Don’t leave it to the last minute! Don\’t leave what to the last minute, I hear you ask? The speech of course! I\’m sure your partner, family, friends even yourself are asking, \’Have you the speech done, what are you going to say, make sure and cover everything, leave no one or anything out and don\’t embarrass anyone\’! As the date gets closer, you are probably getting a bit more agitated. You\’re human, so you should be, if you didn\’t, it might show that you don\’t care and have not much interest or respect of who you are speaking of and speaking to. Don\’t leave it to the last minute by:
- Putting actual / real time aside
- Being disciplined
- Researching and gathering information
- Putting it on paper
- Producing the final speech
Putting actual / real time aside The only way to do something that you are procrastinating about is to set time aside for it in your diary and do it. The hardest part is starting it. Once you start it, the easier it will be. You will even say to yourself, \’What was that all about, I should have started it much earlier. Once started, keep putting time aside until it is finished. You will feel so much the better for it. Being disciplined You need to be disciplined i.e. start on time and finish on time. Keep at it until it is finished. You might even consider setting time aside for the next number of weeks so that you know that on this particular day, at this particular time, I will be busy writing my speech. Everything else needs to work around this. If we were all disciplined in our life, work and interests, we would get so much achieved and completed. Researching and gathering information We believe in original, unique, new material, content and narrative in a speech. When it comes to writing any speech, you have to do a lot of research through various means. When it comes to writing a wedding speech the research is usually got from the memory of the speech writer of the person being spoke about. The research can also be got from speaking to people who reared, grew up with, worked with or are friends of the person being spoken about. Putting it on paper Put your full speech on paper, every word that you are going to say; this is important. Only when you have this done can you start rehearsing it and transferring it onto pointer cards or into a summary (if you wish!). In fact only when you know the speech very well, should you start transferring it into a summary (key word) format. Reading out the speech word for word from the main script is perfectly fine as well, as long as you don\’t forget eye contact and connectivity with your audience. Producing the final speech Well, we have covered this in the last section. The produce of your final speech is what you will use to remind you of your speech content i..e A4 page, pointer cards etc., so that you will not forget anything. Do not be afraid to use them or let the audience see them. When they do, they see that you have come prepared and are organised. There is always professional help at hand should you need it…your speech is probably a once off, and will never happen again, so do it well, do it right, do yourself proud…