Writing a best man speech is one of the tasks that fill people with fear once they have accepted the best man role. There are many things a best man is expected to do including dancing with the mother of the bride, so compared to this, why is it the speech that strikes the fear of god into the newly hired best man. I believe the two main reasons are; the fear of public speaking and the fear of the unknown. Firstly, most people are not confident with any form of public speaking. Secondly, most people don’t have a clue where to start, so they put it off until it’s too late. Read this article and I will give you my top five tips on writing a best man speech.

1 – Start preparing your speech early : This is the number one mistake that causes most people to fail. The key to a successful best mans speech is preparation. Writing a best man speech early enables you to perform your research and find all that juicy gossip that will have your good friend the groom living in fear! You should start creating your first draft around six to eight weeks before the wedding date.

2 – Write for the audience : Another common mistake is to write a speech that the bride and groom can relate to, but nobody else has a bloody clue what you’re talking about. Your best man speech should accommodate and involve the whole audience. As part of your speech preparation, identify a couple of key guests and include them in your material. At the reception make sure you know where they are sitting and make eye contact when you refer to them.

3 – Get the structure right : How can you make a journey if you don’t know where you’re going? Well, it’s exactly the same when you’re creating a speech. Every best man speech has a beginning, middle and end ... stick to it. The beginning is the open lines, the middle is where you amusingly mock the groom and the end is where you say something sincere about the bride and groom and raise a toast their future.

4 – Practise makes perfect : I know it’s a cliché but it really is true. You have a choice! You can either practise your speech or you can wing it and hope the ground doesn’t open and swallow you up on the wedding day. You will feel more comfortable the more you practise and you should use the opportunity to time your speech and make sure it lasts no longer than five minutes.

5 – Create a second set of prompt cards : With all the best will in the world, your preparation and practise will help but most people feel reassured by having a set of prompt cards they can refer to throughout their speech. How will you feel when you stand to make your speech and realise your prompt cards are missing? You see the other groomsmen who never got asked to be the best man, they will probably think it’s hilarious.

So there you have it, my top five tips to writing a best man speech. If you apply these tips, I guarantee that your task will be far easier. I started this article by stating that writing a best man speech was one of the tasks that people fear. The other is 'performing' the best man speech and that, is my next post.