Best man speech, hints and tips?

task

task

task

Associate
Joined
6 Feb 2007
Posts
1,259
Location
Derbyshire
I've got my younger brothers wedding coming up, on Saturday, as his best man I thought it best I should cobble together a speech.

Having never done this before and not really being one for attending a great number of weddings I've not spent a lot of time listening to speeches, so any tips or tricks?
 
Hard to do, but try and relax. It's one of those situations where, despite what your nerves tell you near the time, the audience is really willing you on and will laugh at pretty much anything you say.
 
A best man speech is fairly straight forward. Just split it into these sections and you should be fine.

1) Welcome and Introduction: introduce yourself, welcome everyone, what an honour it is to be here etc
2) Roasting the groom: A few stories about the groom, you should have plenty. Keep a good mix of humour without offending people too much :P
3) The mushy bit: Give the couple some bad/good advice, and some heartfelt comments on how you feel.
4) The Toast: Finally present the Bride and Groom
5) Drink:.....
6) Profit
7) ??????
 
Give a speech? In public??? *gulp*

"Ladies and gentlemen, what can I say about the bride and groom.... err... LOOK BEHIND YOU, A THREE HEADED MONKEY!!"

jump.gif
 
..... and dave says if I do a good job today as his best man, then I can be best man at his next wedding.
 
Cheers for the tips guys :)

Spooky, my Bro is called Dave...

I'm going to jot a few ideas down during the day and attempt to write something up tonight. Any idea how long a speech is expected to last? I would have thought 3 to 4 mins?
 
Being asked to be best man at a wedding is like being asked to kiss the Queen Mother, it's a real privilege but no one really wants to do it...
 
My brothers wedding on thursday so I feel your pain. Still havent written a speech but have received about 500 warnings to keep it clean - love the next wedding joke above though!
 
I've been a best man twice now and it’s not as hard as you would think. To be honest your get nervous before the speech but once you nail the first few lines it will all become easy, normally the nerves disappear the instant you get your first laugh from one of your jokes. Or at least this is what happened for me.

Good point is that its your brother so depending on the size of your family you will know about half the people in the room. This should help a lot.

Break your speech on to cards. I did a speech from 3 A4 pieces of paper first time and lost my place once or twice. Bullet pointed cards with key words and jokes worked miles better second time around plus you don’t sound like your reading your speech, you sound like your telling the story of your brother who is now lost to a life of DIY and being told what to do lol.

You tube is good for picking a few jokes up but don’t copy the generic speech that is on there you know what i mean as there are like 40 speeches that follow word for word and joke for joke just inserting generic name here or there.

Good Luck
 
I'll be best man for my wife's brother in a couple of weeks. He's been working in America for a good few years now, and the big event is happening in California.
Trouble is, I'm betting all sarcasm and irony will be lost on my audience, AND I don't have any tales of debauchery from his past....:(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom