Its time to time the Speeches! A Wedding Speechstake is great fun for a table of friends at a wedding reception and also a wonderful conversation starter and ice breaker at a table where guests might not know each other.
The idea is very simple - each person at the table guesses the duration of the wedding speeches and the person whose guess is closest to the actual time wins the Speechstake.
To play, the iPhone is passed around the table so each guest can enter their name and their guess at the duration of the speeches. A player can also simply shake the iPhone to generate a random guess. The timer is started once the speeches start and the Speechstake will chart the fortunes of each players guess as time elapses.
It is customary to time all the speeches (i.e from the first to the last word spoken). Alternatively, it might be decided to just time the Best Mans speech. The important thing is that everybody at the table knows what is being timed before the guessing begins. Contestants might decide to award a prize to the person with the closest guess, or a forfeit to the person with the worst guess. It is possible to add new names and guesses once the timer has started, but changing an existing guess while the speeches are in progress is definitely considered bad form!
There is no upper limit to the number of people who can play the Wedding Speechstake, but it is better played as a bit of fun around individual tables, rather than becoming a larger event that dominates the actual business of the day!