When the groom makes a great speech at a rehearsal dinner or wedding reception, it can be a high point of the wedding day. There are several tricks to doing this well. First, groom speeches must strike a balance between being personal and loving and being too emotional or revealing. The speech needs to be organized and have some solid content. And the groom needs to remember the listeners - a good speech is a gift to them.
Simply said the groom speech or toast needs a beginning, middle and end. The beginning needs to grab attention and set a tone. It can be a simple, summarizing statement, a joke, the promise of a story, an elegant statement of purpose or an engaging question. Examples include, "What a great joy to be here with one another," "What a surprise to be here this day," and "You have come to share this day with me and (name of bride) and my heart is (or ‘I am’) very, very thankful." If the content of the speech, or the theme of the wedding, uses a metaphor or famous tale, capitalize on that right from the start. Examples might be, "In this moment we are companions on the Yellow Brick Road," ("The Wizard of Oz") "I feel like a young Jedi Knight in the Throne Room scene," ("Star Wars, A New Hope") or, "Why are we here? Tradition!" ("Fiddler on the Roof"). The middle of the groom speech picks up from this beginning. Leaning on a famous story, like the examples above, can be very engaging: Be sure to be consistent with the story, though. In speaking about thanks, or joy, or surprise explain why in two or three points. Make any stories that are told in this middle section suitable for all listeners, and never embarrass anyone by being too off-color, rude, or revealing.
Well, I hope you have got some food for thought. Now it's time for you to work with your groom speech and make it really exceptional.
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