Stay Poise Impassive and Collected When Delivering a Wedding Speech
There are those who are natural born public speakers, and then there’s the rest of us. Not being at ease in the spotlight does not automatically disqualify you from the position of giving a wedding speech. Fortunately, there are some tricks you can employ to calm your nerves. Here are some ways to eliminate the worst of your fears.
The best antidote to stage fright is to be prepared. If you have put some time in on composing an impressive, heartfelt presentation, you are halfway there. After you have a polished final draft in hand, you can begin practicing. The more times in advance of the day that you practice delivering it the more professional it will become. You’ll find you have much of it memorized and can make some good eye contact with the audience.
Even if you have by now remembered your formal talk, it’s always good insurance to have the gist written out on index cards that you can hide away in a pocket. If you don’t use them, consider that your insurance worked. Remember not to write the entire speech out verbatim, but just take notes on the key thoughts or make an outline to remind you.
An old trick is to drink a glass of water just prior to presenting your dialogue. If you’re feeling in need of something stronger, wine can help relax you also. Be careful to not overindulge the alcohol so as to become overly silly. Even just drinking too much water can necessitate a trip to the restroom at an inopportune moment.
The hardest temptation to overcome is feeling the need to rush through to get finished more quickly. If you notice that you’re talking to fast or feel as if things are starting to race, stop for a second and take a deep breath. No one at the wedding expects you to be a professional, and will certainly understand if you need to take a break to pretend to look at your notes for a moment in order to change the pace.
One of the best tricks you can employ is the use of humor. Hearing the audience laugh at a short joke or a corny one-liner will be the best medicine. That laughter tells you the audience is on your side, and it should quell your fears immediately. It’s easier to give a nice formal talk to a room full of friendly people that you know like what you’re saying.
There is a whole collection of articles and resources on Best Funny Speech, and they can be found at http://www.weddingspeechesnow.org. If you want to learn more about getting the edge in every Humor Wedding Speech, visit Funny Speech in Weddings and claim your Free Special Report.
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