It’s a no-win situation. He wants me to react emotionally and lose my shit, so he can invoke disciplinary procedure. I won’t rise to that challenge, but staying calm and rational provokes him to try harder for a reaction.
… and then when my bereavement counsellor died, I didn’t know which way to turn.
I had a very similar situation but instead of getting into it and hijacking the thread, to stay on point I like the recommendations to practice aloud, BREATHE as posted upthread, and if needed to bite the inside of one’s cheek.
At my second wedding 15 years ago, as I stood at the front of the church full of family and friends, when my beautiful bride was about to enter from the back of the church, I was overcome with emotions and I could feel the tears start to well up in my eyes. Everyone in the pews was facing front, facing me and my groomsmen. I did not want to start tearing up and then I would need to very visibly and obviously wipe the tears from my eyes. I definitely did not want to do that, so I had to think quickly. I imagined myself in my military uniform (I was wearing a tux) and thought, hey Bullitt if you were standing here in your Dress Blues there’s no way you’d lose your military bearing in front of these people. That, and biting down hard on the inside of my cheek, and I held it together.
But the OP is giving a presentation so it might be impossible to bite the inside of the cheek while talking. Can the OP hold something small and hidden that, if squeezed hard enough, would be uncomfortable and be bordering on pain? The discomfort is meant to distract the OP from the emotions if they’re about to well. You don’t want anything sharp enough to cut the skin. Bleeding would be a major presentation fail.
Yeah, fair enough.
For fear of public speaking, it’s mostly about doing it over and over, again and again, until it’s normal. Talking to a thousand people is no different really to talking to ten people. Unless you really are in a situation where the audience could rise up as an angry mob, there is nothing to fear.
Having an outline plan that you don’t need to memorise helps - just bullet points - I tend to write them as questions to myself - then if I have to refer to the cards, I am automatically in ‘answer’ mode.
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It is ok to cry and show emotion. People will understand. It is ok!
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Practice many times in front of some friends and neighbors. That should reduce the amount of crying.
3 - Look past/slightly over the people to a point in space. I have had to speak at a lot of funerals and I find that if I don’t see others crying or trying not to there is less of a chance of getting set off myself.
I don’t keep my onions in the fridge, but I do cut near the fume/exhaust hood. 
Thank you everyone; I greatly appreciate all the feedback. It seems that rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal is a valuable technique and I like the idea of (subtly) looking past anyone’s eyes/soul.
And I want to mention Bullitt’s post because, just like his situation, the presentation I have to give is (full disclosure) my wedding vows. I chose to be vague with my OP in an effort to keep the responses –more or less- objective.
In clarification, I’m okay getting a little teary through the thing, though (selfishly) I’d rather not. But I do want to have the composure to say my vows because parts of them have been written with specific pauses and intonations. I fear that some of the message would be lost when getting choked-up prevents me from reciting as planned or mis-speaking/pronouncing. But maybe having these specific *plans *will help keep me focused on the task instead of the feeling.
Additionally, maybe if I bawl my eyes out at the sight of her entering the room, then by the time it’s my turn to speak the feelings will be more familiar and less powerful.
A trick I was told is that when you first feel like you are going to tear up clear your throat and it short circuits the reaction. I have not had the occasion to test this trick.
ISTM that anyone who would care that a groom getting teary saying his wedding vows doesn’t understand what a wedding is. It might be kind of touching, if you don’t fall down in a faint or something.
TMI -
The last time I - well, not cried, but got choked up to the point of not being able to speak was when I was leading worship at my church. The Gospel was about forgiving your enemies and praying for them.
My son served a tour in Iraq. During that tour, the Iraqi insurgents attacked his base and killed my son’s best friend, and two other soldiers. (My son did the eulogy during the memorial service.) During the weeks and months that followed, my son met many times with his company chaplain to process what had happened. and eventually, my son began to pray for those who had tried to kill him, and did kill his best friend. And as part of that, my son asked me to pray for them as well.
So I did, during the prayer part of the service I led. Or at least I tried. But despite my practice, when I came to the part where I was going to ask the Lord to bless those who tried to kill my son, I choked up and couldn’t speak. As I was standing there stammering and trying to force out the words, my pastor came up on one side and one of my good friends at church came up and stood beside me at the altar and each took one of my hands, and I took a deep breath and started over and I managed to get it out.
And after worship was over I had several people come up to me and lay hands on me and prayed with me the same prayer. No one seemed to mind my emotions during the worship - no one is going to mind if you get emotional during your wedding.
Congratulations on your wedding, and best wishes to you both for your future happiness.
Regards,
Shodan
Thanks to the OP for causing my Simply Red ear-worm.
Understood. I hear you. However if you want to deliver your lines eloquently, clearly, and with sincerity, and as the OP stated with a specific rhythm and timing, you do not want to be overcome with emotions. You are, like it or not, on a stage of sorts and your family, friends and loved ones are there to witness you exchanging your vows and making your forever promises.
If, however, the tide of emotions flows and you struggle to speak, let alone be heard, you bungle the one and only opportunity to deliver those special lines in that moment.
Different strokes for different folks, but I wanted to be in control and deliver a heartfelt message that my bride, and all present, could hear and understand. It sounds like that is somewhat similar to what the OP wants.
I had forgotten about Simply Red. I mean, completely forgotten. You’re all welcome for the earworm.
Shodan, thanks for sharing. Reading it helped me to purge some tears this morning 
Also, thank you for the kind words. I found a good one and both our lives are fuller as we come together.
Today’s the big day. My bride is so happy that just knowing of her joy brings emotion to the surface. My presentation will be tough, but I couldn’t be more accepting of the challenge. Though the admirations will be prose, I decided to craft a little song for the vows and sing them to her. I may ask the groomsmen for some harmonizing… still on the fence there.
I’ve been practicing the tune aloud/alone for the last couple of days, and today i tried it in front of my family. The first run didn’t go so well, but subsequent runs went better. None of them were dry, ha! Thanks again for all the support and advice.
It’s easy to turn a Simply Red ear-worm into a Steely Dan ear-worm.
Reeley.