There may come a time in your life when you are called upon to make a speech. Whether it is at work, a social function or a wedding it can be a daunting task especially if you have little experience or are the nervous type.

Making a wedding speech is usually where many of us are required to address a big audience and quite often for the first time.

The true art of delivering a sincere, heartfelt and interesting wedding speech is to prepare well in advance but on the day appear off the cuff and spontaneous.

Preparation

Preparation is the key aspect of planning your wedding speech. Make sure you allow several weeks before the big day. If you are the best man try and find out as much information as possible about the bride and groom and also their families as this may help you include a funny story or two.

However make sure that whatever information you gather is correct. The last thing you want to do is blurt out a story about the bride or groom that is untrue and leave them feeling uneasy and embarrassed in their seats.

An important point to remember when including any jokes is to ensure they are tasteful and will not upset or insult anyone in the audience.

Play it safe and keep to mildly humorous subjects or better still make yourself the butt of the jokes. Remember the audience is there to watch the bride and groom get hitched not to watch a comedian so you do not have to have the latest side splitting gags.

Also, keep in mind the wedding guests are on your side and are there to have a good time so generally will laugh at the slightest attempt at a funny line.

Preparing a good wedding speech is all about the details.

If you are an experienced speaker you may wish to deliver the speech from memory, however this is not advisable particularly if you are a novice which most of us are you will be better prepared if you have written notes to hand.

Your notes will be a lifeline should you clam up or lose your train of thought. Make sure your notes are short, clear and easy to read. Use postcard size card and clip them together or number them just in case you accidentally drop them and lose your place.

The best mans wedding speech should be around five minutes in length. Any more then this and you are in danger of boring your listeners especially if they have already sat through a number of other speeches. That said, if you are on a roll and have them laughing in the aisles you can stretch it to around ten minutes but not much longer.

Above all practice makes perfect! Again, make sure you have plenty of time before the big day to thoroughly rehearse. Take every opportunity to practice your lines and if possible recite them in front of a friend or two.

Stand in front of a mirror to check your stance and posture. You can even record yourself on tape to check your modulation and tone.

Memorize your opening and closing lines in particular so regardless of any sections you may forget in between, you will always have a start and finish point embedded in your mind.

It can take weeks to prepare a good wedding speech, which will last only a few minutes but a considered and well thought-out wedding speech will be greatly appreciated by the audience even if you do fluff the odd line or two.