Best Man speeches are often judged by their humor, their wit and the mixture of loving and funny stories that they contain. Another important element is the delivery of the speech, great content is one thing but a mundane speaker will find it difficult to bond with the wedding guests.

As Best Man your jokes need to be funny, your stories heartfelt and your toast uplifting, you also need to ensure you speak for the right amount of time and that you have omitted nobody from the speech. As anyone who has ever given a Best Man speech before will confirm, they are not an easy to master and with that in mind over the next 4 weeks I will be counting down the Top 10 tips for Best Man speeches. We begin our countdown with numbers 10 to 8, in our quest to help you create funny Best Man speeches that will provide memories of a lifetime.

Best Man Speeches Tip Number 10
Create an outline.

Like a good book your speech needs to have a beginning, middle, and end, unstructured speeches that don’t flow in a smooth manner will only end-up confusing the wedding guests, so the importance of working from an outline when creating your speech is essential. From your perspective, once you have your outline plotted, you will find your creative juices begin to flow and the speech-writing process will become less daunting. Your outline should contain some of the following elements;

1) opening lines / intro.
2) welcome everyone.
3) people to thank (here express gratitude to those who have made special efforts in the planning of the wedding).
4) people to praise (people to praise include the Bride, the Bridesmaids, the Bride and Groom’s parents, along with the Groom).
5) short story about the Groom (can be funny or embarrassing just ensure there is nothing too offensive).
6) story about the Groom as a friend.
7) heartfelt story about the Bride and what makes her a special person.
8) loving story about the Bride and Groom.
9) congratulatory toast to end your speech.

Short Best Man jokes and wedding one-liners should also be included at various intervals within your speech.

Best Man Speeches Tip Number 9
Get off to a confident start.

It is normal to feel apprehensive about giving a speech in public particularly a Best Man speech where a lot is expected of you. A great way to build confidence is to begin your speech without referring to your notes whilst smiling and looking directly at the wedding guests. Building a rapport is important and direct eye-contact and a smile will help you attain this. It is unrealistic to expect to deliver your whole speech without referring to your notes however, so do have your cue cards with you, but make sure you have your opening lines memorized to help you engage the audience from the start.

You want to deliver a speech that appeals to everyone so if you are telling a funny story about the Groom and your speech includes a handful of funny jokes then balance your speech out by opening with some serious heartfelt remarks before launching into humor. Don’t try to be too clever when opening your speech, a confident opening will provide you with the perfect platform to deliver your Best Man speech in style.

Best Man Speeches Tip Number 8
Don’t forget to introduce yourself.

While you can expect that the majority of the guests know who you are they may be unsure of your relationship to the Groom, so take a minute to introduce yourself. Refer to your relationship to the Groom here as this allows you one of the first opportunities to add humor to your speech. This humor should expressed as a short one-liner so you can save your longer stories for later in your speech. While introducing yourself, it is also a nice touch, and one that will be appreciated, to include your Groomsmen in your introduction.

Next week we continue through our journey of tips for Best Man speeches by revealing numbers, 7, 6 and 5 in our countdown.

7 Tips For Best Man Speeches.

As anyone who has been Best Man before can confirm, the thoughts of giving a Best Man’s speech can be enough to keep you awake at night with worry. Today’s post looks at 7 tips to help you become a more confident wedding speaker and will enable you to give a Best Man speech that you can be proud of.

1.  It is common for nervous Best Men to speak quicker than normal so take your time when speaking.

2.  Make sure you let everyone know your relationship to the Groom,as there is a chance not everyone at the wedding will be aware of who you are.

3.  Pause for effect, after telling a Best Man joke or after delivering an anecdote, to allow for the wedding guests reaction.

4.  Don’t read your speech, have it written on cue cards and refer to them as you need to, each paragraph should have one word highlighted to serve as as a cue for you when you glance at the card.

5.  Include a section in your speech where you vividly praise the Bride, this will be well-received by all in attendance and should guarantee an immediate round of applause.

6.  Personalize your speech by including a short story about the Groom that not many people will have heard before.

7.  Be aware of the structure of a Best Man speech to help ensure that you don’t omit anyone from your speech.

Once you have written, and rehearsed the important lines of your speech then you will find that those sleepless nights are soon replaced by carefree sound sleeps as you look forward to the wedding and unleashing a powerful Best Man speech.

The Magic Of Using Props In A Best Man Speech.

As regular readers will know I am a great believer in the use of props during Best Man speeches, the right prop combined with a great Best Man speech will have the wedding guests scrambling to their feet in unison celebrating the toast. One of the great advantages of using a prop is that they lighten up speeches and if used correctly can elevate speeches to “legendary” status.

A great way for a Best Man to incorporate a prop into his speech is by announcing that the Groomsmen (mention each of them by name )have bought a gift for the Groom and have asked you to present it, this will not only have the Groom nervously waiting to see what you have in for him it also incorporates the unsuspecting Groomsmen into the joke.

If there are 3 Groomsmen then you need 3 props, one from each of them, it goes without saying that the Groomsmen should be kept in the dark on the prank until it actually takes place. Each prop should be an inexpensive item with a note attached (which you have written of course) and as you announce each gift read out what the note says. You should have a bag hidden under your table or left at reception with these “gifts” in them. For the examples below our Groomsmen are John, Jack and Joe.

Make sure the gifts are unwrapped so they are there for all to see as you unveil them, examples to consider include;

A light bulb.

Present a light bulb on behalf of “John” saying that “John thought you might need this because as you are now a married man the light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off.”

A pillow.

Present a pillow on behalf of “Jack” saying “Jack is a married man himself and speaking out of experience he thinks that the many nights you will spend sleeping on the sofa will be eased with this comfortable pillow.”

A pair of shorts.

Present a pair of shorts on behalf of “Joe” and say “Joe thought this would be an appropriate gift given that you are now officially a husband and no longer get to wear the trousers in the relationship.”

Props can provide welcome comic relief for everyone so be sure to include them in your speech, using the Groomsmen as “stooges” will set the stage for a Best Man speech to remember.