The 5 Step Wedding Speech Course
By Steve Lennox
© Copyright 2010 by Steve Lennox. All Rights Reserved
Smashwords Edition
PART 1: THE INSTRUCTIONS
INTRODUCTION
Thank you for purchasing this course. This course was designed to teach you how to write a speech not just read one from a script. When I was invited to be the best man at my brother’s wedding I had no idea that I was going to have to give a speech. If I had known that at the time I might not have accepted the offer!
When I discovered that I would have to give a speech I went straight to the internet and Googled “Best Man Speeches.” There were a lot of results that popped up and all of the free resources out there offered one or two pre-written speeches, but those didn’t apply to my unique situation and relationship. I wanted something personal.
So I began looking at some of the wedding speech products out there and found that for $20 I could have a packet of 20 to 60 pre-written speeches. This did not help me either. What I needed was a personal and heartfelt speech but I had no idea how to write one.
I went to the bookstore and bought three books on giving speeches. These books were somewhat useful and they did offer me tips and even some instructions. However, nowhere was I able to find anything that laid out exactly what I needed to do in order to compose and then give an awesome wedding speech that was 100% my own.
That is where this book and course comes in. What you will find here is a series of worksheets that will guide you STEP-BY-STEP through writing your own wedding speech. You may also have noticed that this course is not 250 pages long. The reason for that is that it doesn’t have to be.
While researching this book I combed through no less than 20 books. I did not want to regurgitate the same long-winded advice. I wanted to give you what I knew worked and the information that had worked for me already. What you will find here are actual ACTIONABLE STEPS, bullet points and that’s it. You have one example speech so that you can understand my point but other than that nothing. I’m not going to waste your time.
So now, down to brass tacks. What I discovered is that a highly effective speech, from start to finish, consists of 5 components:
1. Getting the groups attention.
2. An introduction of yourself to the crowd
3. A story, anecdote or religious excerpt that relates to the new couple
4. A statement directly to the Bride and Groom
5. A Toast
Note: Go to http://bit.ly/weddingworkbook to download your free copy of the companion workbook which contains worksheets referenced in this book.
The first page in your workbook shows a diagram of these parts and how the speech should flow.
You may be saying to yourself “Ok that’s nice but I need to know HOW to write those parts so I don’t embarrass myself or the Bride and Groom?”
ANSWER: You must complete these 5 STEPS
Step 1. Brainstorming
Step 2. Speech Outlining
Step 3. Speech Composition
Step 4. Note Preparation
Step 5. Rehearsal
We have simplified these 5 Steps for you and condensed everything into a short workbook that we will guide you through the composition of a wedding speech Step-By-Step!
These 5 steps are accomplished by completing several worksheets and are described as follows:
1. Brainstorming Worksheet – This sheet covers STEP 1 and will lay the foundation for your speech. Here you will begin to think about the theme of your speech. You will evaluate your audience to be sure your speech’s theme is appropriate. You will cover topics to include and those that should be excluded.
2. Theme Speech Worksheet – Based on your chosen theme you will walk through your speech from start to finish. The way I did it was by writing an outline. This worksheet will save you that trouble by asking you to fill in the blanks or check boxes. That’s STEP 2. Just fill in the blanks and move on to the next section. This worksheet will save you a ton of time.
3. Speech Composition Worksheet – This worksheet is where your speech will finally come together and complete STEP 3. You are given plenty of instruction and space to put all of the pieces together. You have room for several drafts and a Final draft section where you can write down your final masterpiece.
4. Notecard Worksheet – This worksheet walks you through STEP 4 which is preparing your notecards. This is done by combing through your final draft and pulling out keywords and memory cues and placing them in order on index cards.
5. Rehearsal Worksheet – This worksheet allows you to track your progress as you go through STEP 5, rehearsal. Rehearsal is key to getting over any pre-performance jitters.
As you can see, this system will allow you to write a speech regardless of what your role in the wedding is. You can be the Father of the Bride, the Best Man or even the Bride herself. It does not matter; this course will teach you how to create and compile these 5 parts weave them into an AMAZING speech using the 5 Steps. If you can fill in the blanks you can do this!
I have included a speech that I wrote throughout the examples. It is similar to the speech I ended up giving at my brother’s wedding. It is fairly short but it accomplishes everything I needed it to. I gave a great speech and was told afterward that it was the best speech of the day.
Please follow the steps and I promise you will be able to write a great wedding speech. Even if you have never written a speech before.
CHAPTER 1: Brainstorming your speech
Note: Go to http://bit.ly/weddingworkbook to download your free copy of the companion workbook which contains worksheets referenced in this book.
The first step to writing your speech is to sit down and think about it. Get some ideas and then put them down on paper.
Please print a copy of the “Brainstorming Worksheet” or print out an entire copy of the “Worksheet Book” which was included in this purchase.
One of the next things you must do is choose a theme for your speech. There are, generally speaking, four types of speeches you can give at a wedding. These four are Sentimental, Humorous, Serious and Religious.
The theme you choose depends on several factors:
- What is the age of the audience?
- Will there be children?
- Is the audience religious?
- If they are religious, how much so?
- What is the makeup of the religions or cultures that will be attending?
- What does the Bride want you to say?
- What does the Bride NOT want you to say?
- What does the Groom want you to say?
- What does the Groom NOT want you to say?
The worksheet asks you the specific questions mentioned above about the audience. These questions are necessary for several reasons. One being that your audience should determine the things you choose to bring up or not to bring up during your speech.