As a Melbourne Wedding Videographer we see a lot of best man speeches. Some good, some…no so good and some that are just fantastic. This combined with the fact that I have been the best man at a couple of weddings myself I thought why not share some tips for the best man speech.

1. Plan your speech

Very rarely have I seen a best man just wing a speech and deliver a master piece.  In fact, I do not think I have ever seen it. Plan you speech so that it flows from one section to the next.  Your speech does not need to be 20 minutes long.  Some of the best speeches we have seen are only 5 minutes.  It is the content that matters.

2. Content

It is a wedding speech, not a 21st birthday speech.  Therefore, try and keep the speech funny yet tasteful.  You want the bride and groom to live happily ever after…so keep that in mind.

3. Practice

The best speeches are not read verbatim off notes.  Regardless how funny it may be on paper, too much is lost when you read directly from a page.  The audience also tend to tune out when they are not engaged which often happens when you read something.  No one likes public speaking so don’t feel as if you are the only person delivering a speech that night that would rather just sit and drink.  The best advice is to be prepared, refine your speech the days leading up to the wedding so that you deliver a killer speech.

4. Bring your drink with you

A best man speech should always include a toast to the new Mr & Mrs.  The number of best men that get up to the lectern and leave their drink behind is phenomenal.  Bring your drink and either put it on the nearest table or give it to the MC to hold for you.  That way, when you are ready to toast you can either quickly grab it or signal for the MC to bring it over to you so that you can give that killer toast at the end of the speech.

5. Icebreakers

A good icebreaker is always handy.  Either picking fun at yourself or making the odd joke or two can give you a few laughs and calm your nerves, allowing you to move on and deliver the important parts of the speech.

Summary

Finally, speak from the heart and you cannot go wrong.  These are just a handful of tips for the aspiring best men out there.  One of our tips could have been do not use Google to find your speech as we have heard them 100 times but what is the fun in that.  If you stumble across the ‘upper hand’ joke on Google and think you will be the first person to ever deliver it….think again (if I had a dollar…).

That said, we leave you now with an example of a speech which we consider to be one of the best best-man speeches we have filmed in recent times.  Jason brought his drink, used a few icebreakers (which actually had us in tears) and clearly had the right balance of content.  He then capped it off with a great toast at the end.  Not sure if he practiced or planned the speech but he certainly nailed it.  Enjoy!