9 Ways To Cope With Wedding Speech Nerves

Unless you’re a founding member of Toastmasters, making a wedding speech can be very daunting. With this in mind, I've put together a few important tips to help you overcome your nerves and deliver a great wedding speech.

1. Remember, these people are on your side. They aren’t secretly hoping you’ll mess things up. The reason you’re there giving a speech is because you're connected with the people there, and so is the audience. Bearing this in mind, you can rest assured that anything you say in your wedding speech will be listened to and respected. Also, people listening to speeches at weddings really want to laugh — this breaks the tension. So any vague attempt at a joke will get an encouraging response.

2. Practice your wedding speech thoroughly. The more your practice, the less nervous you’ll feel on the actual day. Remember to practice your intonation, and the pauses. If you show you’ve put effort into your preparation, any mistakes you might make on the big day will be easily forgiven.

3. Learn your speech by heart. Whenever you have some spare time — in the car on the way to work, in the shower or wherever — practice your speech. Repeat it over and over again as often as you can before the big day. You'll feel much calmer, knowing the whole speech inside and out.

4. Remember to breathe. As simple as this sounds, it's often overlooked. Practice where you’ll take a breath in the speech, and learn to breathe correctly. Diaphragmatic breathing, as used by singers and public speakers, will help you here. If you’re unfamiliar with this, a quick search on Google will show you.

5. Think of a funny story before you stand up. Nothing so funny that you lose your focus, but something mildly titillating that will bring a smile to your face. This will loosen you up, and give a nice energy to your wedding speech that will improve the delivery immensely.

6. Have a banana 20 minutes before you make your speech. This tip's often used by professional public speakers, and helps many people calm their nerves. It also gives a nice energy boost.

7. Speak slowly and clearly. If you're nervous, you'll feel the urge to speed up and your speech will become unclear. So try to consciously slow yourself down, and articulate so people can hear what you say.

8. Make eye contact with people in the audience. It will feel just like you're chatting with everyone there.

9. Lastly, remember to enjoy yourself! Believe it or not, life will go on even if you do make a few mistakes. And it'll all be over sooner than you think. Have fun!

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