In many cases, speeches are an important and integral part of wedding days. While they are generally distinct and separate from formal civil and religious ceremonies, speeches are often much anticipated and agonised over by the not insignificant number of participants to whom the honour falls. Where the individual speaker may agonise over the composition and delivery of their piece, guests at the ceremony in question will frequently indulge in a great deal of speculation as to the parts that will be included or left out!

While cultural rigidities are often more and more relaxed as time progresses, there are those within all communities who hanker after more traditional times and lobby hard for adherence to once-revered values. Such a backdrop of the traditional verus newer (and often less rigorous) observation of the desired restraints of many societies provides a fertile breeding ground for a whole spectrum of discomfort and (dare one suggest) situations ranging from slightly uncomfortable to simply hilarious.

It is against this backdrop that the composer of the modern wedding speech must prepare their piece. Running the gauntlet of appeasing the strictures of the older generation and those younger persons whose attitudes instinctively align with the traditional views of their community, the budding speech maker must also appease those awaiting a more spirited or less guarded delivery!

If that was not enough, there are a myriad of social man-traps to be negotiated. From previous spouses and dis-affected relatives to children of previous relationships and the sometimes uncomfortable coming together of differing cultures and fragments of dislocated families, the speech maker’s way can at times be littered with terrifying challenges.

In future posts, such delicacies will be examined in detail. For the best man, groom, father of the bride and others the wedding speech will earn a place in history. It is the measure of that place in history that is the variable and it is hoped that our series will help to make that a more enjoyable experience and secure the best possible place in that historical league table.