You are the father of the bride.
You have to deliver the first speech at your daughters wedding.
You get one chance to make her very happy, to present yourself well and make your wife proud with your loving words.
So all the pressure is on you.
I was in exactly this position recently and this is how I made it through with flying colours.
My eldest daughter was married last year and, of course, as father of the bride it was down to me to open the wedding speeches.
A somewhat daunting task for anyone.
I can honestly say that I was very worried about the speech but in my day job as a manager I was used to planning and scheduling work so I looked upon this task in the same manner.
I was astute enough to start many weeks before the wedding and not fall into the trap of rushing something out at the last minute.
Even with plenty of time and most of the wedding planning being done by others it was a real struggle to find the words I wanted to say.
It occurred to me that the groom, bride, brides mother and others that were deeply involved in the wedding planning would have an even more difficult time as they already had more than enough work to do.
This is especially true as the wedding gets nearer so any delay in writing and rehearsing your father of the bride wedding speech can create a real burden.
Of course the creation of the father of the bride wedding speech should be a joyous affair and not just a task or compulsory activity and the secret to that is having the time to work on your speech.
You really can make this an activity you look forward to doing and enjoy the whole process.
As I said, I still found writing the speech very difficult and I confess that I did eventually get some help.
In my mind I wanted the father of the bride wedding speech to be my own, a special one for my daughter and that is exactly what I ended up with.
The kind of help I got enabled me to look at sample speeches but not to just simply copy them.
Using the concepts and ideas and the guidance made available to me I was easily able to draft my very own speech that came from the heart and was all my own words.
Once you have crafted your father of the bride speech you still have the challenge of rehearsing, remembering and delivering it, and I had help with that too, but that's a story for another day.
You have to deliver the first speech at your daughters wedding.
You get one chance to make her very happy, to present yourself well and make your wife proud with your loving words.
So all the pressure is on you.
I was in exactly this position recently and this is how I made it through with flying colours.
My eldest daughter was married last year and, of course, as father of the bride it was down to me to open the wedding speeches.
A somewhat daunting task for anyone.
I can honestly say that I was very worried about the speech but in my day job as a manager I was used to planning and scheduling work so I looked upon this task in the same manner.
I was astute enough to start many weeks before the wedding and not fall into the trap of rushing something out at the last minute.
Even with plenty of time and most of the wedding planning being done by others it was a real struggle to find the words I wanted to say.
It occurred to me that the groom, bride, brides mother and others that were deeply involved in the wedding planning would have an even more difficult time as they already had more than enough work to do.
This is especially true as the wedding gets nearer so any delay in writing and rehearsing your father of the bride wedding speech can create a real burden.
Of course the creation of the father of the bride wedding speech should be a joyous affair and not just a task or compulsory activity and the secret to that is having the time to work on your speech.
You really can make this an activity you look forward to doing and enjoy the whole process.
As I said, I still found writing the speech very difficult and I confess that I did eventually get some help.
In my mind I wanted the father of the bride wedding speech to be my own, a special one for my daughter and that is exactly what I ended up with.
The kind of help I got enabled me to look at sample speeches but not to just simply copy them.
Using the concepts and ideas and the guidance made available to me I was easily able to draft my very own speech that came from the heart and was all my own words.
Once you have crafted your father of the bride speech you still have the challenge of rehearsing, remembering and delivering it, and I had help with that too, but that's a story for another day.
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