Give the Perfect Toast Raise your glass to learning how to give a memorable salutation
Being asked to present a toast is both a great honor and a very serious responsibility. Your words need to be meaningful, memorable, and heartfelt. To make your toast epic, it needs humor. To keep the audience happy, it needs to be brief. By Bill Lindsey
4 Donât Add Alcohol
1 Keep It Brief Weâve all seen toasts given in movies and on television. They can be succinct, uplifting, and inspiring. Or they can seem to go on forever, with a litany of bad jokes and much more personal information than you care to know. Vanessa Van Edwards, author of âCaptivate: The Science of Succeeding With Peopleâ said to keep it punchy. According to Van Edwards, an audience decides if they enjoy the toast or not within the first seven seconds.
ENDAI HUEDL/GETTY IMAGES
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Drunk toasting is just as bad as drunk texting, but with a much wider audience. If it takes a few drinks to loosen your inhibitions so you can speak in front of an audience, you might want to politely decline. Humor is another potential pitfall. Not everyone can tell a joke well in normal conversations, so they shouldnât try to do so in a toast. However, if youâre naturally funny, keep the material clean and inoffensive.
No Surprises, Please!
There certainly are people who can deliver a legendary toast on demand, but most of us need to prepare in advance. Consider the event and who will be in attendance. If youâre presenting a toast to newlyweds with several generations of their family in attendance, take care to not offend anyone with information thatâs too personal. Grandma doesnât need to know what her favorite grandson did in Cabo on spring break or that her sweet granddaughter has a secret tattoo.
5 Donât Read It
3 Make It About Them, Not You
A toast is a performance, so make sure the audience enjoys it. Tell an engaging story about the person or people being honored. Hereâs an example: âGriselda is much more than my big sisterâsheâs my personal hero and makes everything an adventure. When she taught me how to drive, she borrowed Momâs car without telling herâsorry, Momâand taught me how to parallel park and do donuts. Letâs lift a glass to her on this happy day!â
Even the most gifted public speakerâs voice takes on a monotonous tone when reading aloud, negating any charisma you may normally exude as your stories or jokes fall flat. Any toast thatâs too long to be memorized and that must be written down is a toast thatâs too long. An index card with one- or twoword bullet points can keep you on track. Find friendly eyes in the audience and speak to them from your heart.
I N S I G H T â December 24 â 30, 2021ââ 61
