Speak from the heart

Whether you give a short speech or a long speech, speak from the heart.
Fancy words are not as powerful as genuine words.
Consider Martin Luther King Jr. "I have a dream".
He spoke from the heart and the people took him to their hearts.

When you speak at a wedding, skip the advice.
Just share a few personal stories which people can relate to.

That's all it takes.
Vince

Thanks for making this clear.

Thanks folks.

Introduction To Wedding Toasts - Easy Wedding Toasts & Wedding Speech Templates

Introduction To Wedding Toasts - Easy Wedding Toasts & Wedding Speech Templates: "Yet even that simple toast of congratulations and best wishes has become more like a 2-5 minute speech, including other things such as stories from the Groom's past and thanks to the wedding attendants, guests, and parents for helping to make the day a success."

Ain't that the truth!

You ask your brother to do a simple task. "Would you propose the toast TO ABSENT FRIENDS please?"
Before you know it, he has a script. He's mentioning every relative from the past hundred years. He's mentioning people you haven't seen since grade school.

IMO, you need to be definite about the TIME he has. One minute, bro. No longer.

Even so, allow for 2-3-4 minutes of his ramblings.
The time he takes is in direct proportion to his skills as a raconteur or story teller.

But, hey, who cares. So long as he's interesting and everyone is enjoying his wedding toast.
It's actually a wedding speech in its own right.

If you want to know whether it's going over well, sneak a peek at the mother-in-law's face. And the bride's face. And the father of the bride's face.

If they're smiling, let him ramble on. Hey, ask him to be MC.

Maybe your own brother is a member of Toastmasters International. He could even have an award from TI. And you forgot. Or didn't know. Such a pleasant surprise.

Enjoy.

Why getting married creates stress

Getting married should be a fun time in our lives.
But it's not.
Stress builds in direct proportion to the amount of money the wedding costs.

A small registry office wedding in your lunch hour costs the licence fee, posy of flowers, tips, small gifts for the key people, and a bottle of bubbles at the local pub.
Total cost 500 notes.

But take some of the celebrity weddings. They cost as much as making The Lord Of The Rings film.
Talk about stress!

And people wonder why they (ahem) can't perform on their honeymoon.
Droop.
Ddisappointment all round.

IMO the smaller the wedding, the better.
But do people listen?
Heck no. They get carried along by what their future mother-in-law wants.

The biggest event on the town's social calendar.
Fight it.

Why getting married takes so much TIME

The first time I got married it was the biggest event in my life.
I had my day job. I did some exercise and sports.
I enjoyed films, going to museums and art galleries.

Then, when it I was getting married and preparing all the things which needed doing for the wedding (yes, with my fiance) it all took SO MUCH TIME.

I had to forgo so many of the fun things.
Except for going with my fiance, of course.

But all the solo things (like long distance running) went overboard.
So I started to re-think my life's priorities.
I discovered the merits of OUT-SOURCING.

I found it helpful to pay other people to do my chores.
So, like Ed Helvey taught me "I don't chop wood. I don't mow lawns. I don't shovel snow."

This line of thinking is important when you're getting married.
Buy the cake.
Hire your wedding clothes.
Download your wedding speech already written.
Yes, there are professional speech writers who do this.
I found a dozen good web sites for getting the grooms wedding speech.
Heaps more for the Best Man wedding speech.

Who knows any other good places which offer ready-made wedding speech templates?
Please share. Thanks.
St Martins Old Boy.