Panic over best man speech in 2 weeks!

seachto7

Hi all,

Hope this is the right place, but I think no better place for advice from, errr, guys.

Wedding in a few weeks, and still no start made on the speech. I have made speeches at 2 weddings before, so know the drill.

However, the guy in question has been living abroad for a while now, so I don't really have any funny stories as such. Well, I have a few but they involve me, so I won't be airing them.

How could I just keep it general without having it really boring? :(

zoobizoo

how did he propose? Has he any interests? What type of guy is he?

I made a speech which involved old stories but threw in a lot of sci-fi references aswell.

And I gave the guests the chance to choose from 3 different stories. I gave them the titles of three stories when I started the speech and in the middle got them to do a show of hands to see which one they wanted to hear. It took up a couple of minutes, and it also involved all the guests. In the end I told two of the stories as after I told the first I said "can't believe you didn't choose story one as it was really good".

iptba

Best of luck, seachto7.
Here's an earlier thread on this: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=74364191 in case its of any use.

seachto7

Yeah, thanks for those tips. He's into music, he's a creative guy, so his is missus to be. I was going to hint at the stuff I can't tell and tell them to "ask him later at the bar".

zoobizoo

"X has always been into his music but I never knew that he was such an emotional guy - he came to me after seeing Titanic all those years ago, when he was XX years old and said 'I'm going to have Celine Dion as my wedding song'...... I guess we'll have to wait and see til later if he still is that much of a wuss"

seachto7

haha, brilliant. He's always giving out about the amount of sh*t music around these days

zoobizoo

not many people know about his deep dark secret and I'm not sure if I should even bring it up here... but seeing as he has the support of all his friends and family here, this could be the ideal time for him to reveal it to everyone..... and that secret that has eaten him up since the release of their first album "Said and Done".. has been his love of Mikey, Stevey, Keith, Shane and Ronan aka Ireland;s most successful boyband ...... Boyzone.

As your favourite member of your favourite pop group would say "We're here for you buddy".


Something along those lines.... that's it for my creativity..... best of luck

Santa Cruz

God, if that's the standard of Best Man speech I'm glad I'm not invited

seachto7

@Santa Cruz. I'm glad you're not going either.

zoobizoo

So easy to criticise.

If creativity is your forte SantaCruz, why not go to the effort of posting up some of your own copy and then we can all critique it,

Sauve

Mod

Don't respond to an offending post, please use the report post function.

seachto7

I'll post again the weekend, that's when I put time aside to write it..

zoobizoo

Cool - best of luck with it.

seachto7

How long does a speech have to be? I made one last year, but can't remember to be honest...

GY A1

i'd say around 5 - 10 min, any more just gets boring,
have look online , there's good examples with beginning and ending, just fill in ur own stuff in middle,
just remember to cover the important stuff, thanking people ect

pwurple

There are a couple of things a best man is 'supposed' to cover in the speech. Thanking certain people. So discuss those with the groom so you are not overlapping.

Something as simple as a description of the way he asked you to be best man can be a funny story.

zoobizoo

10 minutes excluding pauses for laughter and interruptions.

Remember, everyone is routing for you and want you to do well.

DazMarz

The golden rule of wedding speeches is short and sweet (but not saccharine). Too long and it bores the arse off everyone. Try to be funny, but don't force it. etc.

Include a few of these for a bit of levity, maybe? Just general nonsense about stereotypes of men and women. They might work for a lighter moment or two.

1. A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he wants. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't want.
2. A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
3. A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
4. To be happy with a man you must understand him a lot & love him a little. To be happy with a woman you must love her a lot & not try to understand her at all.
5. Married men live longer than single men - but married men are a lot more willing to die.
6. Any married man should forget his mistakes - there's no use in two people remembering the same thing.
7. Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed. Women somehow deteriorate during the night.
8. A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't. A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change & she does.
9. A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
10. There are 2 times when a man doesn't understand a woman - before marriage & after marriage.

Captain Farrell

One great line is to say...

"I haver to be totally honest though, I was very surprised to hear that they are only going to County Down for their honeymoon. At least I think that's where they're going, when I asked *name of groom* what they had planned he said "I'm going to bangor for a couple weeks."

pinkbear

Here's a great wedding speech..... no pressure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27WufdasQYs

jkell061

5-10mins or anywhere around that.

If you don't have any recent stories with him being abroad n all, then did u know him growing up, or adolescent years? Some of the funniest stories can be ripping on them times, as they're the years u dread lookin back on most. And obviously make it sound worse than it was!

Tasden

Just wanted to add that while it's great to get inspiration online do try to make it your own, it's very obvious when someone just copy and pastes a load of generic jokes found from best mans speeches online.
As a woman, I always enjoy the whole "we used to be inseparable until the bride came along" approach, not in a bad way! But showing how the couple became best friends and stuff and that also gives way to some stories from before he met her.
Compliment the bride, even if its been done already.
They're just my opinions on it though. I adore the speeches and I think the best man has more free reign than the others cause its expected to be funny and a little cheeky/risky at times. Oh and the most recent one I was at the best man told one hilarious joke about the groom and everyone laughed so much that he got giggles and it ended up being very funny and memorable just for that one endearing moment- the rest was just general thanks. So don't feel you need loads of great lines to make it great.
Enjoy it!

Not G.R

"Sorry if Im a bit nervous its just that X said that if I do a good job, I can be best man at the next one too!"

Meangadh

I really don't want to be negative so apologies in advance but those jokes that a lot of the posters put up there are so overdone- I've been to a good few weddings where I've heard them. And they don't even get much of a laugh, mostly just a groan.

I just hate speeches that have clearly been written by the Internet. Keep it simple, thank those who need to be thanked, throw in a few funny stories if you can but don't feel under pressure to be funny, that can be really cringey. A bit of taking the piss is ok but not total smut, that's just inappropriate. And most importantly, don't talk on for ages- anything over ten minutes is rude to your guests.

Dietsquirt

How'd it go OP?