You may not be surprised to know that when I attend weddings I take a keen notice to scrutinize the Best Man’s speech. I have lost count of the number of weddings I have attended, but one thing is for certain, I have witnessed all sorts of Best Men try to deliver all kinds of Best Man speeches to varying success.

The Good

-the Best Man who immediately responded to a heckler with “congratulations, we have just found the winner of The Most Insecure Guest in the Audience Award”.

-the Best Man who produced an embarrassing poster-size childhood picture of the Groom and passed it around the tables for everyone to sign.

-the Best Man who read a poem he had written about his friendship with the Groom. Touching, classy and worked its magic on everyone that day.

 
The Bad

-the Best Man whose speech was littered with profanities and watched as many parents with children rightfully walked out while he was talking.

-the Best Man who expanded on the past love lives of the Bride and Groom to their horror, not to mention the horror of their families.

-the Best Man who spoke for nearly 10 minutes but at no stage ever complimented the Bride

 
The Ugly

-the Best Man who referred constantly to “Sarah’s great day”, until he eventually was reminded that the Bride’s name was actually Susan.

-the Best Man who said that “the Bride & Groom’s grandparents are smiling down from above”, the Brides grandfather was actually alive & well, and a guest at the wedding.

-the Best Man whose toast was meant to be “may their weddings days be few and anniversaries many” but ended up saying “may their wedding days be many and their anniversaries few”.

Best Man speeches are reliant on quality content more than anything else. The examples above prove that the slightest error could harm your entire speech, so spend time looking at past posts on this site to ensure your Best Man speech is one that’s remembered for all the right reasons.

Best Man jokes and wedding one-liners all have a very important part to play in a Best Man speech, however even they struggle to match the impact of a thoughtful few lines put in verse. Whether you choose to write a funny short poem or an emotional heartfelt poem, you can be sure that not only will the Bride and Groom enjoy it, the wedding guests will appreciate it also.

In a previous post we have looked at The power of poetry in a Best Man speech, today we further examine this and look at how to write a Best Man poem.

Firstly you need to decide what type of poem you want to do, a heartfelt one may be best as I am sure your speech is already full of Best Man jokes. Now let us take the essential words that you should put into the poem such as ”Bride”, “Groom”, “toast”, “speech” ”aisle” “wife” etc and find rhyming words or phrases to go with them.

Bride-pride, beauty personified, tried, cried, stride.

Groom- room,bloom,womb, presume, perfume.

Toast- roast, most, boast, ghost, host.

Aisle- while, mile, style, trial, worthwhile.

Wife- life,strife, rife, knife,nightlife.

Speech-reach, breach, screech, peach, teach.

Now with those 6 keywords, along with their respective rhyming words we can now assemble a 12 line poem as per below:

I was overjoyed at today’s honor until, I realized, I had to give a speech
That ensured any holler of delight was soon replaced with a screech
There was not a dry eye to be seen as John and Sarah walked down the aisle
Sarah looked majestic while even John showed a bit of style
John will be a good husband and Sarah a loving wife
They make the perfect couple, ideal for married life
It has been my pleasure to stand as Best Man for friends that matter most
Join me with joy and raise your glass for the wedding toast

I would be very interested in hearing from you, my loyal readers, have you ever been to a wedding where a Best Man included a poem in his speech? If so, how was it received?

Being a Best Man and having to give a Best Man speech is never an easy task, however with summer’s warm rays now banished to memory, today we investigate how you can use the weather to your advantage if giving a Best Man speech during the winter.

Winter weddings are becoming more and more popular each year, the only real downside to them is the weather, and for a Best Man that might mean standing outside for an hour or so in the cold weather whilst the photographer is taking the pictures. Bear in mind that you will only have a tuxedo on, so a patient sense of humor is essential to make sure you maintain your focus on providing a winning Best Man speech.

If you are Best Man in winter add a few weather jokes to your list of Best Man jokes, aside from jokes, also add a few one-liners to reflect the weather outside. Some examples below are sincere others lighthearted, you won’t need me to tell you which is which:

1) The rain outside is a reflection of the disappointment of all the single men in the world, frustrated, as in Sarah, another beauty slips through their fingers.

2) Though it was raining heavily for the photo’s outside the Groomsmen hardly noticed, no, the sight of the beautiful Bridesmaids in their lovely dresses meant their attention was diverted.

3) How ironic that on this coldest of days, we are here to celebrate the warmest of loves.

4) Those of us who know John are not surprised that he chose his wedding date for winter rather than summer, his love of golf saw to that.

5) It might rain outside but here inside Sarah reigns supreme, she is a beautiful lady with a sunny smile who bring’s a little bit of summer to everyone she meets.

One of the best laughs however at a wedding in the winter, can be garnered by using an umbrella for a prop. Either the night before or early on the morning of the wedding day, sneak an umbrella directly under your seat at the top table, then, when it is your turn to speak simply reach under the table and open the umbrella over your head and begin speaking, this should be met with howls of laughter.

Enjoy these lines and in particular the umbrella prop, then provide the Best Man speech of a lifetime.