Best man speech examples: 8 full speeches

Good evening, everyone. For those who don’t know me, I’m Danny — I’m Tom’s younger brother, which means I’ve had a twenty-nine-year head start on material and about four minutes to use it.

I want to start by saying how beautiful Sarah looks today. Tom, you look fine. You look like a man who has been dressed by someone with better taste than you, which is exactly what has happened and exactly what will keep happening, and honestly, it’s working.

Growing up with Tom was an education. He taught me how to ride a bike, mostly by pushing me down a hill and shouting instructions. He taught me how to drive, which cost our mother a wing mirror and most of her patience. And he taught me — without ever saying it out loud — that if you make a promise to someone, you keep it, even when it’s inconvenient. Especially then.

When he told me he’d met someone, I did what any good brother does: I assumed it wouldn’t last and started planning what I’d say when it didn’t. Then I met Sarah. And within about ten minutes I understood that my brother had, for the first time in his life, correctly assessed a situation.

Sarah — you have made him better. He’s calmer. He listens now, which is new. He has opinions about cushions, which is frankly disturbing. But mostly he’s happy in a way I hadn’t seen before, and as his brother, that is genuinely all I ever wanted for him.

Tom, you’ve looked out for me my whole life. Today you got the good end of the deal for once. Look after her, let her look after you, and remember that you are extremely lucky and should mention it often.

Ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding, and raise your glasses — to Tom and Sarah.

Evening, all. I’m Marcus, and I’ve been James’s best friend since we were eleven years old, which means I am legally the person with the most incriminating information in this room. James has asked me to be tasteful. I’ve agreed, at a price, and he’ll be settling up later.

On behalf of the bridesmaids, thank you — they’ve looked after Priya all day and they look wonderful doing it. And thank you to everyone who’s travelled to be here. Some of you came a very long way. One of you came from Croydon, which I’m told is worse.

I’ve known James through every phase. The skateboarding phase. The unfortunate hair phase, which lasted from 2009 to 2014 and which we have all agreed never to speak of. The phase where he decided he was going to be a DJ, which ended when his mum sold the decks.

And through all of it, the thing about James is that he shows up. When my dad was ill, he drove three hours on a Tuesday to sit in a hospital car park with me because I couldn’t face going in yet. He didn’t say anything useful. He just stayed. That is who he is, and it is the best thing about him.

Priya — you got the real one. I know you know that. Watching him with you over the last four years has been like watching someone finally relax after years of holding their breath. You are extraordinarily good for him, and I think he’d tell you he knows it, if he could get the words out, which he can’t, which is why I’m up here.

James, mate. Twenty-two years. I’m very proud of you today, and if you tell anyone I said that I’ll deny it.

Everybody — to James and Priya.

Hello. I’m Ben, I’m the best man, and I’m going to keep this short — partly because Alex asked me to, and partly because I’m told the bar reopens the moment I sit down, so I know exactly how much goodwill I’ve got.

I’ve known Alex for twelve years. In that time he has been reliably, almost annoyingly, decent. He is the friend who replies. He is the one who remembers the thing you mentioned once. It is a small quality and it turns out to be everything.

Chloe, you’ve made him even better, and you’ve made him funnier, which I didn’t think was available to him.

That’s all I’ve got. Please stand and raise your glasses — to Alex and Chloe.

Good evening. My name’s Rob, and I’ve been asked to say a few words about Daniel. I’ve prepared about forty minutes of material, which I’ve been asked to cut to four, so what follows is the highlights package and it is still, somehow, devastating.

Let’s start with the facts. Daniel is thirty-four. He owns eleven identical grey t-shirts and describes this as “a system.” He once got lost in a Tesco. He has a five-year plan, and it is laminated, and I have seen it.

Daniel is also the only man I know who has read the terms and conditions. All of them. He once emailed a company to point out an error in their terms and conditions. They wrote back. They thanked him. He printed it.

Now. When Daniel met Emma, we were all very interested to see how the system would cope. And I’m pleased to report that Emma has broken it entirely. He is spontaneous now. Last month he went to a restaurant without checking the menu online first. His mother rang me.

But here’s the thing I actually want to say, and then I’ll sit down. All that carefulness — the plans, the lists, the eleven grey t-shirts — it comes from the same place as the way he looks after people. Daniel thinks things through because he does not want to let anyone down. He never has. Not once, in fifteen years.

Emma, you have married the most dependable man in England. It is not the flashiest quality. It is the one that lasts.

Ladies and gentlemen — to Daniel and Emma.

Evening, everyone. I’m Sam. I met Michael eight years ago, at work, in a meeting so boring that we bonded out of pure survival. That is the entire origin story and I’m afraid it does not improve.

Now, most best men up here have twenty years of material and a photograph of the groom aged nine in a costume. I don’t have that. What I have instead is eight years of watching a grown man decide, over and over, what kind of person he was going to be — which is honestly more interesting.

I’ve seen Michael take the blame for something that wasn’t his fault because the alternative was someone junior taking it. I’ve seen him give up a promotion because the timing would have wrecked things at home. He didn’t tell anyone about either. I only know because I was there.

Laura, you already know all this. You’re the reason for at least one of those decisions. What I’d add, as someone who sees him in the part of his life you don’t: he talks about you constantly. Constantly. We have all asked him to stop. He will not stop.

Two people who are kind when it costs them something, finding each other — that seems like the good outcome. I’m glad to have been in the boring meeting.

Please raise your glasses — to Michael and Laura.

Good evening. I’m Peter, and Jack is my little brother — a phrase I’ve used for thirty-one years and intend to keep using long after it stops being appropriate.

I’m not going to do the roast. Jack has been roasted quite enough, mostly by me, mostly at Christmas. Instead I want to tell you one thing about him.

When our father died, Jack was nineteen. I was twenty-five and I fell apart fairly comprehensively. Jack didn’t. Jack made the phone calls. Jack sat with Mum. Jack went back to university three weeks later and finished the year, and I have never once heard him mention any of it as though it were difficult.

I have spent the years since being quietly amazed by my younger brother. Not loudly — we’re not that family. But amazed.

Hannah, when he brought you home, Mum cried, and it was the good kind. You have given him something none of us could, which is somewhere to put all that steadiness. He has been waiting his whole life for you and he did not know it.

Jack, Dad would have loved today. He’d have hated this speech, but he’d have loved today.

Everyone, please be upstanding — to Jack and Hannah.

ALEX: Good evening. I’m Alex.

NIALL: And I’m Niall. Between us we have known Chris for forty-one years, and neither of us could be trusted with this alone.

ALEX: We’ve divided it up. I’m doing the nice parts.

NIALL: And I’m doing the accurate ones.

ALEX: Chris is one of the most generous people either of us knows. He is the first to offer, the last to leave, and he has never in his life let a friend pay for a taxi.

NIALL: He also once drove four hours to a festival, arrived, realised he’d left the tickets on the kitchen table, and drove home without telling anyone. We found out two years later.

ALEX: He’s loyal to an almost inconvenient degree.

NIALL: He still supports the same football team. That is not loyalty, that is a medical condition.

ALEX: And then he met Rachel — and every single one of us noticed the change, within about a month.

NIALL: He got calmer. He got funnier. He got much better at replying to messages, which we have chosen to interpret as personal growth rather than supervision.

ALEX: Rachel, you have made our friend visibly happier, and we are extremely grateful, and we’d like you to know that he is now your problem.

NIALL: No returns.

BOTH: Ladies and gentlemen — to Chris and Rachel.

Good evening. I’m Tom. I’ve written and rewritten this about nine times, and every draft got less funny and more honest, so I’ve given up fighting it. This is the honest one.

I met Will at the worst point of my life. I won’t go into it — it’s a wedding — but I was not well, and I was not easy to be around, and most people drifted, which is what most people do and I don’t blame them.

Will didn’t drift. He turned up every Sunday for about a year and a half, usually with food, usually with nothing to say, and just sat in the flat with me. He never once made it into a big thing. He never once made me thank him.

So when Will asked me to be his best man, I said yes before he finished the sentence, and then I went and sat in my car for a bit.

Anna — you have got someone who will do that for you. Not the flowers and the gestures, though I’m sure there’ll be those. The Sundays. The long, unglamorous, no-credit Sundays. That is what he is made of, and you are getting all of it.

Will, I owe you more than I’ll ever say out loud in a room this size. Today I get to stand up in front of everyone you love and tell them what you’re like. That’s the closest I can get.

Please, everyone, stand and raise your glasses — to Will and Anna.