Friday, June 25, 2021

Giving a better wedding speech or toast

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the New York Times on June 15, 2021 there is a succinct article by Dina Gachman titled Struggling to write a wedding speech? It’s all in the details. Her main points are:

 

Ask yourself, ‘why me?’

Don’t do it alone

Ditch the thank yous

Find a theme

Cut the cliches

Know your audience

Keep it short, and speak up

 

Of course Brides magazine has articles. On April 2, 2021 there is one by Elizabeth Mitchell titled Public speaking experts share how to give a killer wedding speech. But the web address more helpfully has amazing rather than killer in the title.

 

Back on July 1, 2014 there was a brief press release from Toastmasters International titled 10 Tips for the Perfect Wedding Toast. An edited version with 9 tips later appeared on page 8 of the July 2019 issue of Toastmaster magazine, titled Tips for the Perfect Wedding Toast. It left out Tip #8:

 “Limit alcohol consumption. You'll want to be in top form when delivering the toast.”

 

Wedding toasts or speeches are one type of speech for special occasions. In this blog I have discussed introductions repeatedly, but not many other types. The December 2016 issue of Toastmaster magazine has an article on pages 22 to 25 by Maureen Zappala titled It’s a Special Occasion which discusses their former advanced manual, Speeches for Special Occasions.

 

The 1881 painting by Wojciech Piechowski of a wedding toast was cropped from an image at Wikimedia Commons.

 


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