Practicing your wedding speech

Now you've licked your speech into good shape it's now time to practice, practice, practice. The more you practice the better you'll get and if you can mentally put yourself into the location of the wedding reception, all the better.

The point of practicing at this stage is twofold: first of all you want to rehearse speaking in public and getting used to projecting your voice; looking around the room to include everyone in your speech; controlling how you speak; and deep breathing to help fight nerves: second you want to internalize the speech as much as possible, without learning it parrot fashion. That means you get used to speaking about the points you've written down and the order in which they go BUT speaking to the guests rather than reading your speech - a subtle difference perhaps, but important.

You should be able to get yourself so that when you rise you actually feel a touch of nerves; don't worry about this, that will be a GOOD thing on the day. Imagine you're speaking to the guests and look around the room while you're speaking. Eventually you'll require the text of your speech less and less. At this point you should write down the main points onto a card and continue rehearsing using this alone.

Once you're comfortable with it you're ready for the big day. Don't worry, you're almost there!