Best man duties – The best man speech

OK. Now we are getting to the serious best man duties. The best man speech. While this can cause the best man a great deal of anxiety, if you plan well ahead and give yourself plenty of time to practice and refine the speech, it’s not so bad.

I started preparing the speech about two weeks before the wedding and this was just enough time. give yourself a bit longer if you can.

I decided that I wanted to include a few things:

• Compliment Bridesmaids on the great job they did and how great they looked.
• Compliment the bride on how great she looked
• Say some nice things about the groom
• Poke fun at the groom
• Give some marriage advice (humorous if possible)
• propose a toast to the newly weds.

I was asked by the bride and groom to speak for no more than three minutes so I had a task to fit everything in that amount of time. At the end of the day, the speech went for about four minutes which I thought was the perfect amount of time…I’ve been to weddings where speeches dragged on a bit and the audience would get restless.

The guests seemed to like my speech, laughing at all the right times. One criticism I had for myself was that I spoke too fast. I could hear myself doing it but I couldn’t stop as I was quite nervous. In hindsight, my advice to others would be to take a deep breath, slow down and relax. Everyone is on your side for this and laughter and applause come very easily!

If you are having trouble coming up with ideas or funny one liners or you are just pressed for time, you can always use preprepared best man speeches.

Anyway, here is the speech I gave. Please feel free to use any of it or all of it for yourself but don’t forget to change the names in it!

Family, and friends on behalf of Frank and Claire, I would like to welcome you all to celebrate their wedding here today. For those who don’t know me, my name is Jimmy and I have been given the great honor of being Frank’s Best Man.

Firstly I’d like to say a very big thank you to the bridesmaids. I have to say they both look wonderful and have done an excellent job. Indeed they are only eclipsed by Claire herself, who, I’m sure you’ll all agree, looks absolutely stunning.

So far the day has been great. I did hear that there was a bit of tension between the two of you when choosing the music for your wedding. I’m glad Claire got the last say otherwise you would have been walking down the isle to Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t no other man” and the bridal dance would have been to Nolsie’s “What about Me”…I’m serious!

Now I believe it is customary for the best man to subtly poke fun at the groom’s character on these occasions but despite my best efforts to unmask evidence to the contrary, I can only say that my research about Frank has only served to prove that he really is a decent sort of bloke who inspires respect and admiration from friends and family.

I do have to say how lucky you are Frank. You will leave here having gained a wife that is warm, loving and caring. A wife who is funny, smart and looks beautiful.

And Jodi how lucky you are as well you leave today having gained a…gorgeous dress and a lovely bouquet of flowers.

I agreed to be Frank’s Best Man which comes with certain responsibilities, and I’m sure you’ll all agree that I’ve done a great job so far.

• He arrived sober…but judging by his silly grin, that is a thing of the past.
• He was looking pretty sharp…but look whose outfit he copied!
• Got him here on time. Well I can’t really take the credit for that considering he drove himself here because he won’t let anyone else drive his precious car (which, mind you, he referred to as the blue bomb until Tom gave it to him when he was 16).
• And finally, kept any ex-girlfriends away from the ceremony. But I suppose I can’t take all the credit for that one either since the recent horse flu took care of most of them.

It might be because of Frank’s competitive nature that he loves a good argument. He was explaining to me one night over a few beers that he knows how to beat Claire in any argument weather he is right or wrong. The trick is, he explains, is to make your argument and then proclaim “AND THATS FACT” because according to Frank you simply can’t argue with a fact. Frank, I can’t say I have had much success with this tactic and I have not even tried your plan B which is when you continually interrupt your opponent by going bzzz in their face.

It’s a tradition for the best man to offer some advice to the newly weds so here are a few things you should keep in mind:

• Frank, Set the ground rules and establish whose boss…and then do everything Claire says.
• The best way to remember your anniversary is to forget your first one.
• Whenever you’re wrong, be a man and admit it, when you are right say nothing.

Frank, we’ve had some excellent times together over the years, and I know we will continue to do so in the future. You have been a good friend to me and it really is a great honor to be your Best Man today.

So then, Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me immense pleasure, not to mention relief, to invite you all to raise your glasses in a toast to Frank and Claire, the new Mr and Mrs Smith who we wish well for the future, and hope they enjoy a long and happy marriage.

Please feel free to leave comments about this best man speech as I would love to hear some feedback. In my next post I’ll write about the various best man duties you have on the actual wedding day.

Best man duties – The bachelor party part two.

Well the most enjoyable of the best man duties is over and done with. The bachelor party went well and based on the guest of honor and all the other guests had a great time so I will consider it a successful event. Not to say that things ran smoothly because there were a few hick-ups along the way and mainly due to not planning carefully enough and not following my own advice *blush*.

First problem arose the week before the event when booking in for 9 holes of golf at the local golf course. They had competition golf all morning so we could not get a game. No big deal, we decided that we would goto a driving range instead. One that serves a great breakfast too. On the day, we showed up at 8:30am and it was closed and did not look like opening any time soon. Time for plan C. Head to a local cafe for some breakfast instead. Not too exciting but good none the less.

Time to head over to the grooms house for a beer. About half of the guests went over for a beer and to wait for the 11 seat taxi to take us to the marina for the fishing charter. The taxi ride cost about $60 and everyone chipped in so that was good. We got to the marina and loaded up the boats ice box with ice and beer. I handed out the can coolers and everyone loved them (see photo). We then headed out on the bay. The weather was fantastic and we were eager to drop the line in. We fished, ate and drank beers for about 4 hours then headed back in. there were many fish caught but they were all the same (flathead) and the guys running the charter took the fish home for dinner My only complaint for the fishing would be that more food was required for the guests. Other than that it was great!

After fishing we headed off to a bar called the Belgium Beer Cafe which is a huge outdoor beer garden that serves beers from all over Europe. We jumped in taxis to get there and a few guys headed home. As I said in an earlier post, the more places you go, the more people drop off on the way.

Anyway, We got there and the security would not let us in because we didn’t call ahead to request entry for a bachelor party. This is one of the things that I suggested doing at the planning stage but I didn’t do it myself. It took me 30 minutes of pleading with management for them to let us in. Once inside we had a great time. Beer was flowing and so was conversation. We stayed their till sundown and then headed downtown to a nightclub. Again we lost more guests but the main core hung in there. We partied there till the wee hours of the morning and I shall say no more. What happens on a bachelor party stays on a bachelor party

Everyone involved had a great time and we plan on doing the fishing charter again just for fun.

Don’t forget to check out the ultimate bachelor party if you want some more ideas for excellent bachelor parties!

Stay tuned for my next post on best man duties because it I’ll tell you all about the best man speech and post a copy of mine.

Best man duties – Finished the can coolers

Just a quick update on my best man duties. I have finished making the can coolers for the bachelor party. We can’t have our guests having cold hands and warm beer!

I ordered 30 blank can coolers from Mr Stubby for $2.50 each. I then ordered 10 sheets of iron on transfers from ebay at $1 each. Total cost was $85.

I did a design that incorporated the theme (chartered fishing) and a bit of naughty spice t, after all, it is a bachelor party. I could fit 3 of the designs on an A4 sheet of the transfer paper so that would make 30 designs to go on the coolers. There were good instructions on the ebay page on how to iron the transfers on. If you are going to do this, follow these instructions exactly because it is a bit tricky. We had to pull the bottoms out of the coolers so they would lay flat.

They turned out pretty good in the end and it is a cheap item that you can quickly put together to give to each guest for a memento of the day. The design I used is below. Please feel free to take it and use it. I will get a photo of the finished product shortly.

There is quite a bit to do when you are the best man but most of the best man duties are actually fun.

Best man duties – The bachelor party part one.

I’ve just been asked to be best man at my mates wedding so I’m going to blog the best mans duties as they come. The two most important duties are the bachelor party and the best man speech at the wedding.

Traditionally, it is the best man that organises and pays for the party but these days, all the groomsmen help plan and all the guests chip in. One of the first things to do is to find out how much input the groom wants to have. Some want to help with the planning, some just want to show up on the night. If the groom does not want to be involved in the planning give him a chance to tell you and the other groomsmen anything he does NOT want to occur. Let him set some rules if he feels strongly about anything such as strippers etc.

Decide when the party will be. Can I suggest that it is not the night before the wedding. The bride will be furious if the groom is hung over at the wedding.

Next thing to do would be to get together with the other groomsmen for a brainstorming session. grab a sheet of paper and jot down any ideas for the bachelor party. Don’t dismiss any idea, write them ALL down so you can create a shortlist later. We decided that we wanted to do a fun activity in the afternoon then hit a couple of bars that night.

The activities we brainstormed were go-karting, poker, paint-balling, fishing charter, indoor rock climbing and a few other blokey activities. We ended up settling on the fishing charter as the groom had been on one for a bachelor party before and had a blast. After research, I found that for 25 people, it would cost $48 per person for the 4 hour fishing charter and that included all equipment and bait, tuition, BBQ lunch and softdrinks. We can take our own beer on board which is a bonus.

If you plan to go bar hopping, I suggest that you only pick 1 or 2 bars that are fairly close together otherwise the party will get split up as some will want to stay at one bar and some will want to go to the next bar. Remember that some bars won’t want 20 or 30 guys showing up in a big group (without any women) so it might be an idea to phone ahead and check that you are welcome.

OK, so you have the day planned out. Next thing to do is make a guest list. This should really be done by the groom but you can help him with it. It is then the best mans duty to make the party invitation. Try to make the invitation funny or give the party a title. I have title mine “Franks Catch of the Day”. Put the details of the day/night on the invitation but avoid putting strip clubs on it. It is usually assumed that after the bars, guests would head over to the gentleman’s clubs. Send the invitations out at least 4 weeks before the party and ask for a response within 2 weeks.

The bachelor party is now organised in terms of activities, venues and invitations. Now you just need to make sure you have everything you need for the day. Go and buy any beer/liquor that you will need and any other items such as leopard print briefs and handcuffs for the end of the night

If you are still stuck for ideas then Click Here for the ultimate bachelor party!

Part two of this entry will concentrate on what your best man duties will be on the night of the party so stay tuned.