Rebecca Twomey is good with words. As a journalist, she knows a lot about dating, having written about it for several years. As an interviewer, she’s used to being recorded. But until recently she had never given a wedding speech – and felt all the pressure that comes with it.
In this interview, recorded as research when I was writing A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech, Rebecca remembers in detail how she approached it, what worked (and what didn’t), and explains how she came to be giving what was, in effect, the “father of the bride” speech.
Also in this episode, you can hear the voice of Lorna Milburn, a photographer who – as well as shooting for newspapers and magazines – has covered a lot of weddings. I asked Lorna to tell me what she has particularly noticed about the speeches.
Follow Rebecca and Lorna
Rebecca Twomey on Twitter and / or Instagram
Lorna Milburn on Instagram. (Also, take a look at the stunning photos on Lorna’s wedding site)
More about weddings
As I intended – but forgot – to mention in this episode, I have written several things about weddings, for various publications:
In a piece written long ago for the Financial Times about the wedding industry as a whole, I mentioned the advent of websites (with hyperlinks – ooh!) offering the services of wedding speech writers.
For The Sunday Times, I wrote about an extraordinary increase in sham weddings carried out in unsuspecting churches; and how clergy must be “prepared to tell applicants to bugger off” (as one of them put it) if couples raise suspicions.
For Management Today (or possibly a different business magazine, can’t remember, sorry) I reported the remarkable fact that the UK government’s head of statistics is allowed to conduct weddings.
Recent podcasts
- How To Pull Off A Month-Long Creative Project
- "Everybody needs a jolly good listening to" | Interview with author Wendy Jones
- "I Thought I Didn't Need Supervision" | Interview with Jenny Rogers
- "When I'm On My Deathbed I'll Remember This"
- On The Pleasures Of Copying Out Great Writing By Hand
- A Guide To Being A Coachy Friendy Agenty Kind Of Person
- My First Wedding Speech: blow by blow, by Rebecca Twomey
- "It's A Sin To Bore For Jesus"
- Talking As Therapy, And Just Talking
- "Read It Aloud": an interview with voice artist Kris Dyer
