You've heard me say what a wedding speech should be a chance for you to have people in the room feel good about this bride and groom and to take away something else, perhaps they didn't know about him a nice experience. But let me spend a moment and talk about what a wedding speech is not a wedding speech is not a chance for you to educate people on every single accomplishment this person has ever had. It's not the time for you to get off with, you know, something like that people see a whole bunch of papers they think, Oh my God, this looks like a board meeting at a county commission government meeting. It's awful. It's gonna be painful. They don't want to see you read.

When I first met the groom when he was five years old. Nobody likes to be read to ask yourself do you like it when people read to you whether it's PowerPoint or anything else, the second you read you've robbed yourself of The spontaneity of this a good wedding speech needs to sound like seem like you're just speaking from the heart. Now, of course, you need to have planned, you need to prepare, you need to have rehearsed. But you should simply be speaking to be you need to be looking at the bride or the groom with a couple or the family members, when you're talking about. If you are looking at this and there's no eye contact, it really robs the moment now I know what you're saying, oh, DJ, I'm gonna be so nervous. I'm not gonna remember what to say.

I'm gonna walk you through that. Don't worry, you're not going to have to remember that much. Remember, this is not you pitching a venture capitalist and you're trying to go through all the numbers of your projections of how much money you're going to make every quarter for the next three years. It's not that sort of a presentation. You just have to focus on one or two good traits a story to make it happen. Come Alive to make people feel good about the couple, you're honoring here.

So get rid of the text. Don't even think of reading. Just don't even think about it. You're gonna think what's going to help you, it's not going to help you, it's going to make you seem like a bit of a boring hack. So I beg you do not have a speech that you're going to read word for word, it's simply is not appropriate. It lends an air of formality to something in a bad way.

You have not won the Nobel Peace Prize. You won the Nobel Peace Prize. Fine. I'll let you read his speech. That's not what this wedding speech is about. Don't make the mistake of going on and on and on too long.

Remember, people want to get to the bar. They want to get to the dance floor. They're not here to listen to you. Humor is good. But don't try your stuff from your stand up comedy training course and a whole bunch of new zingers and gotchas that seem overly contrived. Don't use canned humor from a book.

Instead, simply retell stories that make fun of yourself or something funny happens. But let people make the judgment that it's funny. Don't tell them. It's funny. Don't telegraph that you're up here doing this stand up comedy. It shouldn't necessarily be stand up comedy.

It shouldn't be generic it all. Everything needs to be focused on that bride that groom, that couple. If you do that, you'll be in great shape. So remember, don't read. Don't go on too long. Certainly don't think you're being funny.

By being overly personal, and, and nasty. Now. I understand if it's a bachelor party or bachelorette party, and there are no video cameras around, and it's late at night and everyone's had a few. Okay, let's change the rules for that. But when you're at the wedding when their family members present when their father in law's mother in law's present, that's not the time to be risky. You're going to make fun of someone, someone's going to be the butt of the joke.

Make sure it's you. Make sure that the bride the groom, that they come out, smelling like a rose do that you'll be in good shape.