My brother proposed to his girlfriend, asked me to be his best man and then asked me to help him with his groom's wedding speech. Somehow, I felt setup...

I reluctantly agreed - the last time I had really written anything was in high school - a bad term paper, in fact. So, I did what anyone would do - I started searching the internet and to my pleasant surprise, there was plenty of information out there - almost too much, actually. So, I narrowed the helpful information down to a help tips and I started to hack away at the speech. I wrote the speech and did a pretty good job of it, I must say - especially since I don't consider myself a writer.

I would like to share with you some of the tips that helped me out...

Getting Started on the Speech: The planning

1 - Brainstorm. This is the place were you write down everything that comes to your mind.

2 - The Rough Draft. This rough draft is not the finished product. This is where you start organizing your brainstorming notes.

Note: Make sure that you use simple words. You're job is not to impress, but to communicate clearly. Also, use shorter sentences.

Writing the Grooms Wedding Speech

1 - Choose a theme for the speech and stick with it.

2 - Identify the goal of the speech. In other words, what do you want to accomplish with the speech?

3 - Know you're audience. You don't want to talk over or beneath your hearers - you want to talk with them. It's very helpful to make a guest list so you can visualize the people.

4 - Use stories. The use of stories is like painting pictures for the audience - they will enjoy the speech a lot better.