Hire a pro to write your toast speech

"Toast Whisperers," as they are called, are getting more and more popular in this digital age. We took a deeper look at these companies, to see if they really can make your personal speeches better.

As a former musician, Elliot Cahn is used to being in front of a crowd.  But when his daughter Chloe asked him to speak at her wedding, he knew it was going to be the speech of his life!

"My least favorite thing about giving speeches is my own perfectionism," Elliot said. 

Elliot wanted to make his speech unique.  He decided to do a joint speech with the father of the groom.

"I had this idea of Dean and Sammy.  I also thought a couple of tears would be ok. Definitely didn't want to embarrass my daughter, or the groom." 

Elliot knew he needed some help.  He had read about a ghostwriting service, and called them up! 

"Vow Muse is a service that helps people who know how they feel, but don't know maybe how to say how they feel," Alicia Ostarello, Co-founder and writer of Vow Muse explained.

Longtime friends Alicia Ostarello and Angie Sommer started vow muse about five years ago.  They say one of the most important parts of the process of speech writing is an initial consultation, where they get to learn all about the person giving the speech and the people the speech is about. 

"Hearing them talk, what kind of words they use, what kind of cadence they have," Angie Sommer explained.

Angie and Alicia have written speeches for all kinds of events, not just weddings.  Although they admit at times, some of the requests can be a challenge.

"It was a best man who wanted to roast his brother, and it was mean.  Kind of.  He wanted it to be funny and roasting but that's not typically what wedding speeches are," Sommer said. 

You may ask, why would a person hire someone to write a personal speech?  Sociologist Lisa Wade says she is not surprised by this growing trend. 

"I think people that purchase a speech for an event might want to impress others, and that drives them to do it," according to Wade.

Wade says social media may add to some of the pressure to make a speech perfect.

"Social Media has definitely ratcheted up the expectation that other people will see everything we do.. so more and more people are thinking about how to show their daily lives on social media." 

Alicia admits there's a stigma when it comes to asking for help with personal writing, but she feels that is changing.

"The process of writing is not easy, and I think it's ok to admit that and ask for help," she said. 

Elliot says his speech turned out great.

"I had quite a few people come up to me and say 'God that was good.'  Chloe seemed happy, she was smiling a lot, and Alex seemed very happy, and that of course was the most important thing to me," he told us.

Vow muse offers a range of speech-writing options and costs vary depending on the package you choose. There are several other ghostwriting services like Vow Muse available online as well.