Tips For Your Best Man Speech

Here are some tips to help you along with your best man speech.

1. As a rough guide you want your speech to last about 3-5 minutes. Keep it short, funny and original and don't let it go shorter than 1 minute or it may look like you 'winged' it on the day

2. Avoid anything offensive! Keep your jokes and humor clean, remember people of all ages will be hearing your speech.

3. Give yourself at least a couple of weeks to write and prepare your speech. This gives you time to talk to friends or family to get ideas and stories as well as giving you the opportunity to practice and get some feedback before the wedding.

4. Your speech could include stories about the bride and groom before they were married or humorous stories about the groom before they met. Jokes, inspirational quotes and words of congratulations could also be included.

5. Try to find a balance between humor and seriousness. You want it to be heartfelt with some moments of humor thrown in. It's good to start your speech with something humorous to get your audience in good spirits and this will give you more confidence if you get everyone laughing first thing.

6. Practice your speech so you aren't reading off a bit of paper. It's fine to have notes to glance at occasionally and keep you on track. But the presentation of your speech can be ruined if you are too dependent on notes.

7. Don't overdo your drinking before the speech. Maybe 1-2 drinks to help you relax, but no more! You still need to be sober and have a clear head.

8. When delivering your speech make eye contact with your audience as well as with the bride and groom. You could practice this, so you know when you want to look at the bride and groom such as certain parts of a story or when you are congratulating them.

9. A good way to wrap your speech up is with a toast to the bride and groom. It's good to finish off with something meaningful and heartfelt.

10. Always introduce yourself at the beginning of the speech, because there are always people who won't know who you are no matter how close you are with the bride and groom. Plus this gives you are starting point and perhaps an opportunity to open up with a funny story.

For some more information and advice on writing your best man speech check out this site Best Man Wedding Speeches.