Unique Best Man Speeches – Latest Articles In this article we are going to look at the things you should do before you start writing your best man speech.
Many people get ‘stuck’ with their speech because they have done absolutely no preparation.
The best way to illustrate how crazy not preparing is: imagine that you are a top footballer and you don’t turn up to any training sessions, warm-up or bother to stretch before a game.
Yeh, you probably won’t have a good game (and risk getting yourself injured).
Whilst you don’t need to stretch and injuries writing a best man speech are pretty rare, preparation is still absolutely essential!
All those things you learned back at school about writing an essay are about to be important again…
So, with that said, here are the things you need to do to prepare for your best man speech – before you start writing.
Put Aside Some Time In Your Calendar
You definitely don’t want to leave writing your best man speech to the last minute. But that can happen if you don’t block time off for it.
So do this – and try to do it a number of weeks prior to the wedding event.
That will provide you time to gather your materials, draw up some good jokes and stories, rewrite it a couple of times (if needed) and practice.
Plan The ‘Twist’
If you are not familiar with ‘the Twist’, it is one of the 3 Secrets To A Top Best Man Speech you can find in our free best man speech help guide.
Because this is likely to involve outside props or items, this means it requires the most planning. So you should start with this before you do anything else – giving you time to make sure you have everything in place.
Make A List Of ‘Snitches’
One of the most important things in producing a great speech is to not try and come up with all the stories and jokes yourself.
So, to allow for this, you need to make time to get in touch with traditional friends, university buddies, colleagues.
Think of anyone who might potentially have some good stories about the groom and arrange a quick meeting to grill them.
At the meeting, give them some triggers.
One way of doing this is to pull together a few of his closest buddies in a pub and spend a humorous evening swapping stories. This might also be a good time to start planning the stag do (stay tuned for articles and advice regarding this).
Then, simply take down the best stories and the crucial individuals involved. And you’ve just written a good chunk of your speech quickly and easily.
Your Key ‘Snitch’: The Bride!
Many best men approach their speech as if it all has to be extremely sneaky and that the bride should not be involved at all.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, the bride is going to be the number source of material for your speech – they are going to have some of the best material to use in your speech. You can meet up with her to get some stories and tell them they are for your speech (or not – it is up to you).
Just to be clear, you are not going to sit down and go through your speech with her, just get some good stories and ideas from her.
Here are some areas to probe:
- Their first date
- Their most embarrassing date
- Things he does that annoys her
- What she really thought of him when they first met
- Holidays they have been on together
- When he first met her parents and how that came about
- How he proposed – how nervous he was and if she was suspicious
- Things she has done to change him and make him a better person
That should get you started in your interrogation of your key snitch!
Brainstorm
Next, you want to do some brainstorming yourself. You are not looking for great stories but triggers that might help you find more of these later.
Think back to when you first met the groom and then all the way through to the current time and jot down as many events, nights out, occasions or any activities that you can think of where you were together.
Remember: the purpose is not initially to come up with jokes, but a list of events and things you’ve done.
Once you have done this, you can think take a look at the list, have a think about the event and jot anything funny and entertaining that comes to mind.
Now you have the basis of what could become some good jokes and stories for your speech.
Nail Down Your Structure
The structure of your best man speech is absolutely crucial.
That is why we included it as one of the 3 Secrets To A Top Best Man Speech (the link to download that guide again – free best man speech help).
The structure will actually take a lot of the stress and nerves away from you. When you look at it you’ll see that the first and last sections (the formal parts) are very easy to write.
And once you’ve written those, that’s one third of your speech done! This alone will take a lot of the stress and nerves away.
Now you can focus on the middle section where all the jokes and stories go.
In Summary – Best Man Speech Preparation
There are several key aspects to preparing for your best man speech. It is absolutely crucial to not just sit down and stare at a blank sheet of paper – this will make you much more nervous and you are more likely to get ‘writers block‘- where you can’t think of anything to write.
Instead, follow the tips and tricks in this article and you’ll be ready to write the speech when the time comes.
Got any questions or concerns regarding best man speech preparation and what to do before you start writing your speech? Leave us a comment below and we’ll get back to you.