5 Reasons Start Your Wedding Speech Today

Ever had this thought about something on your To Do list?

”If I get started today, and work on it little by little, I’ll easily get it finished in time and without any stress!”

But of course that perky little voice usually gets completely ignored – only to be replaced weeks later by:

“OMG! I should have started this ages ago. There’s not nearly enough time left to do it properly. Help!”

Preparing your wedding speech is exactly this sort of task. You know you should start it right away, but you inevitably end up leaving it to the last minute.

However, it’s worth taking that little voice of reason a bit more seriously, because there are a surprising number of benefits to starting your speech sooner rather than later.

1) You’ll have time to do some research upfront

Raw material is the fuel for any good wedding speech. If you’ve found yourself staring at a blank page, struggling to get anything down, it’s probably because you don’t have enough ideas yet.

The answer is: Research.

It could be as simple as sitting down with a notepad and searching your memories for incidents and stories relating to the Bride or Groom

Or it could mean digging through old photo albums, text messages or Facebook posts.

It could even involve getting input from other people, such as siblings, school friends or work colleagues.

But whatever research you choose to carry out, it will take time and may require waiting for other people to get back to you.

So start early, spread the net wide, and you’ll have ample raw material for a great wedding speech.

2) You’ll have time for some original thinking

Even if they don’t use exactly the same observations and jokes (although many do) most wedding speeches tend to sound very similar to most other wedding speeches.

This is because speakers with little time to spare often seek inspiration from the internet, and end up copying the same ‘example’ wedding speeches as everyone else.

While a basic proven structure is a good thing, it’s a real shame to just follow the masses, because there is plenty of room for doing something a little different in the main body of the speech.

For example, you could pick an original theme for your speech, with all the stories neatly reinforcing that theme. Or use song titles from the Bride or Groom’s favourite band to inspire different ‘chapters’ in your speech. Or tell the story of the Bride or Groom’s life in the style of a fairytale.

Of course, if you’ve left it perilously close to the big day to start work on your wedding speech, there’s no time to let your imagination run riot.

And besides, panic is hardly the best state of mind for original thought.

3) You’ll have time to create some props

A wedding speech can often benefit from the inclusion of some simple props. They make the speech more visually engaging, break up the “talky” bits and instantly mark the speaker out as someone who’s gone to some effort to prepare.

The props might just be a few photos blown up big enough for everyone so see, or something more elaborate like a series video clips from friends who couldn’t be at the wedding.

But either way they will take time to print, produce or buy so it’s best to start early.

Props are one of the first things to be cut when time is tight and it would be a real shame to miss out on this easy way of making your speech stand out from the pack.

4) You’ll have time for inspiration to strike

The mind’s a strange and wonderful thing. You can go to bed mulling over a problem, then wake up the next morning with the answer.

Likewise, if preparing your speech is an organic process that happens over several weeks, rather than being a mad dash to the finish line in the last couple of days, there’s plenty of time for your brain to throw up lots of great ideas to include.

However, you need to start the process otherwise your grey matter won’t have anything to work with.

Taking positive action will send signals to your brain that this is something important and worthy of its attention, so the best thing you can do is to produce a first draft of your speech – even if it’s very rough.

Then you’ve started the ball rolling and your brain can get to work making it better – perhaps even while you sleep!

5) You’ll have time to practice!

Practice, practice, practice. We’ve all heard that’s the secret to a successful performance.

And it is obvious that your speech delivery will be better and – let’s face it – calmer, if you’ve run through it a few times before the big day. But few wedding speakers do enough practice.

The common reason is that they simply get blocked on the speech content – and it’s difficult to practice something you haven’t actually written yet!

Even if you’ve made some progress on the writing front, it can seem counter-productive to practice a speech that’s incomplete or subject to change.

So aim to have the final draft of your speech finished at least a week before the big day. And practice it out loud – even as you’re writing the speech.

It’s the only way you’ll know if the words on the page work when they come out of your mouth.

So, are you convinced to start?

As you can see, there are many advantages to starting work on your wedding speech as soon as you can – and not just getting it out of the way as soon as possible.

In fact, if you’re thinking of it as something unpleasant that just needs ticking off your list, no wonder you’re procrastinating.

Consider that it might actually be enjoyable to work on it in small chunks – calmly – over the course of a few weeks.

You might surprise yourself!