Groom wedding toast advice from Simon Daykin:

By Guest Blogger: Simon Daykin

Homer Simpson once said…”If I could just say a few words…I’d be a much better public speaker.”  I have grooms come to me all freaked out over their speech.  Truth be told, honestly, it ain’t that bad.   Most of us I’m sure had “speech day” in school growing up yes?  So you got through that and you will get through this as well.  Plus, this is you speaking to the women you love and the people who helped you get to this point in your life.  So this week I wanted to open up my vault of wedding planning advice and bestow upon you my “quick and nasty” tips for writing and giving a great speech.

Play it smooth and compliment the bride and bridemaids on looking great.

Don’t Make Me Get the Soap

Keep it appropriate!  There may be kids in the audience.  Even if there aren’t any kids, odds are your grandparents may be in attendance and you don’t want to make a fool of yourself in front of them, not to mention your parents…oh and your new wife’s parents.  So no foul language, no dirty jokes or stories and let’s not make this a drinking game…”but…um”.  Tell a nice story about how you met and fell in love with your wife.  Regale them with tales of your best man and groomsmen, but keep it PG, PG-13 tops!  Don’t talk about the wild time you had at your stag or how you got left in Mexico and all you got “was a lousy T-shirt”.

You Look Mah-vel-ass…

Make sure you mention (a few times at least) how good your bride looks, and why stop there?  It never hurts to mention how good the bridesmaids look and mention the maid of honor as well.  Have your mum and the mum of the bride stand up, introduce them again and say how great they are and how good they look that night.  Mention the bride’s family, your family, maybe tell a little story about how you met your new wife’s family and how your family molded you into the grand man you are today.  Funny stories always keep the crowd in the palm of your hand.  Just don’t drone on, and on, and on, and on, and…you get the idea.

Thank Them All

Seriously, thank everyone!  Thank your Bride, both the families, the wedding party, the people who drove 3 hours, hell, thank the people who drove 5 minutes if you have any, the people who got on a plane, the hotel staff, the person who did the flowers, the cake designer, the guy who drove the cab to get your drunk groomsmen back to the hotel the night before, thank the DJ or band (even if it’s ahead of time.)  Thanking the hotel and serving staff is a great way to ensure that everyone’s glasses are filled,  and that the service is great for the rest of the night.  You get the idea, thank them all.  And if you can, thank your wedding planner.

Simon’s Gutsy Groom Advice

So now you know what to include in that speech of yours.  So when you have it written, practice delivering it in front of the mirror a few times.  Time it out to make sure you don’t hit the 15 minute mark, people will get bored.  Once you have the timing down, add in some great hand gestures and make up cards that have the MAIN talking points on them.  Hints not full sentences guys.  Run through the speech again with your new cards and you’re good to go.
Try to lay off the sauce until you have delivered your speech.  That is not to say you can’t drink at all, but don’t get right pillared!  You spent a lot of time on that speech and the last thing you want to do is slur your way through it.  So unprofessional!  Plus you’ll look like a classic fool in front of everyone and I don’t want any of Grooms looking silly.  That just won’t do.  So be cool…a wee nip of courage is OK, but not so much that you feel you can invade a small country or rob a bank.

So if you read all the way to this: here is the short list……

* Appropriate story about how you met your Bride
* Thank your groomsmen
* Mention how good your Bride looks
* Mention how good the bridal party looks
* Mention the Bride’s family in some way
* Mention your family
* Thank all parties involved in the wedding
* Mention all members of the audience that travelled
* Thank the hotel and their staff
* Pound chest twice and toss up the peace sign….just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

Tags: Groom Speech Advice, Groom's Toast, Wedding Speech Tips, Wedding Speeches

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 12:30 am and is filed under Groom Tips, Wedding Toasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.