Meet many a groom or Best Man’s fear…..the microphone!
Unless you work in entertainment or enjoy a good session of Karaoke every once in a while, the chances are you’ve never actually used a microphone before for anything so serious as the speeches on your wedding day.
Believe it or not, many grooms would actually prefer not to use the microphone for making the speech, and for smaller gatherings that’s not too much of a problem.
However….picture the typical wedding of around 100 afternoon guests.
You’ll have no doubt visited your reception venue before the day and realised that your voice sounds quite loud and should probably project from the top table to the back of the room. However, what you probably didn’t take into account is that on the day of your wedding, the room will be full of your friends and family, probably various drapes and decorations and a whole host of other things.
Human bodies absorb sound (trust me…it’s one of the reasons you’ll see loudspeakers being “flown” from ceilings in large stadiums and theatres…..to help the sound get from one end of the room to the other).
What sounded like an easy job to project your speech when you visited the venue empty is now going to seem like hard work.
This is where the microphone comes into play to make your life a LOT easier.
It’s a really simple device. There’s no “special” way to use it other than hold it a couple of inches from your mouth and talk into it just like you’d talk to the person sitting next to you. You’ll not need to shout or strain your voice whilst making your speech, meaning you can put more emphasis into what you’re saying and how you say it rather than worrying whether Aunt Mabel can hear from the back of your venue.
It doesn’t necessarily make your voice louder either (or it doesn’t have to). Careful placement of speakers and sound engineering from my side of things can make your speech sound as natural as if you were talking to your best friend, and yes Aunt Mabel WILL be able to hear you.
I’d strongly advise the use of a microphone for your wedding speeches, if only to make your job a little less stressful and a lot easier. You make your all-important speech, and I’ll worry about how the rest of it works.
