On our wedding day, we had been clear from the start of planning, that we didn’t want a toastmaster for our day. Our main reasons for this was that we considered our day not to be ‘like that’ and that we wanted our guests happy, not shouted at! We have been to a few weddings with a toastmaster and although they were lovely people, they did wind me up as a guest. I don’t like being told what to do at the best of times!
Late last year we went to a wedding fair, along with one of our best men and a bridesmaid (luckily they are a couple!). It was great to go to a wedding fair with one of my bridesmaids, mainly because she held all of my things so I felt like I had a butler, because we were able to get their reactions to suppliers, and not just our own.
Near the end of the wedding fair we were talking with a photographer and I was aware that a Toastmaster was lurking nearby ready to pounce! And pounce he did, however I stopped him short telling him that we weren’t having a toastmaster.
This was a rough idea of his reply:
What do you mean by 'That' kind of a day? You Don't want a Party Atmosphere? You don't want your guests to be enjoying themselves and have big smiles on their faces? Don't be silly, of course you do. what you mean is you don't want your wedding to be overly formal and regimented with an unbearably stuffy atmosphere. Quite right too! it's a celebration you want! We are trained as Toastmasters in all the Protocols for many, strictly Formal occasions including Royal, Civic, Diplomatic, Guild and Livery functions. there are social rules and graces that govern these functions and the toastmaster works closely with this knowledge. But it does not mean that we must bring that formal approach to your wedding, on the contrary, because we know and understand those rules we know why they are there and what they are meant to achieve and we can therefore bend, even break those rules accordingly. My style and approach to your wedding is one that uses a very useful tool... Humour, this disguises almost any amount of formality and gets the job done with far less effort! It is all about you and your day, you tell me how formal you want it, I won't be telling you!
The man himself is Nigel Neve (http://www.nigelneve.co.uk/), who managed to convince all four of us of his talents! It’s fair to say quite a lot of banter was exchanged and Nigel gave as good as he got! Nigel has assured us that he will literally eat his coat if our guests don’t say he was the best money spent at our wedding. Saying that, his coat did look fairly new…
What Nigel managed to do is show us why we wanted a toastmaster at our wedding.
- Support- My groom and his men are wonderful but a helping hand to keep them on track and keep them calm will be immediately calming for me on the big day. Nigel also offers support before the wedding from speeches to getting the timings right for the day.
- Point of contact- I personally, do not want anyone to ask me any questions on our wedding day apart from ‘Do you take this man…’. It will be such a relief for Nigel to be everyone’s beacon of knowledge!
- Character- Having someone such as Nigel, who has lot’s of personality, is a real benefit. We want our guests to have fun and I know that by booking Nigel he will do his utmost to see this happens.
And if it all goes wrong, hopefully we will never know because Nigel will have put his coat on li
ke a cape and come to the rescue!
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