Help with best man speech

[ducatiz]

Beautiful story

[Howley]

I just did one last night for my best mate's wedding. Went really well, went way longer than expected cos of all the laughing and I was reading slower than I thought. I was very happy with it.

[RAT900]

Ugh...my brother saddled me with the task at his second wedding 3 years ago to a woman whose intellectual, spiritual and emotional deficiencies are far too many to enumerate

He asked "will you be my best man"....I replied "I would rather be your best friend and tell you not to do this."

But I suppose love is blind as they say,,, and in many cases it is also tree stump stupid

he suffers to this day...but I did what was asked of me and went down this sort of road.....

OK remember it is really "The Brides" day more than anything.....for humor you can cite how low-maintenance he is, in terms of ...say...cooking for him...give examples of how you saw him once "cook" a hot dog under a hot water tap and happily eat it because the stove had been broken for months,,,,assure her that meeting his culinary expectations should be a breeze

how cleaning for him should be a breeze as well since you saw first-hand, his bachelor abode.... replete with old work pants standing in the corner dancing on their own

and how the mold on an old chinese food container was having a gang war with the mold on the old pizza in the refrigerator

do not discuss his past relationships with other women...there are no upsides to that line of pursuit...period do not compare his past disasters to the bride...she isn't "pick of the litter"...she is above comparison.....

"prior women" is a minefield that few can successfully/gracefully navigate...don't go any closer to it than perhaps citing that you saw his journey on the path to true love being akin to the road scenes in Mad Max/Road Warrior..or something soft and metaphoric

Do speak to the positive changes you have seen in him first-hand since he met the bride....

something like.... I knew this was a special thing because he started brushing his teeth and bathing....then switch to a real insight into how you saw firsthand evidence that the bride has made him look at his life differently...a small change in his thinking, perhaps a small comment he once  made... that showed you he was on a completely different track because of her

i have used the whipsaw delivery..... offer a humorous anecdote or recollection followed by one that is sincere and insightful as to how he has "improved" since her arrival in his life...evidence of her stark importance to him

remember a Best Man Toast it is a sort of eulogy for the living...the guy you knew is gone...or at least the circumstances under which you knew him are gone

so it is a compare-and-contrast of the groom  "before her" and "because of her"

then go to some "unrelated-to-her" core example of his behavior that speaks to how decent and generous a person he actually is (in short,,,something that says "honey you did pick a winner and you are f-ing lucky to have landed him")  the bride's family and friends ought to hear proof that she used good judgement

last segment after bearing witness to his evolution from "guy" to "groom" to now "husband"...express a couple of hopes and wishes for them as a "couple"

close it out with a toast

and quietly hope for the best for them.... the stats are not in their favor