How to Write an Epic Best Man Speech

Congrats! You’ve been bestowed with the honor of standing as best man in your best friend’s wedding. This means, you guessed it, you’ve got to give the best man speech! A wedding speech that will stand the test of time and be remembered fondly decades down the road.

 

 

Well, you’re here because you’re probably looking for a little bit of inspiration for writing an epic best man speech, right? You’ve been searching for “speech for wedding” and “best man speech” and getting that overwhelmed sick feeling in the pit of your stomach? Have you been banging your head against a wall trying to come up with that “Aha!” moment to write about? Have no fear. We got you. 

 

 

 

We want you to be confident in your abilities to deliver an epic best man speech. So we’ve got a few tips in order for you to knock your best man speech out of the park.

 

 

Prepare

 

 

Don’t underestimate the importance of preparation. The best wedding speeches require a solid amount of preparation. Preparation is key to making a killer wedding speech. If you don’t know where to begin, start with an outline, and go from there. Don’t wait until the last minute before drawing up an outline or writing your best man speech. As much as you want to drag your feet on this--you’ll be relieved if you just put in the time ahead of time and get it done.

 

 

Opening

 

 

Start with a snappy opening sentence. Every memorable best man speech starts with a witty opening. You can throw in a joke or poke fun at speakers who went before you or it’s pretty safe to say anyone in the wedding party is fair game.

 

 

Introduction

 

 

Introduce yourself. Don’t forget to introduce yourself--including your name, and how you know and are related to the bride and groom. So many speeches given by members of the wedding party often forget introductions. 

 

 

Forgetting an introduction leads to people not paying full attention to the speech and trying to figure out who the speaker is. 

 

 

Storytime 

 

 

This is where you tell a memorable story--maybe when the groom introduced you to his future wife, and how you knew she was the one or embarrassing anecdotes from your college days.

 

 

Keep it light-hearted and funny, and you’ll be good to go.

 

 

Be careful not to ramble or tell too many inside jokes. You’ll lose your audience.

 

 

Congratulate the Newlyweds

 

 

Before passing off the mic, don’t forget to congratulate the newlyweds and propose a toast! Need ideas on toasts for weddings? Click here for some of our favorites. “Cheers to the happy bride and groom!”

 

Confidence

 

 

We can’t reiterate this one enough, you have to have confidence! If you’re nervous about goofing up what you’re going to say or saying the wrong thing, just stop! According to The Knot magazine, a best man speech should be no more than 5 minutes, which is practically no time at all. That’s less time than it will take someone to walk up to the bar and get a drink. Even if you don’t feel confident, you can project confidence for 5 minutes.

 

 

Think about a time when you felt super confident, it could be anything--hitting a hole-in-one, nailing a job interview, giving a presentation in college, 6th grade spelling bee--whatever it was, think back to that time and channel that energy.

 

Practice

 

 

Practice makes perfect. Practice your speech in front of the mirror and once you’re comfortable and feel ready, move on to a real live audience. This will help you iron out any one-liners that may have sounded good in your head but out loud they could fall flatter than a Kansas-sized pancake….ba dum chhh.

 

Being a best man is an incredible honor, it’s right up there with being knighted by the Queen of England or winning an Oscar! The role comes with many duties, depending on the groom--he might have you help him choose a grooms wedding band, decide on tuxes for the groomsmen, run errands, pick up floral arrangements, help plan the rehearsal dinner, or a number of other things. There’s no doubt about it though, giving the best man speech is the most important...right up there next to getting him to church on time for the wedding ceremony. 

 

 

 

 

Ready for the big day?

  

 

We know your going to knock it out of the park for your wedding speech! If you're stuck on helping the bride and groom plan more wedding details and need to help get the creative juices flowing - check out these 80s wedding trends we've been loving. 

 

 

As always, if you have any questions just ask, that’s what we’re here for. You can email us at info@foxtrotbands.com or fill out our contact us form and someone on our team will be in touch within 24 hours. 

 

 

  

We’ll make sure you receive the perfect tungsten ring and top-notch customer service we pride ourselves on.

 

 

 

-Foxtrot Team