Best Man Speech Insight - Best Man Speech Toast Wedding

Your Best Man Speech and Toast at a Wedding Reception

The day that my best friend asked me to be the best man at his wedding was one of the happiest days of my life. It was indeed a great honor and meant a lot to me that he chose me not only above all of his male friends but also his brothers and cousins to stand by his side on his wedding day. However, the happiness soon wore off as I realized that I would have to deliver my best man speech and toast at the wedding and to the entire congregation. I am not a hugely confident public speaker, and I knew that there is normally a lot of pressure on the best man to give a funny yet touching speech. But at the same time I knew, come whatever may, I have to prepare and give the best man speech during the wedding reception as it is a part of the wedding tradition and more importantly my friend is expecting a great speech from his best man.

I was full of nerves until I hit on the idea that my best man speech didn't necessarily have to be me standing up in front of everyone talking. I graduated from college with a degree in computer science and design, so I started to put together a multi-media display of some of my favorite memories of my best friend. Fortunately, we're both big geeks, so it was quite easy to track down videos of us goofing around as children, and I could feel my nerves evaporate as I sat laughing to myself in front of the computer. I also asked around for pictures of him and the bride, and started to write my script to narrate over the top of it.

The big day came around, and I was still worried about what people would think of my alternative approach to my best man speech. The father of the bride was the first one to give very first wedding speech of the evening followed by the groom. Towards the end of his speech my friend, the groom, introduced me to the guests and I knew it's the best man who's next. When I stood up and plugged my computer into a projector, there were a lot of confused faces in the congregation, but once the show started, there were smiles and laughter everywhere. I felt great, knowing that everyone was appreciating my hard work. The best part was the big spontaneous hug my best friend gave me at the end to say thank you.

Whilst it was a lot of effort, I think it was the right thing to do for me for two reasons. Firstly, it got me out of having to awkwardly stumble over a script, and secondly it made for a wonderful wedding gift, which my friend and his wife still watch now and again. Best man speeches and toasts at weddings having a surprise element should always do well provided the presentation is perfect and that's one of the keys to make a best man speech remembered for a long long tme.