this simply means being considerate to others, especially your audience and the bride and groom.
The best thing to ensure wedding speech etiquette is to avoid drinking too much during the wedding reception. Drinking too much when you know that you are going to deliver a speech is a recipe for disaster. Here are a few things you need to avoid when delivering a wedding speech.
1. Avoid profanity or vulgar words as much as you can. Remember that a wedding is a General Patronage event. G-rated or General Patronage, if I can borrow from movie classification, means that everyone of every ages are going to attend a wedding. Inserting profanity into a wedding speech would surely have a lot of eye-rolling from parents who does not want their children to hear such language.
2. Do not use sexual innuendos or inappropriate jokes in your wedding speech. Again, the problem with this is that weddings are attended by people of varying ages. As long as you keep your speech clean, I see no problems with etiquette.
3. Double entendres or double meaning jokes should be kept to a minimum. In-line with the sexual innuendos, double meaning jokes are usually sexual in nature. You may be able to get away with one or two of this kind of joke, but do not overdo it.
4. Do not overuse inside jokes. Inside jokes are good if you tell one or two stories in your wedding speech, but do keep it to a minimum. Inside jokes are only funny for people on the inside. The reason for a wedding speech is to draw your audience in and not to alienate them.
5. Do not bring up stories about ex-relationships. Conversation about ex-relationships are only proper during private moments and not in a public setting, especially not in a wedding. The purpose for toasts and speeches in a wedding is to inspire the bride and groom, not to make them uncomfortable.
Keep these few pointers in mind and you will never go wrong. Just remember that good manners and right conduct are your only guide to make a good showing of yourself when it comes to toasts and speeches in a wedding. For more wedding speech etiquette guides and tips, just click http://www.weddingspeechesforall.com
Filed under Wedding Speech Tips by on Feb 10th, 2010. Comment. 
Your wedding speech, like any other presentation or a good story will have a clear beginning, middle and ending. Depending on your position at the marriage (eg. groom, father of the bride, best man, etc.) your speech will be expected to cover the formalities as well as a few personal words. The father of the bride will be expected to congratulate the Bride and Groom and formally welcome the groom to the family, the groom will be expected to respond to his father-in-law’s good wishes, the best man will thank the groom on behalf of the bridesmaids for his kind comments, etc.
The optimum time for each wedding speech is just seven minutes. Less time is a little too short, too much more time risks losing the attention of your audience. Your wedding speech can be planned into three sections: the introduction (two minutes), main content (four minutes) and conclusion (one minute).
1. The Beginning Of The Speech
Don’t agonise over how to get started with your speech. The opening part of your speech will consist of a simple ‘hello’ and then straight into addressing the obligatory remarks that are formally expected of you. By the time you have completed this initial task your nerves will have calmed a little and your audience will be paying attention.
If the wedding speeches are being given in the afternoon (most are) then simply “good afternoon ladies and gentlemen” is perfectly acceptable as the opening remark – or “good evening” if it’s an evening reception. Followed by dispersing the more formal duty of your speech, for example:
The Father Of The Bride
The bride’s father is normally the first speaker, and so it falls to him to formally welcome all of the guests to the wedding and thank them for attending. He then goes on to thank others who have assisted with the wedding (including, specifically, the groom’s parents) and anyone who has contributed to the finance (without including too much detail). His other responsibility is to compliment his beautiful daughter on her wedding day and to welcome her new husband to the family.
The Groom
The beginning of the groom’s speech is his thanks, on behalf of his new wife and himself, to the bride’s father for his kind remarks and his toast to the bride and groom. The groom then thanks both sets of parents for their assistance with the wedding and compliments his new wife on her beauty and her wedding dress. The final part of the groom’s opening remarks is to thank the guests for attending, their good wishes and their wedding gifts.
The Best Man
The opening comment from the best man is in response to the groom’s toast to the bridesmaids. He thanks the groom for his toast, on behalf of the bridesmaids. The best man may wish to add his own compliments to the bridesmaids at this stage. He then congratulates the bride and groom on their marriage. After the opening remarks, the best man then proceeds to read any messages sent from those who were unable to attend the wedding.
2. The Main Content Of The Speech
The main content of each speaker’s speech should last for about four minutes, much longer speeches will risk you losing your audience’s attention.
The main (middle) part of the speech is the speaker’s opportunity to insert his own comments and observations. Items that you may wish to include in your speech are personal experiences relating to the bride or groom, describing their (good) nature and personality, an amusing or interesting story from the past that the guests may enjoy, etc.
3. Ending The Speech
You will need to bring your speech to a comfortable conclusion, by using a closing remark followed by making the appropriate toast. A simple comment directly to the bride and groom, wishing them well in the future, a blessing on the bride and groom or an amusing remark and snippet of advice will conclude your speech. Finally, address the guests with your proposal of a toast (details below for the correct toast for each speaker to make), turn to the party that you’re toasting, raise your glass, repeat their name, take a sip and be seated!
Father Of The Bride
The father of the bride concludes his speech by proposing a toast to the bride and groom.
The Groom
The Groom concludes his speech by proposing a toast to the bridesmaids.
Best Man
The best man concludes his speech by proposing a toast to the bride and groom.
In a little more time than it takes to boil an egg, the speech is delivered, appreciated by the guests and you can relax! It’s not so daunting, is it?
Filed under Wedding Speech Tips by on Feb 8th, 2010. Comment.
If you’re in a bind and have to write a speech for an upcoming wedding that you’re in, sample wedding speeches can literally be your savior! Using a sample wedding speech to help craft your speech can cut down on the time it takes to write a speech from scratch, helping you out in a crisis situation, especially for you procrastinators out there!
So, what are the benefits of using sample wedding speeches? There are almost too many to mention! One of the major benefits, again, is that it saves you loads of time. You can use the sample wedding speech as an outline to follow, and just switch out words and phrases to make your speech fit well into it. It serves as a great tool (or guide, you could say) to go by.
For those that don’t know how to write a speech from scratch, using these samples will help them deliver a knock out wedding speech during the big day. Since a wedding speech is one of the most memorable parts of a reception, you can be sure that wedding speech samples will help you make it the best!
I bet you may be wondering how to find wedding speech samples. You can find them all over the internet. In fact, you can actually buy professionally written sample wedding speeches, guaranteed to help you make a speech that people will freak over! You can usually find pre-written speeches like this for less than $20 for a big collection of them. It’s a solid deal, if you ask me!
Now, if you don’t already have a speech prepared, you need to visit Wedding Speeches. Get prepared with pre-written speeches, quotes, one-liners, speech samples and more!
Filed under Wedding Speech Tips by on Feb 7th, 2010. Comment.