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Improving Your Wedding Speech With Gestures

In this article we will explain some of the benefits to using gestures in your wedding speech.

We will also explain some of the best ways to incorporate gestures into your speech, without looking rehearsed or wooden.

Let’s get started.

So what exactly are gestures?

They are basically the non-verbal words of your wedding speech, and they can make you look much more comfortable while speaking, and they will also improve your speech by making it seem even more interesting.

One of the first gestures to include in your speech is use of your hands.

This applies to all forms of public speaking.

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By doing this, you will hold peoples attention more (and easier), plus it will make you feel more relaxed… as it will seem much more like having a conversation with someone rather than public speaking.

The next gesture is facial expressions. The best facial expression you can use in a wedding speech is a smile! Feelings follow behavior. If you smile and behave like you’re relaxed, you’re much more likely to start feeling that way as well.

This is also great for taking the edge off of the initial nerves you may experience.

The next gesture to consider is eye contact. Firstly, you don’t want to fix eye contact with any one person or object for too long. Moving eye contact every few seconds or so will look more natural, and won’t make anybody feel uncomfortable.

Once you’ve mastered the content of your wedding speech, you’ll be free to experiment with adding different gestures to your speech. Get it right, and you’ll draw people into your speech more, and make it seem even more interesting and entertaining.

Something else to keep in mind, however, is to not add too many gestures to your speech.

You can easily over do it to the extent that it just becomes a distraction from what you’re saying. Practice in front of a mirror (you were doing that already though, right?) and you’ll be able to see if you have too many or not enough.

Another tip: Don’t ever put your hand in front of your mouth (for whatever reason) as a gesture during your speech, because people won’t be able to hear you.

Another important thing that people over look is this: If you’ve been smiling all day (as is sometimes required at a wedding!) then don’t force yourself to smile in the speech.

Although it’s good to smile, if your facial muscles are tired… it could look more like you’re grimacing. So have a little break from smiling before the speech, if you can do so.

If you are holding anything, (such as notes for your speech) then remember to NOT fiddle with them when you’re talking. This is an obvious sign of nerves, and doing it will make your body feel even more nervous.