Your Groom Wedding Speech Tips

You finished your first version of your groom toast and speech. You have a good feeling, but there are a few things you are still unsure about. So what to do next? One possibility is to just continue to work on your speech and make revisions. The problem is you have no idea really if any change is useful to improve your speech. You could give your speech to a friend and get feedback that will hopefully help you to improve your speech. And then start the whole process all over again.

But do not worry, there is another even better way!

Have a speech test run. Invite one or two friends. Consider to invite the best friend of your bride as well. A close friend of her could provide valuable feedback! You could also consider inviting someone of her parents. There are different opinions about if it is a good idea to invite your bride as well. Since the whole groom speech is about you and her it sounds like a good idea. But people do not want to spoil everything and keep a few surprises. I  think there is no right or wrong. Trust your instincts on that. I did invite my wife to the speech test run and she enjoyed it.

For a successful speech test run it is important to set a few ground rules. Let everyone know the purpose of the speech test run. Tell them to not interrupt the groom speech and not give feedback every time they feel the need to. Ask them to let you finish it and then discuss the groom wedding toast and speech all together. If your bride will be present too, place her next to you and the rest of the audience in front of you. By doing so you can practice the speech itself but also your interaction with the audience as I mention in another post.

It is time to begin! Start with your groom toast. When you greet someone turn to them as they would be there. Continue with your groom speech. Pay attention to the reactions especially when you use passages that are meant to be funny. If you notice any reaction you do not understand make a mental note. The best way to get feedback is to ask actively questions. So try not to be shy later. During the discussion make notes! Write everything down even if you do not agree right away. It might give you useful insights later when you go over it again!

So the speech test run is over and you got valuable information. What now? First thing you will do is putting everything away at least for two days. Give yourself time to relax. Try not to think about your speech. Do something else. Put your mind at ease. That is important to be able looking at everything from a different angle later. Then grab your groom wedding speech and the feedback and go through it. Make adjustments. If you are not convinced of something, do NOT change it. Never forget it is your groom speech and it should reflect your character and no one else.

Earlier I talked about people you should not forget. Now let us talk about things you should include into your groom wedding speech. As mentioned before this is all about you and your bride. Concentrate on that! Talk about memorable things. Tell them in your wedding speech what made you fall in love with her and later showed you that you want to spend the rest of your life with her. Let me give you a few examples of what you could use:

• The moment you met her for the first time.
• Little things about her you love so much.
• The day when you propose to her.
• Lessons you learned due to the relationship and directly by her. (opportunity to create funny groom speech moments!)

These are only a few examples of topics you can use. Let us talk about how to do it. First you can and should use jokes. Try to be funny! It is a day of joy and happiness, so there is no reason to bother the people with a 100% serious wedding speech. Build in jokes to create a real great and funny groom wedding speech. But do NOT overdo it! And even more important choose jokes wisely. You do not want to embarrass or offend anyone especially not your bride.

Interact with your bride and the audience while giving the wedding speech. Switch between them. Address them directly. It is not a good thing to give your beloved one the feeling she would not be in the same room while you are talking about her. You would regret it later. Look her into the eyes. Hold her hand in the right moment. There are many ways to interact with people while giving your groom speech, for example when you talk about the day you met her the first time, you could start by describing the situation looking and addressing the audience. When you reach the point of your first encounter in your wedding speech turn to your bride and talk directly to her. Describe what you felt when you saw her and heard her voice. Turn back to the audience again getting to the point that you knew that she was the right one.

If you construct your groom wedding speech that way it will feel more like an active conversation to the people instead of just passive listening from their end. That way they will enjoy it more and remember it longer. But always keep one thing in mind: Be genuine! Do not use words or phrases you would not use normally.