How long is a 750 word speech?

A 750 word speech takes exactly 5 minutes at an average speaking pace of 150 words per minute. Read it at 130, the pace emotion actually produces, and it runs 5 minutes 46 seconds. At a fast 170 it is over in 4 minutes 25 seconds. Toasts and eulogies almost always land on the slow end, because you pause, the room reacts, and you stop to collect yourself. Plan for six minutes in the room.

What fits in 750 words

This length is the wedding toast and the eulogy.

Seven hundred fifty words carries two stories, or one story told with real detail. A toast at this length has room for how you met, the moment that shows who they are, and what you want for them. A eulogy has room for one full memory plus the quality it illustrates. Add a third story and yours becomes the speech people check their phones through.

A structure that fits

1. 1Who you are, 50 to 70 words. Your relationship in one line, then straight into the first image. 'I met Daniel in a laundromat in 2011, and he was ironing a shirt he had already ironed.'
2. 2The story, 300 to 350 words. One scene with a date, a place, and dialogue. Specific detail is what makes a room believe you knew the person.
3. 3The quality it proves, 150 to 200 words. Name the trait the story demonstrates, then give one small second example of it.
4. 4Turn to the present, 100 to 130 words. For a toast, what this means for the marriage. For a eulogy, what the room keeps.
5. 5Raise the glass or close, 40 to 60 words. One sentence, then the toast line. Say their names.

Before you deliver it

Five minutes is long enough that memorizing it will fail you under emotion, so carry a card with the five beats and the first line of each. Practice the story out loud with one person listening, because that is how you discover which two details need to go. Rehearse the close on its own ten times. That is the part that breaks when your voice does.