What If I Hate Public Speaking?

This is the most important thing to remember: the people in that room are rooting for you. They're not critics. They're wedding guests who've had champagne and are feeling sentimental. A sincere, slightly shaky speech gets a standing ovation at a wedding.

You don't need to be polished. You need to be real.

Nervous speakers who prepare well consistently outperform confident speakers who wing it. Here's a simple preparation routine:

1. Have your speech written and finalised at least a week before
2. Read it aloud five times (not in your head, aloud)
3. Time yourself at least twice
4. Practise in front of one person you trust
5. On the day, read from notes. Nobody expects you to memorise it

The less comfortable you are speaking, the shorter your speech should be. A heartfelt 2-minute speech is better than a nervous 6-minute one. Set the generator to a shorter length, and you'll have fewer words to worry about.

Nobody has ever complained that a wedding speech was too short.

Nail The Speech can help in a few practical ways:

• Voice input: Talk through your stories instead of typing. It's more natural and less intimidating.
• Text-to-speech: Listen to your speech read aloud so you can hear the rhythm before you deliver it.
• MP3 export: Download the audio and listen on repeat to build familiarity.
• PDF export: Print it in a format that's easy to read from a podium or cue cards.

Preparation tools exist so you don't have to rely on confidence alone.