Wedding Speeches

The Naked Audience: Reducing Stage Fright During Your Best Mans Speeches

There are a variety of ways you can reduce stage fright. Probably the best thing you can do is be prepared. By being prepared, you can walk into your best man wedding speeches with confidence, knowing that you have what you want to say and you can say it well. A good way to do this is to practice in the mirror. Close your eyes and pretend you're in the reception hall, take a deep breath, and start. If you need to, start by only saying little pieces at a time, then gradually build up to the whole speech. Once you have practiced the whole speech, do it again and try not to stop. If you get stuck, do your best to finish calmly and with feeling. By preparing for a mistake, you can be ready for the worst case scenario, and probably even avoid one altogether.

There are tons of natural and effective ways to reduce your nervousness. Even just some simple breathing exercises are a proven effective way to reduce tension. Speaking of breathing, don't forget to breathe during your speech. I have to prepare and present many speeches, and my biggest issue is remembering to breathe. Having to take a gasping breath is never convenient. Just relaxing can automatically trigger a more regulated breathing pattern and keep your heart from pounding. Make a conscious effort to relax your muscles and feel free to move around a little bit. You don't want to look rigid and stiff like a statue, but you also don't want to pace back and forth.

Move around a little bit, but avoid pacing. Picture the natural way a comedian looks on stage. A few sips of a drink can calm you down and reduce your nervousness a little. However, do NOT drink too much. Saying your best man speeches brother while drunk, while it may be funny, will only result in embarrassment for yourself as well as the couple and will leave the groom feeling disrespected. Don't let your nerves bait you into drinking too much.

A lot of people talk about not being sure what to do with their hands while they're speaking. Having them hang at your sides looks and feels unnatural, but you don't want to look like a mime either. A rolled up paper towel makes a great homemade stress ball. It keeps your hands busy while also absorbing sweat. Just do your best to make it as inconspicuous as possible. You don't want people to spend the entirety of your speech trying to figure out what you have in your hand. A glass of water nearby does more than slake your thirst. It also provides a little opportunity to gather your thoughts and refocus. Holding your glass could be a bad idea. If you are getting into your speech and forget what you're holding, you risk spilling it, or even worse, tossing on the Bride.

You don't need to have direct contact with anyone in the audience. Just stare a little bit over their heads and look from one side of the back of the room to the next. Definitely avoid looking down at your feet or up at the ceiling. Pretend you're back in the bathroom practicing your best man speechs or that you're sitting there talking to only the Groom. It sounds like a pretty daunting task: ignoring an entire room of people, but it's not impossible. Before you stand up to do your speech, get in the "zone." Take a deep breath and relax. Take as much time to prepare yourself as you need. While it may feel like hours to you, five seconds of mental preparation will go completely unnoticed by the audience. Take a second to boost your ego a little (who doesn't feel sharp in a tux?), and remind yourself what you're there for. Your best friend asked you to be his best man, out of all the other people he knows. People go their whole lives without getting to be a part of something so important to their friends.