Short and casual, and not necessarily a speech. Then why are you so nervous about the thought of making a wedding toast? GroomGroove.com presents some easy ways to get rid of toast jitters.

Most people, confident or not, dread any form of public speaking. It's not the kind of activity most guys perform on a daily basis. Further, you may have put undue pressure on yourself and are determined to deliver the perfect wedding toast. You want the toast to be memorable; you want to make everyone laugh; and you want to make everyone cry. Scratch that - you just want to make it off the podium alive.

Don't fret, here are some key tips that will help ensure that your toast will be a success:

Practice makes perfect. More important than anything else in this article, you need to practice making your wedding toast several times before getting up to make the toast. If there was any doubt, check out our friend in the video to the right. It has to be the most awkward wedding toast published on the Internet for all to see:

Now that we've made that point...

What exactly are you going to say? The words are quite easy. It will be a variation on the following:

Good evening, my name is Michael. I'm the groom, and I'm honored to present a toast to my bride.

{Insert short, classy, anecdote.}

With that, ladies and gentleman, please raise your glasses, and join me in a toast. To the bride!

Not longer than 1-2 minutes (unless the toast becomes a wedding speech), the key part of the speech, and probably the easiest, will be your anecdote. Some key points:

•  No inside jokes. If only 20% of the guests will get it, skip it.

•  No jokes about sexual prowess (or lack thereof), ex-girlfriends, lewdness, police intervention and the like. Save that for the bachelor party roast.

•  Know where the anecdote is going before you start.

•  This is not the time to try to act like your favorite comedian. You'll have a higher success rate if you just be yourself.

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