Giving a Best Man Speech

So your friend has asked you to be his best man and you now have to prepare yourself since traditionally you should be giving a best man speech during the wedding reception. Well, avoid panic. Stay calm. You will survive this and you will do it in style.

Giving a best man speech confidently would require you to get the speech written at the first place. Writing a good best man speech is the first step in making your best man speech successful. So, let us first discuss how to write a better best man speech and once we are done with the writing we can then move on to discuss about giving a best man speech.

Writing a best man speech is easy once you know where to begin...

The first thing that you need to do is get out a notebook and start writing. Jot down how you met your friend and how you met the bride to be. If there are any experiences that you all share, jot them down next.

Then call up your friend and interview him. Ask him if there is anything that he really wants you to include in your speech. Ask him how he met his fiancé if you do not know those details and any other information that you will need to throw in a little humor, and human interest into your speech. Interview the bride to be as well. Ask her what she hopes that you will include... perhaps a thank you to her parents and to her fiancé's parents might be a good thing to include in your best man speech.

Now, that you have some information about the bride and groom, how they met, experiences that you all share, thank yous, you can write down the wishes you have for them, or the blessings you would like to bestow on them...

Once you have all of these things written down, then look at what you have written and organize it in a way that would make sense as a speech.

If you have access to the internet, you are very lucky as you can actually hear other people's best man speeches, toasts, etc. on the net, Google and You Tube are great for this. You can also Google something like: best wedding toasts and get some ideas.

Once you have come up with a kind, well written best man speech and a toast which will make everyone feel glad that they heard your good words, read it to a friend or two and get their opinion on it. Be open to their suggestions and be willing to do the editing necessary to make the speech flow better. You can also compare your speech with some of the best best man speeches you came across while doing the research.

The editing process will tighten the speech and assist in your process of memorizing it.

Once you have a speech that you and those who you trust to provide you with a good opinion say is a good one, practice saying it in front of the mirror.

Stand straight and tall. Breathe deeply to support your speech to assist with projection. Practice looking around the room as you will be looking around the room when you speak. If eye contact bugs you, prepare to look at a spot on the foreheads of your audience, slightly above the eyes... They will think that you are giving them eye contact ... or talk to various people you know in different locations in the room and provide them with limited eye contact.

Do remember that your job is to make everyone else feel comfortable at the reception ... This knowledge should make giving the best man speech a lot easier as this is really not about you and how you will look or sound. This is about how you will help your audience, and especially your best friend, his wife and their families and all of the rest of the wedding guests feel. Your speech is your gift to everyone so make yourself and them proud.

Again the steps are: Calm down. Interview the bride and groom-to-be. Write the speech including their comments and memories and yours. Make sure there is a thank you in it to their parents, to those who are attending the reception, etc. If you need help with the construction of the speech, use You Tube and Google to do net research. Share what you wrote with trusted friends who speak well. Ask for their help in editing the speech and making it better.

Rehearse the speech in front of a mirror and in front of friends focusing on posture, volume, eye-contact and pronunciation. (Memorization of the speech is desirable but if you cannot do this, then get yourself a sheet of paper type the speech double spaced and bold on the page, use this / symbol to tell yourself where to breathe and if you want to really look professional, you can get a little presentation folder and put that typewritten speech in it and present it to the bride and groom as an additional gift after the reception is over or, if you don't want to go all out, 3 by 5 index cards are okay - they are not recommended though unless you number them and find away to keep them in order as disorganized index cards have ruined many an otherwise good speech.)

Once you have done all of these things, then you are finally ready for giving a best man speech that everybody is going to love and remember for a long time.

Congratulations! Enjoy giving your best man speech!