Images of Broken Light

Since most of the hits from my site come from the Best Mans Speech I wrote for Richard’s wedding, I thought this makes me totally qualified to write on “How to write a Best Man’s speech”. Here goes.

Firstly, there is no point in using a canned speech, except maybe as a guide on how to structure the piece. The best Best Man’s Speeches are those that are unique to the individual groom, and need to reflect this as such. There is no point in putting funny stuff from other speeches just because they are funny - they need to contain more than a hint of truth.

Secondly, the speech should not be over long - everyone has heard stories of best mans speeches that lasted an hour. Lets face it, no one wants to listen to you rambling on for that long - they want to celebrate. I would say that anything up to 10 minutes is acceptable, anything over that, and it better be good material. On the other hand you want to give an account of the groom, so anything shorter than 2 minutes is likely to be too short - just as you’re getting warmed up, its all over.

With regard to content, remember that the audience includes the bride, as well as very likely family on both sides of varying ages, so being too crude is likely to alienate some of them, as well as having kids asking questions of their parents later. You need to portray the groom as honestly, and with a touch of humour, as possible. On the other hand you may want include some references to things the groom has done in the past, without being an outright character assassin.

I regret that I cannot offer specific advice on what should be included, save for one thing that is a bit of a no-no. Do not mention anything about the wedding itself, save for the obvious things like how nice the bridesmaids look, and thank you all for coming. Anything further, and your tongue may run away with your brain, and you may offend the brides parents, the grooms parents, and any number of associated aunties and uncles. Specifically, do not mention money, unless you are absolutely sure it is nothing to do with the wedding.

I have only really scratched the surface here, so feel free to add your own comments on this.