My baby brother is getting married next weekend. Again. He actually got married a couple of months ago, eloping to Canada with his then-bride-to-be, but he’s having a wedding blessing with vow renewal ceremony in this country on Saturday.
I thought they only renewed wedding vows in Neighbours, but it would appear I was mistaken!
Anyway, I’ve been asked to be his Best Man. After all, I am a Man, and I am Best, so it makes sense. It’s not like a full blown ceremony with everything a wedding has, but it’s a big responsibility nonetheless, and one that carries with it a requirement: writing a speech.
I’ve written speeches before. Of course, I had one to write for my own wedding. I’ve also had to write and deliver several to do with work – mainly about new software and technologies and stuff. But they were all easy.
This one is different. It’s not that I can’t think of things to say (I can), it’s more how to say them, for an audience of an unknown number of people, most of whom I don’t know at all. At least at my wedding, I knew more than 50% of the attendees really well, and for the work-related speeches it didn’t actually matter. But here, I need to be funny, slightly cruel, traditional and caring. All without going overboard in any single area, lest I upset people or make them sick.
So I’ll manage it, I’m sure, and I’m looking forward to it. After all, it’s a bit of an honour, isn’t it? But it’s taking longer than I thought, and I’m having to think a lot harder about not so much the topics, but more the words and intonation. It’s like trying to write two speeches at once!
