FINDING THE WORDS

If you haven't found this out already, you'll soon discover that one of the most difficult things to do is to write the speech in the first place.

The Best Man’s Speech, Father of the Bride’s Speech and Groom’s Speech articles will all help to point you in the right direction, but in order to add a little meat to the bones you will need to be able to flesh out each topic.

The first port of call is your own little grey cells, and you should jot down as many thoughts as you can before looking elsewhere. However, when you are all out of ideas, there are a whole host of alternative sources so without further ado, let’s us elucidate you on where and what to look at:

·         As long as they are relevant and not too obscure, why not incorporate words from a popular song or poem into your speech?

·         Develop a Top 5 list on whatever subject you fancy – ‘The Top 5 reasons I got married today’, ‘The Top 5 reasons my wife and I will miss our daughter’, ‘The Top 5 reasons why the Bride doesn’t know what she’s let herself in for’ etc. Make it relevant, short and a mix of sincerity and humour, and you can’t go wrong. This is also an ideal intro as all you are doing is simply reading from a sheet of paper David Letterman style.

·         Speak to as many friends, relatives, neighbours and old schoolteachers as you like for stories and anecdotes. No formal meeting is required, in fact you can even do it down the local pub - just remember what you have been told!