Hiring a Toastmaster

Expecting more than 50 people to attend your wedding? Then you should consider hiring a professional toastmaster - a trained official who can help ensure your wedding day runs smoothly. However willing and eager your best man and bridesmaids are to help, a big wedding is always best served by getting a pro to make announcements and call guests to order.

Once you've appointed your toastmaster, have a meeting to introduce him/her to your key friends and family, and run through the guestlist to check spellings and correct pronunciation of names. And let the toastmaster know exactly where the wedding will be held, so there aren't any last-minute delays.

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It's also important to discuss payment and get it settled ahead of time, to avoid any disagreements on the day! And introduce your toastmaster to staff at the venue, such as the banqueting manager, so that all the officiators can work together.

Give your toastmaster careful instuctions about who to thank and when, so that your parents get a graceful acknowledgement and nobody feels left out. Keep him/her up to date on changes in the guest list, or in your own personal circumstances, to make sure that no one is omitted from the rollcall and those who will be absent on the day either get a name check or are struck off the list of thankyous.

Let your toastmaster orchestrate your day like an experienced actor, so that speech follows speech and guests are kept up to date on what's coming next. Relax and sit back!

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To see all our other wedding planning articles, click here and for all our style hints and tips on how to make sure that you and your bridesmaids look gorgeous as well as advice on how to make your big day go smoothly, click on our wedding information pages. We are adding to them all the time so make sure you visit us again.

And if this has whet your appetite for all things gorgeous, click here to browse Henry Kaye's complete range of stunning wedding shoes (for brides and bridesmaids alike), elegant bridesmaid dresses, stylish boy's formalwear and pageboy outfits and exquisite wedding bags and wedding accessories.