What To Say In A Best Man Speech

One of the most unnerving activities in which a man can be called to engage, giving a best man speech can be a horrific source of anxiety, or a chance to truly shine. If you are clueless about what to say in a best man speech making best man speeches could be a tall task to accomplish. Best man speeches, when approached properly, are no more difficult to write than a short essay or a letter, and no more difficult to read aloud than the lines of a children's book. With a little thought and a lot of proofreading, any man is capable of creating a best man speech of which both he and the newlywed couple can be proud.

Talking about what to say in a best man speech, the first mistake most people make when approaching their best man speech is to attempt to keep the audience laughing from the first line to the last. Yes, best man speeches are a welcome opportunity for jokes, but there is no need to try out five minutes of stand up comedy. Inserting jokes while making a best man speech is an enterprise that should be undertaken with subtlety, and always bearing in mind that the attention should never stray too far from the married couple. Similarly, if your best man speech is peppered with risqué anecdotes, particularly those stemming from the recent and no doubt traumatizing bachelor party, it might be best to rethink your approach. Remember: When it's funny because it's true, it's also funny because it's small. Best man speeches are not times to call out the bride and groom on their long-standing personality quirks.

What many best men, particularly brothers both of the familial and secret-societal sense, forget about giving a best man speech, is that it is their job as the toast maker to pretend that they believe, for the entirety of the toast, if not the entirety of the wedding, that love does exist and that the marriage will never end. Regardless of his personal opinions on the subjects of love, marriage, the bride, her father, the groom, his ex-girlfriend, the cash bar, or the drunken uncle heckling him from the front row, everything the best men say during their best man speeches should be said toward the purpose of vindicating the relationship everyone is gathered to celebrate.

This puts the best man in a unique position while delivering a best man speech to tell an anecdote just personal enough to show that you know the groom and bride better than most of the other people in the room, just embarrassing enough so that no one suspects you of stretching the truth, and just touching enough to set anxious minds at ease, making the gathered friends and family believe that the bride and groom will be together forever. In short, giving a good, thoughtful, true best man speech can make you the most important supporting player in the wedding. A good goal is to be more memorable than the clergyman, but less memorable than the bride.

When choosing the story that will inevitably constitute the majority of your best man speech, it is important to choose something that occupies a happy medium between schmaltzy love story and raunchy comedy. Setting is important: anything that starts in a restaurant, on a plane, or even in a bar is fair game. Starting the story in a public place eases your audience into your speech. Start with good description; remember, the people listening to your speech will be restless and need to be gradually brought down from a state of drink-fuelled revelry. Leave out any story involving heavy drinking or drugs, and any locations that are less than savory. As far as subject matter, each individual wedding is, of course, different. But a good rule of thumb is that while making a best man speech, one should cater more or less to the most conservative faction of the audience. If the bride's grandfather, for example, is a minister, or voted for Pat Buchanan, the best man speech should be careful to refrain from any story whose elements might offend that particular grandfather.

In conclusion, an honest speech is a good speech. Draft a version a few weeks before the wedding, look it over after a week and draft it again. Do the same thing every day until you have a good, true speech that caters to the specific couple whose wedding you will be making a best man speech at.

Making a best man toast is about saying what you want to say in the most appropriate way. I hope you now have sufficient ideas regarding what to say in a best man speech as well as what not to say in a best man speech. However, if you believe that you need further help you can check this guide book on best man speeches and toasts. And guess what, you'll get excellent pre-written and sample speeches along with it.