The Best Man Speech Guide

First of all, congratulations! You have been chosen to be the best man, with great power comes great responsibility. From planning the crazy, unforgettable stag do, helping the groom prepare for the wedding, killing it on the dance floor with your moves and of course writing that all important best man speech.

What Makes a Great Best Man Speech?
Whether you are the groom’s longest and best friend or your writing the best man speech as a brother there are certain paths that everyone goes down when it comes to putting pen to paper and getting their speech together. You want to make your speech captivating, funny, engaging, emotional and perfect for the newlyweds.
In this blog post we are going to give you a guide on how to structure your best man speech and some topics to avoid.

How to Structure a Best Man Speech

Not many of us are natural speech writers or deliverers. This might actually be the very first speech you’ve ever been asked to do. Don’t panic, plenty of other best men have been in your shoes before. Take a look at some of our key points to minimize pre-speech jitters and ensure a smooth delivery of your speech.

 

Number One: Opening Line
To get your audience on your side from the off, start your speech with a strong and amusing opening line! A good old way to get guests on your side is to mention how you’re feeling about the speech or what you’ve been feeling in the run-up to delivering a speech. The audience will immediately have empathy for you and be willing you to do well!

Number Two: Introducing Yourself/Relation to the Groom
You will need to let the audience know who you are and how you met the groom. If you’ve got a funny story about how you met, bring it out now, this is the perfect opportunity for a bit of banter and roasting.

Number Three: Friendship Reminisces
Give us a little throwback in time, a few things to consider mentioning in this part is…

• How long you’ve known each other
• Your first impressions
• Your favourite and or funniest memory
• Your reaction to when he proposed
  
  

Number Four: The Praise
Pay tribute to the star of the show! No, not you the groom. This is where you can get sentimental, tell the audience what a great friend he is, how honoured you are to be the best man and how the groom inspires you. You can even explain why the groom will be good husband material, have fun with it and make it a laugh!


Number Five: The Bride and Groom
It’s time to talk about the other love in his life. His new bride and how he met her. Talk about how they met, how you met her and how the groom was all smitten and in love. This is another chance to make fun of him for being soppy or behaving out of character. This is also part of the speech where you can be a bit more serious and you can talk about how amazing the bride is and how happy she makes your best friend. You could even thank the bride for making the groom so happy. Maybe offer some advice to the bride and groom, keep it light-hearted and funny.


Number Six: The Best Man Toast
You’ll be glad to hear it’s almost over, this is the final element of the best man speech at this point all your nerves should be gone and you’ll be well and truly at ease with public speaking by now. What’s best to do is to quickly summarise the key points from your speech and end it with a heartfelt toast to the newlyweds. Start with a few hopes and well wishes for the couple and then invite the wedding guests to stand and join you in raising a toast to the happy couple.

Topics to Avoid

There are a few topics to avoid from the best man speech. In the audience there's bound to be someone who's offended or put off if you mention any of the following…

1.  Negativity about marriage in general.
2. Past relationships.
3. Previous marriages/divorces.
4. Drinking, drugs, gambling.
5. “Adult" humour or any other mention of sex.
   
   

Now you’re all ready to go! It’s time to read the speech to yourself, make changes and perfect it, all in time and ready for the big day. Also, a good idea is to ask someone to listen to your speech and give you honest feedback. Don’t choose anyone too close to the bride or groom as they will want to hear it for the first time on the wedding day. Another groomsman or someone going on the stag do would work well.

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