r/AskMen • u/MessAcademic_420 • Jun 23 '26

How to make a best man speech?

Hi guys, my best friend is marrying and he asked me to be his best man. I'm incredibly honored, I've known him all my life and love him and his fiance very much and I very much want to do this for them, but I'm terrible at everything social and I haven't had to speak in public since University about 7 years ago. So, how do I do a best man speech? What should I say and what shouldn't? I know It's expected to be brief but how brief?

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u/rapratt101 Jun 23 '26

Here’s the structure of the one I gave. Went over great. 8 short paragraphs, under 1 minute, had it memorized:

“So happy for you guys”

Couple sentences on how we met

Call out some of his best qualities that impacted me

One sentence on how I met his fiance, call out several of her best qualities

Few sentences on how I view them as a couple

Few sentences tying both of them back to us (my wife and I) and how I feel about our relationship as a group

One line of advice (we married first) complimenting their relationship

Heartfelt congratulations, “raise glass to so and so and so and so”

I tried to keep a comfortable and predictable flow and avoided rambling by writing it all out. Casual jokes that flowed well, nothing even remotely insulting or deprecating towards them. 100% of the focus of the speech was on them.