Using Powerpoint to Write your Wedding Speech
Weddings are a time of celebration, and wedding receptions are sometimes the first time members of both the bride and grooms’ family interact. If you are making a speech at a wedding reception, a fun way to elevate the getting to know you time is to incorporate pictures into your wedding speech. Using PowerPoint in a wedding speech can help turn your speech of thanks and advice into a visual story for all to enjoy and remember. What better way to slightly embarrass the newlyweds and share with both families their upbringing, history, and hopes for the future.Childhood pictures
The basics of a wedding speech still apply, even when using PowerPoint, keep your speech under five minutes, be engaging, and keep it PG. Depending on your relationship to the married couple, you may have enough pictures of your own to include in the speech. If not, contact the parents of the couple at least a month prior to the wedding and ask them if they can provide you with 5-10 pictures of their child over the years. You may also need to obtain some background story about that time of their lives and the significance of the pictures they chose. Try and include a baby picture and one from every 5-7 years of development. It is fun to see and hear how a person grew and changed over the years, all the way up to the time of meeting their spouse.
Balance your content
When you are writing your wedding speech, craft it in a manner that the pictures flow naturally into your speech. Be mindful that when pictures are presented to people, for the first few seconds, their full attention will be on the pictures, so be sure not to say anything at that time that you don’t want to be missed. Leave yourself 2 or 3 seconds in your speech for the audience to see the picture and return the focus to you. Be sure to balance the pictures and have the same amount for the bride and the groom and depending on which partner you are closer with, include a picture that is special to you and/or that highlights your relationship and bond to them. PowerPoint slides, pictures, and graphics are all fun, but don’t focus so much on it that people don’t listen to you.
Check your IT
Whatever you are using to display your PowerPoint, make sure you charge and test everything before the guests arrive. Charge your computer and have it ready to play at slide #1, be sure there is a projector and screen or wall to project your images onto, and know where the lights are so that they can be dimmed for clearer viewing of pictures. Also, make sure you instruct the wedding party to move to a place where they too can see the pictures, as they are often seated facing the guests.
The wedding guests, wedding party, and the newlyweds will certainly enjoy a wedding speech that is unique and that includes a story and pictures; have fun with it!
Image courtesy of Grant Stringer Photography