By: Jared WilmersYou’re the best man and now it’s your task to come up with the best of best man wedding speeches. Now what? This might be the first time you've ever had to do something like this before and (of course only on the inside) your knees go rubbery just thinking of having to face a whole crowd of people. How on earth are you going to come up with a decent discourse and make it sound smart, witty and even funny? Maybe you have given one of those best man wedding speaches before and it really went down the tubes. You stood up in front of your audience and froze. None of the carefully crafted words you had in mind resurfaced when you needed them most. You came up with nothing, or you got frazzled and picked the wrong anecdote and now you're still not quite welcome back at that groom's mother's house.
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I’ve been there, done that (and not in a splendid way the first time around, believe me). Where do you come up with the self-assurance to make a speech in front of a large audience? Well first of all, make sure you got your facts straight and written down, do a little bit of homework. You may have a tremendous memory and among friends come up with the funniest things to say, but when you stand in front of a crowd (which is hardly anybody's comfort zone) nothing will just come out of your sleeve to save the day, not in my experience at least. Have a conversation with some people close to you about your common past and you can be pretty sure some heartwarming and funny memories from the long forgotten past will resurface.
Now before I'll jump into the "how" section, just keep in mind: A good speech is concise and to the point. At a wedding usually several speeches will be given and nobody wants to listen to someone rambling on and on. Five to ten minutes would be great. I have found that structuring your speech helps a lot to get from A to E without going through L, M, N, O, P. What do I mean? Well, write down a few points that need mentioning:
- An introduction: who you are and why you are doing the speech, short and to the point.
- A Beginning: What a wonderful couple the bride and groom make and what makes them so. Take your time there.
- A Middle Part: Where you fill things out with some anecdotes and memories to describe the groom in vivid color (funny is always good).
- Winding down: With a projection of the couple’s wonderful future. Short and sweet.
- A Closing: Use a witty toast and make the guests laugh.
This gives you a map to follow. Without a structure you may splash around aimlessly in the shadowy waters of memories; some excellent to be shared, some best forgotten. Pick out the the memories you thing best to use and make the groom come out as the knight in shining armour. You just can’t go wrong there. It's not a bad idea to practice with somebody. You could start out reading it out loud a few times and re-write any stumbling blocks in your speech patterns, then ask a friend to listen to you a couple of times. You will get more fluent this way. Take your notes with you, just in case you freeze, it'll help your confidence.
This is your best friend's wedding and you're going to make this day even more special by dazzling them with one of the best wedding speeches for the best man mankind has heard so far.
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