Best Man Toast

[Ziero]

I had to give a speech at my brother's wedding last year, and for like an entire year before it happened everyone was joking and ribbing me about how I had to give the speech and all that junk and how they were lookin forward to it, because I'm usually the quiet one in the family. In the end, I didn't really treat it like a big deal, and I didn't even start working on it until two nights before the wedding. I printed it out the day off (though I'll have to echo the whole "use cards" bit, paper sucks) and when it came time to it I basically just winged most of it, using what I wrote as nothing more then a guide.

I personally didn't think it was anything special, but apparently everyone else loved it. I wasn't smooth or anything, fumbled with the notes and probably ran on too long. But it was full of (clean) humorous stories about growing up with my bro and generally saying nice things about both of them in a funny way.

Best advice I can give about the actual speech:

Don't make it too long
Try and keep it entertaining, open up with a few jokes, specifically about how it was like living with your bro.
Stories from your childhood, preferably ones even your brother may have forgotten, are always good to use.
Say something nice about the wife, maybe something she did for you that you'll always appriciate yadda yadda, and welcome her to the family and all that.
And try and top it off with some sappy stuff about lovin both of them and being glad to know them and then the toast.

Basic advice about public speaking:

Relax. Most of the people there are family and won't care how you do. Anyone uptight enough to be bothered by how you talk isn't worth caring about in the end.
Don't be drunk, wait till after the speech to get hammered.
Try to make eye contact with people, on both sides of the room. Don't look down and read word for word, look up, look around, smile and try and act like you're speaking directly to someone.
Use your hands, emote, emphasize stuff, just don't stand there stiff as a board.
Use cards. Paper sucks. It's loud when it wrinkles, annoying to flip through, and it's easy to lose your place in big blocks of text.
And most important of all, relax. I know I said it already, but that's because it's doubley important. It's a wedding, a time to celebrate family, friends and have fun. So do just that, and don't sweat the small stuff. All the stress of a wedding should happen before the wedding. Everything else is when the party happens.

Just my two cents.

[Wakabo]

My brother did something along these lines, was pretty bad ass. If he has a lot of girls there that are his friends, give them keys. Pick them up at a hardware place and just tell them to hold onto it till you ask for it.

In his speech he said "My brother had asked me to do this for him, so could all his ex girlfriends please return their keys?" So they all went up to my brother and put it at his table, and then one guy who wasn't part of it jumped up and said "Can I keep mine please!" everyone had a good laugh

[Rhyis.]

Break out "the Gipper" speech.

[Tekoa]

Gonna go with /thread after Miz's first post.

[Max™]

I found myself thinking "there is no good way to toast a male human, much less a 'best' way, and the idea of the 'man' portion being used in a similar manner as 'cinnamon' brings up quite disgusting implications"... I'm glad I was way off.

[Azalee]

Let's change this into a wedding thread. :3 My best friend just got proposed to, and the wedding is still a bit out there, but I was chosen as Maid of Honor. As someone who never intends to get married, I've never taken the time to look into Bridal Showers, Bachelorette parties, etc. From what I have read online, it seems like I will be going broke trying to plan things and showering the bride with gifts. .-.

[Cesaria]

Oh god don't go down the road of doing everything the internet tells you you need to do wedding related... you'll drive yourself into a breakdown. Ask her what she wants you to do - she might be a full-blown bridezilla who demands your every waking moment's attention, or she might have half of it sorted out for herself anyway. There's so much bullshit wedding ettiquette flying around - half of it perpetuated by people seeking to sell you the "essentials."


As for best man speeches - one of the funniest bits of our wedding was watching our best man get paler and paler with terror as the moment for his speech got nearer (also his epic catch when he nearly dropped the wedding rings mid-ceremony was mildly amusing too). In the end he kept it short and sweet, had some annecdote about how he met the groom, resorted to the embarassing photos route (having been heavily forearmed by my mother in law to the extent of having old school reports and all sorts to draw on) - he'd actually put envelopes out on all the tables with instructions not to open them and went through each one in turn... I think he's just about been forgiven for having the naked mopping the kitchen floor aged three picture passed to the entire world. If it gets too crude then everyone is just dying of embarassment wanting the entire thing to be over, if it's too in-jokey than it's only your drinking crew that's going to get it while the rest of the room sits there bored wanting another drink - so it's just balancing it out really.

[Acturus]

Let's change this into a wedding thread. :3 My best friend just got proposed to, and the wedding is still a bit out there, but I was chosen as Maid of Honor. As someone who never intends to get married, I've never taken the time to look into Bridal Showers, Bachelorette parties, etc. From what I have read online, it seems like I will be going broke trying to plan things and showering the bride with gifts. .-.

Get the other bridesmaids on board. As I understand it, all costs related to the bride's stuff as it pertains to the maid of honor is supposed to be equally split amongst the bridesmaids, and often the moms pitch in too.

Also, as mentioned above, find out what the bride wants, and do as much of what she wants as you are able.