Best Man Wedding Speech

[Legato Endless]

In 2 and a half weeks, a friend of mine will be getting married. I was given the honor of being his right hand, being his oldest and arguably closest friend. As he has already survived his bachelor party essentially intact, I've been doing fairly well with the expected duties. However, one particular task, the speech remains and bedevils me, and I don't want to let him down.

I direct a choir, and have a modestly extensive history in theater. Which is to say, I do not find public speaking inherently horrifying, provided I know what I'm doing. So any direction about nerves is appreciated but I'll be fine. I know the basic idea is to frame him in a positive light, but I'm not entirely sure how to get there without sounding like an informal resume application or early eulogy. Crying would probably make him slightly uncomfortable in public, so I've got something of a disadvantage to the Maid of Honor in this.

Despite knowing him for a decade, I don't really have any particular anecdotes that come to mind that would work for humor or ice breaking, which seems to be the ubiquitous advice when you search google about this. He's quite conservative, and unlike other friends, doesn't really have anything I can think of that translates in terms of a story. Case in point, for his bachelor party, he gathered a group of six people together for a night of drinking and tabletop gaming. It was casual, fun and serene, but not really an attention holder in and of itself. So I need something outside of that, despite the fact that examples work better than attribute listing for illustrating a person.

Advice, tips and tricks would be appreciated.

[Dallas-Dakota]

You could joke about his wife occasionally giving him back to your group of friends for a gaming evening.:smalltongue:

Also something with the future is always good. In the direction of ''I've known --- for more then a decade now, I hope this marriage lasts far longer in happiness and love.''

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Can you get a hold of his character sheet from the bachelor party?

"You may not know this, but just the other night our friend here was a flinging fireballs at a owlbear..."

[Talar]

Generally cracking a couple jokes is encouraged. Saying something cliche is also encouraged as long as it is somewhat sweet. Otherwise you could always fallback on a funny story of the now married couple. Other than that I do not know what other advice to give.

[ForzaFiori]

I just had to go through this same thing about a month ago (though, because it was a rushed wedding because the groom is in the army, I actually wound up skipping my speech). With some quick googling, you can find some sites that give a basic outline for a Best Man's Speech. I wound up looking at them and kinda mixing them up together, since some applied and some didn't. I also recommend not writing out a full speech, but just the bullet points. That way you leave room to make the speech longer or shorter, or add something you forgot. But obviously still practice it several times so you know what you want to say. Don't be afraid to be a little touchy-feely. It's the day your free to tell your best friend exactly how much you care about him and his new wife, without anyone making fun of you for it (If you so choose. If your not a touchy-feely person, feel free to skip that.)

[Karoht]

He's a gamer. Is she a gamer? If yes, she'll appreciate this. If no, she'll probably still appreciate this.
I said this at a friend's wedding about 5 years ago.

"Matt's a gamer. He and I have been on a few adventures together. Which is great, adventure is what life's all about. But there are two things I've learned about adventure.
The best kinds of adventures are the one's where both of you achieve great things and overcome challenges together. The kind where both of you, can look back over your shoulder and say to each other "wow, WE just did that." And because you're together, the adventure never ends.
And the second thing I've learned is that there is one kind of adventurer that all the ladies love.
Matt, good luck doing those dishes."

There's some slight in-joke going there with the dishes. And I had planned on going into greater detail on the kind of hero's that Matt likes to play, mostly Clerics, good guys, paladin types, that kind of thing. But this has basically become my go-to wedding speech with anyone I play games with. Especially if the spouse isn't a gamer. You can even open up by asking what is the one domestic chore that the groom hates the most, everyone in the room shakes their head at it, and there is a good bit of a chuckle and some poking. Then go into the speech bits and end with that domestic chore at the end.
Embellish and emphasize and add joke/s as needed. Enjoy.