Most of us attend birthday or wedding anniversary speeches at some time during the year. There is often a great sameness about these occasions. They can be personalised, however, if you give a really memorable speech. In such a speech you should bring the party boy or girl or the couple celebrating their anniversary to life. Your speech should make people say “I never knew that” or “oh I remember when that happened” It should include your audience and make them feel as though they are celebrating the years the couple spent together or the celebrant’s achievements over the years. Such a speech should be warm-hearted and loving with a touch of humour. Everyone loves to be feted and that’s exactly what you do when you give such a speech. So give your party the personal touch by talking about someone’s personality and life choices. They’ll be glad you did.

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My neighbour John has been invited to be best man at a wedding. “What will I say?” he asked worriedly. “The groom is my best friend but I don’t know what to say. His mother and father are ok I know them years, but I’ve never even met the bride’s parents and her uncle is coming home from Australia. Should I mention him? The speech is supposed to be funny but I’d better not mention our escapades over the years. After all my own wife will be there and she certainly wouldn’t appreciate hearing about our holidays in the sun”. John’s worries are typical of many best men. They want to make a good impression but they don’t know what to say. The answer is not to try to be funny because John is not a comedian and doesn’t have the training or the timing. Instead his speech should be light-hearted speaking only of the good times they had together or mentioning incidents like when they lost their luggage or got on the train going to Paris instead of to Cannes. . too. He should do his research and find out something about the bride and her parents so that all the important guests are included. He should, check whether the bride wants her uncle’s long journey mentioned. A good speech is about preparation.

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ALL SPEECHES SHOULD ASPIRE TO INSPIRE

I think that every speech whether it is a eulogy, a wedding speech, a persuasive speech in fact pretty much any speech, should have one thing in common. That thing is inspiration. You must inspire the audience. You may look back at the past, and here you make reference to the ‘best of’.

You may look to the future. Here you can really inspire, because the future hasn’t (in most people’s opinions anyway) happened yet. In theory anything is possible. So, it is up to you to paint the most inspiring scenario of what is possible.

And what audience would fail to respond to that?

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I was at a wedding in Drimoleague in the West of Ireland, when the groom stood up to make his wedding speech. He announced that he couldn’t do speeches, but he knew a good joke about a pig.

Personally I don’t care if it was the best pig joke in the world (it wasn’t), but there is a time and a place for jokes in speeches. I might respectfully suggest to all you potential grooms and best men out there, that telling a joke about a pig or anything at all really has no place whatsoever in your wedding speech.

If you really are stuck for inspiration you might start with the beautiful woman you are marrying. If you are still stuck I respectfully suggest you might want to reconsider your position.

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