Red Mosquito

Jorge wrote:My brother just asked me to officiate at his wedding in Ireland, I am so stoked

Jorge wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Jorge I have to officiate a wedding in 2024. Any tips?

My tips from having done this twice now, and seeing other people do it, are:

1- Beyond your own speech, work out with the couple how you'd like to have the ceremony structured. Make sure everyone's on the same page.
2- Make it a story. If you've been asked to officiate then you probably know the couple very well, so you can map out the story of their love in an engaging way
3- Be funny of course, but it's not a standup routine. Rein it in a bit. Keep the focus on the couple. No one's there to see The Trag Show.
4- Rehearse it a lot. Cue cards are useful, but don't read the whole thing. If you can give your speech in a way that seems extemporaneous it's a lot cooler than if you're reading verbatim from a piece of paper.
5- Keep it tight. 10 minutes is the sweet spot.
6- Maybe it's corny but I like to include a moment where I ask the couple to turn around and face the guests, so they can see all the different people who've come together to celebrate their union and really take it all in. It's a poignant moment and it makes the guests feel part of it.

bodysnatcher wrote:

Jorge wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Jorge I have to officiate a wedding in 2024. Any tips?

My tips from having done this twice now, and seeing other people do it, are:

1- Beyond your own speech, work out with the couple how you'd like to have the ceremony structured. Make sure everyone's on the same page.
2- Make it a story. If you've been asked to officiate then you probably know the couple very well, so you can map out the story of their love in an engaging way
3- Be funny of course, but it's not a standup routine. Rein it in a bit. Keep the focus on the couple. No one's there to see The Trag Show.
4- Rehearse it a lot. Cue cards are useful, but don't read the whole thing. If you can give your speech in a way that seems extemporaneous it's a lot cooler than if you're reading verbatim from a piece of paper.
5- Keep it tight. 10 minutes is the sweet spot.
6- Maybe it's corny but I like to include a moment where I ask the couple to turn around and face the guests, so they can see all the different people who've come together to celebrate their union and really take it all in. It's a poignant moment and it makes the guests feel part of it.

also be sure to emphasize that "serve and obey" part, trag

Carl Sandburg wrote:There is a wolf in me . . . fangs pointed for tearing gashes . . . a red tongue for raw meat . . . and the hot lapping of blood—I keep this wolf because the wilderness gave it to me and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fox in me . . . a silver-gray fox . . . I sniff and guess . . . I pick things out of the wind and air . . . I nose in the dark night and take sleepers and eat them and hide the feathers . . . I circle and loop and double-cross.

There is a hog in me . . . a snout and a belly . . . a machinery for eating and grunting . . . a machinery for sleeping satisfied in the sun—I got this too from the wilderness and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fish in me . . . I know I came from salt-blue water-gates . . . I scurried with shoals of herring . . . I blew waterspouts with porpoises . . . before land was . . . before the water went down . . . before Noah . . . before the first chapter of Genesis.

There is a baboon in me . . . clambering-clawed . . . dog-faced . . . yawping a galoot's hunger . . . hairy under the armpits . . . here are the hawk-eyed hankering men . . . here are the blonde and blue-eyed women . . . here they hide curled asleep waiting . . . ready to snarl and kill . . . ready to sing and give milk . . . waiting—I keep the baboon because the wilderness says so.

There is an eagle in me and a mockingbird . . . and the eagle flies among the Rocky Mountains of my dreams and fights among the Sierra crags of what I want . . . and the mockingbird warbles in the early forenoon before the dew is gone, warbles in the underbrush of my Chattanoogas of hope, gushes over the blue Ozark foothills of my wishes—And I got the eagle and the mockingbird from the wilderness.

O, I got a zoo, I got a menagerie, inside my ribs, under my bony head, under my red-valve heart—and I got something else: it is a man-child heart, a woman-child heart: it is a father and mother and lover: it came from God-Knows-Where: it is going to God-Knows-Where—For I am the keeper of the zoo: I say yes and no: I sing and kill and work: I am a pal of the world: I came from the wilderness.

bodysnatcher wrote:

Jorge wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:Jorge I have to officiate a wedding in 2024. Any tips?

My tips from having done this twice now, and seeing other people do it, are:

1- Beyond your own speech, work out with the couple how you'd like to have the ceremony structured. Make sure everyone's on the same page.
2- Make it a story. If you've been asked to officiate then you probably know the couple very well, so you can map out the story of their love in an engaging way
3- Be funny of course, but it's not a standup routine. Rein it in a bit. Keep the focus on the couple. No one's there to see The Trag Show.
4- Rehearse it a lot. Cue cards are useful, but don't read the whole thing. If you can give your speech in a way that seems extemporaneous it's a lot cooler than if you're reading verbatim from a piece of paper.
5- Keep it tight. 10 minutes is the sweet spot.
6- Maybe it's corny but I like to include a moment where I ask the couple to turn around and face the guests, so they can see all the different people who've come together to celebrate their union and really take it all in. It's a poignant moment and it makes the guests feel part of it.

also be sure to emphasize that "serve and obey" part, trag

Bammer wrote:

Jorge wrote:My brother just asked me to officiate at his wedding in Ireland, I am so stoked

Was this in doubt? Seems like a mortal lock kind of thing.

Monkey_Driven wrote:Whiny, teething toddler. Story of the past three days. Had a lovely family dinner at a local burger place though.

Jorge wrote:

Bammer wrote:

Jorge wrote:My brother just asked me to officiate at his wedding in Ireland, I am so stoked

Was this in doubt? Seems like a mortal lock kind of thing.

His fiancee's family is very Irish Catholic so I assumed they'd want to go with something more traditional. It was a nice surprise to be asked

Bammer wrote:Just jammed out on drums to the first three songs from Dirt

Bammer wrote:Just jammed out on drums to the first three songs from Dirt

Bammer wrote:Just jammed out on drums to the first three songs from Dirt