Wedding speeches are reserved for the most important members of the wedding party and closest family and friends.

If you are one of the ones expected or asked to do a wedding speech, then preparing is a must. Winging it just won’t cut it especially when your wedding speech will be on video from now until eternity.

Wedding speeches should not last more than three or four minutes. It reminds me of that famous quote by John F. Kennedy, “Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary.”

It’s actually much harder to do a short wedding speech than a long one which reminds me of another quote, “It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.” –Mark Twain

You have to have an opening and closing. You probably want to throw in a story and at least one piece of humor. And it all has to make sense. Please, please, please don’t apologize for how bad you are as soon as you stand up, which reminds me of yet another quote by Kin Hubbard, “Why doesn’t the fellow who says, “I’m no speechmaker,” let it go at that instead of giving a demonstration?” hahaha I love that one.

Here’s a quick outline for a wedding speech:

Note: each one of the bullet points below could have many variations

Opening

* Could be comments about the lovely affair
* Comments about the bride and groom
* Story about your interactions with the bride, groom or both.

Humor

* Pick something that applies to them and is appropriate

Closing

* Something touching

Toast

* Brief and touching or funny

You’ll rarely be the hit of a wedding because of your wedding speech and rightfully so. The bride and groom are the stars. But poor preparation of your wedding speech certainly could make you the laughing stock.

Remember, you are going to perform your wedding speech live, but you’ll be on video forever. Take the time to prepare.