Wedding Speeches and Toasts
Jeffery
1971
Another “how to make a speech book”, this time from the UK. In the days before the Internet, this was actually a pretty common question at the reference desk. I remember when our library had lots of these types of books. We also had a bunch of books on delivering a eulogy or writing a condolence note. Aside from the age of these kind of materials, I am not sure these have a book equivalent anymore. I think most people are heading to a Pinterest board or Googling for answers. Consider this an artifact from the old days.
Mary
Was this copy printed in the 80s? If this is a 1971 edition I imagine the cartoon on page 55 would depict a typewriter. Instead the guy is using a desktop computer and printer that wouldn’t have existed in 1971.
I thought the cover looked more eighties than seventies as well
Even better, this edition (complete with a 13-digit barcode ISBN on the back), is from 1993.
I am _not_ the only one who thought the title on the cover was _Weeding_ Speeches and Toasts.
Most of the weddings I go to are pretty low-key affairs, but I can’t imagine someone giving a speech that lasted 4 or 5 minutes (p. 54). That doesn’t sound like much, but it is an eternity for an inexperienced speaker.
Also, most of those “unconventional” toasts on p. 69 are awkward and incomprehensible. “Men when they are boys, boys when they are men?” What? “He is leaving us for a better life, but we are not leaving him?” They sound like they’ve been translated from another language or something.