We all know the saying, ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ and we all know it is true. In order to perform at our best and depending how important what we are doing is to us, we need to eat, drink, sleep, breadth and live the speaking task over and over in our head until we are competent in its delivery. And when we are competent, we are confident. There is no confidence without competence.
The Church or the Civil Ceremony demand the Bride & Groom and other involved parties to meet with them before the wedding day to practice the sequence of events so that no stone is left unturned and that the wedding guests do not witness a badly orchestrated ceremony. If things don’t go right, it looks poor on the Bride & Groom and people can feel embarrassed and disappointed. The same applies with your speech.
Your speech content is written, it is structured in the right way and you have practiced it over and over again at home or at work using some form of contraption to use as a microphone. Competence and therefore confidence is building and you are ready to do a pre-rehearsal in the wedding venue.
Contact the venue and arrange a suitable time to go in and rehearse. Allocate an hour, make sure the microphone is available and that the sound system can be turned on. You must mimic the actual wedding day as much as possible. Set up a table and stand where you the speaker will be standing on the day. Bring a ‘trusting’ friend with you, who will be confidential and give you good ‘constructive’ feedback.
With your speech now delivered in the wedding venue, you have now done it, therefore there should be no surprises on the actual day, except for a few hundred people watching you. Because you have practiced so much, you will be looking forward to speaking to all of them with the mindset – ‘they are all old friends’…