Video: How to Give a Best Man Speech - Spring Is In The Air!
15th Apr 2019
How To Give A Best Man Speech by Simon Bucknall
The above video was taken several years ago in a marquee following a friend's wedding. I had no idea that my speech would be filmed and just wanted to do justice to my Groom who had been a great friend during our schooldays. Around that time I entered a Public Speaking Contest in London and the speech (not this wedding speech!) kept on winning until I reached the Toastmasters International finals in the USA.
Shortly after this I started my own speaking business and the rest is history.
Since then I have coached hundreds of Best Men and Grooms plus other wedding speakers as well as a range of people in their professional lives.
Re speaking at a wedding - some advise you to apologise if you're 'poor at public speaking'. Nonsense. Don't apologise! It dilutes your value in the audience's mind.
And just for the record, yes, I really have been a Groom as well as a Best Man and appreciate how very special these roles are in one's life...
Top Tips for the Best Man
No Best Man gave a great speech by making The Friends laugh and The Bride's parents cry.
Audiences are very sensitive to whether the speech is really for them or just been pulled off the internet or dashed off.
Don't use canned jokes off the web! Sounds fake and they've heard it already.
True stories beat fake jokes any day - even if you don't think the stories are funny!
Make a point about The Groom, tell a story. Keep your structure simple!
Top Tips for the Groom
No Groom ever gave a great speech by merely trotting out a shopping list of Thank Yous.
Your audience members don't care how nervous you feel. What? Seriously. Nerves are irrelevant - to your audience. Think about it. They have absolutely no interest in the fact you may feel nervous, unless you allow those nerves to get in the way of giving your speech.
Put another way, your speech is not for the benefit of you the Groom. It's not even for the benefit of your Bride!
Your speech is ultimately for the benefit of your whole audience - most of all for the parents and close family of The Bride.
Focus on what you want to achieve for your audience members. Strange though it may sound, this takes the pressure off you.
In 2014 I published my first book The Best Man Speaker which is available on Amazon and has 45 ***** reviews.
Whatever your role may be at the wedding I wish you all the very best as it's the most important day in the life of The Bride and Groom.
For further information on Resources for the Groom, Best Man or other Wedding Speakers please take a look at my wedding speaker page The Best Man Speaker
"This book really helps you conceptualise your ideas and adds a bit of structure...really did lay a good foundation to build off and it's written simply in a way you can digest." Henry, 14th January 2020
Working through this video program [High Impact Speaking] has made a huge difference to my speaking. After my conference presentation, I had so many executives telling me: 'I want you to come and work for my organization'.... I can't count how many people told me my presentation was THE best.
Senior Brand Manager for a global consumer products business
