How to create and incorporate a slideshow for your best man speech

Whether you’re a fan of public speaking or not, giving a best man’s speech can be a little daunting. As well as having the undivided attention of a room full of people, you have to make sure that you do the groom justice and, ideally, get a few laughs from the assembled guests along the way.

A great way to relieve some of the pressure is to have a few props to hand. As a picture is famously worth a thousand words, a slideshow is a great way to enrich your speech and bring your words to life. Plus, while everyone is chuckling at the pictures, you can take a deep breath and get ready for the next sentence.

Select your photos

Unless you’re a keen snapper yourself, you’ll probably need to ask the bride and groom’s friends and family to send in some photos. To make sure the slideshow remains a surprise, it’s a good idea to contact a few people directly rather than send out a mass email. Ask parents, siblings and the couples’ oldest friends to have a look through their hard drives and photos albums to find the perfect images.

Optimise your photos

In all likelihood, the photos that you receive are going to be in a variety of different sizes and formats. Before you can insert them into your slideshow, you need to adjust the images to make sure they’re all roughly the same size and quality. As @lifewire says “Optimize photos by adjusting both visual size and file size. This will improve the appearance of your presentation, preventing pictures from being too large and cut off.” Use Photoshop or another online photo editor to prepare and edit your images.

Choose a programme

Most slideshows are made using PowerPoint. Fairly easy to navigate and straightforward to use, PowerPoint allows you to click through your photos one by one, giving you control over when each image appears. This is ideal if you’re going to use the images as punchlines to jokes or describe the situation taking place before the image appears. If you just want the slideshow running in the background as you’re giving your speech, there are a number of slideshow programmes and apps to choose from.

Test your tech

Testing your tech before the big day is essential if you’re going to avoid any hiccups. Ideally, you should try to test everything in situ. If the soon-to-be-weds have access to the venue the day before, this could give you the perfect opportunity to test your tech and practice your speech. If not, you’ll have to do a run through at home and then put everything together on the big day itself.

Practice your speech

Last but definitely not least, you need to practice your speech. Once you’ve put the slideshow together, go through your speech slowly, clicking through the images as you go. Make sure the photos are in the right order and that you know exactly when to move onto the next one. The more you practice, the better you’ll be on the day.

Illustrating your best man’s speech with photos is a fantastic way to enhance your stories and bring your words to life. Find more tips for planning an unforgettable wedding by exploring our site today.

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Linda

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E: info@gosfield-hall.co.uk

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