Best Man Speech Tips

Advice From Our Readers

You're the best man - what will you say in your best man speech? We've collected a number of unique tips from readers to help you out.

If you have best man speech tips (or even better, stories about best man speeches!), submit them below (see the tips on this page as examples). You can also see what others have said.

Tips:

• "I'm a photographer, so I see a lot of wedding speeches.
  1. Don't talk about the bachelor party.
  2. Don't talk about how drunk you used to get or "bad behavior".
  3. Don't tell an inside joke unless you know that most of the people there will understand it.
  4. Do talk about how much the groom is in love with bride (whether he has told you that or not, she wants to hear it)."
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• "Focus on the couple and why they are good for each other. Show some humor but don't go overboard with it. I attended a wedding where the best man somehow managed to incorporate the motto "sh** happens" in his speech. Save something like that for the bachelor party or a get-together for the wedding party. Remember that there are all age groups at a wedding, so be humorous but try not to be offensive."
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• "My main advice to you is not to quantify the relationship. We had a best man at our wedding say that we did not know each other very long before we got engaged, and he was shocked when we told him we were getting married. We got a few looks from out of town family members and it opened the door for people to ask us, 'So, how long did you two know each other before getting engaged?.'"
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• "The best man is there as the support and second (in command) for the groom. It is a position either given due to kinship or friendship to the groom. If asked to speak, here are several tips:
  1. The groom is family, about to be family, or like family. Treat him as such, or you may never speak again.
  2. If you did anything silly, crazy, wacky, sexy or stupid at the bachelor party, do NOT mention it at the wedding.
  3. Do not make degrading comments about the brides.
  4. Avoid discussion of his prior girlfriends, even if the bride is way better than his prior picks. It sounds as if he has poor choice in women, just when he's made his choice of upgrading from girlfriend to wife."

If after reading those tips you still don't know what to say, I recommend you visit Best Man Speeches and get their low-cost high-value downloadable book. You'll get 20 professionally written best man speeches you can use, a step-by-step guide to writing your own speech, best man speech etiquette tips, and much more. I highly recommend it!

We'll post more speech tips as we receive them below, and each of your tips will get its own web page if it's long enough. Heed the tips above and you'll do great!