The Greatest Guide For Writing A Unique Wedding Speech or Toast

Wedding speeches are about as traditional as it gets, but that doesn’t mean you can’t steer away from the norm and create a unique wedding speech. Speeches can be fun, anecdotal, or intimate. However, are you feeling a little daunted by the idea of getting up to speak in front of all of your guests? Planning and practicing your wedding speech will make it a piece of cake. It’s time to assemble. What makes a great, unique wedding speech? What makes some wedding speeches fun and memorable and others cringe-worthy and a tad boring. 

In this blog, I’ve put together The Greatest Guide For Writing Your Unique Wedding Speech that’ll keep everyone entertained and engaged. 

So let’s start. First things first, how do you write a unique wedding speech? Like, where on earth do you begin?

Here are a few things to keep in mind:.

As soon as you know you’ll be giving a speech at a wedding, create a little document on your phone or buy a notebook and begin by jotting down your initial ideas. It’ll be a great tool to keep coming back to whenever you’re inspired by a thought or anecdote that may be worth retelling. By the time you are sitting down to write your amazing speech, you’ll have a pool of ideas to draw on. 

Preparation Is Key 

Begin writing the speech, at least a month before the wedding, not the day before. Trust me, you can tell which speeches were written the night before. You’ll need time to revisit it, edit, and practice! Plus, in the run-up to the wedding, there’ll likely be other wedding appointments you’ll need to attend too, so don’t leave it too late to start writing, but do leave some space for any stories from the hen and stag do’s or other wedding festivities that you may want to include. Lots can happen, so many stories to tell.

You may decide to sit down and write your wedding speech all in one go! This is fine too; however, do make sure you sleep on it, come back to it with fresh eyes, and give it a couple of reads, or, if like me, hundreds of reads through. You don’t want just an ‘okay’ speech, you want your wedding speech to be epic. Give yourself enough time to fine tune and practice plenty of times. 

Time To Get Personal

Whether you are the maid of honour, best man, father of the bride, friend, or even more importantly, you’re the bride or groom. You are giving a unique wedding speech because of a close connection you have to the happy couple. And this wedding is going to be one epic celebration!

Since you know the couple as well as you do – you probably have plenty of stories to share! So the next tip is not to hesitate to make it personal and share those stories. It’ll help guests to know the couple even more – and also the other half of the couple they may not know as well, or perhaps they are only meeting for the first time. All guests’ love hearing entertaining and personal stories they may not have heard yet. But check, the couple is happy for you to tell these stories. 

Another tip is to make sure you talk about both members of the couple. Perhaps you’re a friend of only one of the couple, but part of the wedding speech is to ensure it circles back to the occasion at hand and to the two of them as a couple. Retell the story of the first time you met your friend or family member’s partner, or how you remember them being described to you in the early stages of the relationship.

If you don’t know the partner too well, now’s your opportunity to arrange a dinner or some days out with your friend and their partner, so you can all get to know each other better.

And remember to talk about how great they are as a couple and how happy they both make each other!

Story Time

Have a beginning, middle, and end!

Remember when you were in school and you were told that your writing should have a beginning, middle, and end? Good speeches have a good flow and take the whole audience along with what they are saying. 

Ensure your speech flows well by giving it a structure or an overarching theme. No, it doesn’t need to be a novel or an essay, but most people follow a story easier when there is a clear direction for the speech. Make sure there is a direction to where your speech or anecdote is going, and that the destination, joke, anecdote, or sentiment is achieved.

Consider Your Audience

This is the wedding speech, not the speech for the hen or stag do! There may be a wide range of people present, from children to close friends of the bride and groom, and perhaps even employers and work colleagues in the room too. Make sure the speech is free of anything too embarrassing or any crudeness that may not be fit for such a varied audience. 

If entertaining and jokes aren’t your thing – that’s okay. Don’t force it! Just be yourself. You are making a speech because you are important to the couple, and they’ll likely just want you to bring and be your own wonderful self on the day. Keep in mind when you write your speech that it’s important that you are genuine and heartfelt. 

Thank you for reading – The Greatest Guide For Writing A Unique Wedding Speech. I hope you’ve found these tips for writing your unique wedding speech helpful.