Writing the father of the groom speech is great and it’s a true honor, but we are often confronted with the reality: we lack the inspiration for it. Did you ever feel something like “now is my moment” or something that told you “I can do it right now, it will only take 20 minutes”, but then when you actually started writing, you had no clue after 2-3 sentences? So, as described here – situations like that often happened to fathers, and mothers too.
Which are the best sources to be inspired? Is it necessarily by reading something from some source, or is it social interaction? Let’s find out!
What was wrong before can tell you what is right from now!
If you study former wedding speeches, especially ones that were failed, then you will have ideas about how to handle a new father of the groom speech. There are typical mistakes such as:
- Certain jokes are wrong. You can’t just use any joke crossing your mind, for a real father of the groom speech. Things like that never work! So, it’s better if you know the right jokes!
- Expressing feelings in exaggeration will always ruin a speech. We all have emotions, and when a wedding is coming, we all have even more of them. Still, these emotions can influence us negatively by not allowing ideas to flow, body to relax and therefore ruining the first impressions made. So, how can you handle this? While you will have many emotions, don’t show them so much! You can say a word or two, but don’t keep speaking about how you feel now. Focus on the couple instead – it’s their wedding.
- Too short speeches aren’t enough. Some people thought a wedding speech is only a “hi folks” and a “let’s toast now”. No, it’s never enough! If you don’t speak for at least 2-3 minutes, which means speaking also about other topics than a greeting and a toast proposal, then your speech is short. A short speech, in this context is wrong! However, 2-3 minutes of well-organized speaking is just about right.
- Long stories make the guests become bored. If you begin relating an entire curriculum, such as every moment from the birth of your son until today, people won’t even care about that. They didn’t come to hear just how great your son is, and how many past jobs, past girlfriends and past cars or rental apartments he had. The people who honored the couple by coming and attending the wedding are interested in the love story and in the decisions that the couple made before they finally got married. So, by knowing this, you can focus on speaking about the essence instead of speaking about every single matter running through your head.
- Shaky voice – don’t attempt it! When you speak and you give your father of the groom speech, if you’d have a shaky voice, people would think you are weak, coward and they won’t even listen to your words, not even if you had a great speech. Instead, you need to speak with a confident voice, showing everyone that you have a father’s attitude and you are confident enough to speak about the wedding and the couple’s lives. As long as you show it, people will believe you.
- Confused or random body movements. Many speakers have great speeches, but still their body movements are awkward, random and not in any way connected to the actual message. In addition, if you don’t have precise body movements or let’s better say controlled body movements, you might even distract yourself from transmitting the message. So, you need to be in control, be relaxed and speak accordingly with precise body movements as needed.
You will always need to introduce a wedding speech. There is no second option to that. If you want to skip introduction, you are pre-destined to fail with the wedding speech. Of course, it is up to you to decide whether you want the right introduction or cause boredom from the first seconds. You see, the first moment you open your mouth to speak for the introduction, people are paying attention. Whether they will enjoy the speech or not – mostly stands within the first 30 seconds, which is the intro.
Not every single idea would work, so you’d better simply listen and take notes. Then, from your notes, you will be able to finally decide whether the ideas are usable or not. Your decision should only be influenced by your guests and family members. Learn to stay open-minded, because that is what you need for a